Southern ACT Catchment Group Coordinators Report 2Nd June 2015

Southern ACT Catchment Group Coordinators Report 2nd June 2015

Peak Body Development

I continue to be involved with the other 2 catchment groups in developing a Peak Body in the ACT to represent community Landcare in the ACT Region. With Glenys I am on the temporary executive for this body. We had a very useful workshop on the 22nd April to work on the constitution with both representation from the RLA and the Aboriginal community. The launch of the peak body will take place on the 13th June at Hughes – Garran Woodland at 10am. We are also working on a lighthouse project, and ongoing arrangements for sharing the ACT Landcare website. We have submitted our first report to the Commonwealth and have also submitted a grant for the next year to continue to fund the consultant as well as secretary support which is being undertaken by Fiona Spier. I have begun to meet with member groups to undertake face to face consultations to ensure the groups gain ownership over this body and to respond to queries.

Erosion Control Workshop for ParkCarers

2 days of workshops on low- cost solutions to Erosion Control aimed at ParkCarers were run on the 21st of February and the 7th of March and were very well attended. They were led by Cam Wilson who has worked with ParkCarers to aid in reading the landscape and targeting action where efforts will benefit the most. Individual reserve site assessments and planning with groups with Cam have taken place with the Farrer Ridge, TLC, Cooleman Ridge, POSM, Red Hill, Uriarra, Urambi Hills and Oakey Hill ParkCare Groups. Cam will also be preparing some plans for work for these groups. A workshop with POSM took place on the 17th May. Urambi Hills and Oakey Hill will be having their own hands on workshops with Cam on the 14th June and the 21st June respectively. All workshops will need to be completed by July 2015.

Regional Investment / coordinator funding

The installment due 7th March 2014 is not yet paid but we have been assured it will arrive this week. Fiona continues to assist me 3 days a week in planning and delivery of this year’s milestones but this may be reduced from July 2015. A new contract with the ACT to move to the National Landcare Program has being drafted with agreed and achievable outputs and will be finalized this week. This will mean that much of the pressure to achieve onground outputs will be reduced and we are able to support community driven directives more effectively. Our funding and amounts remain guaranteed for the next three years as stipulated in our contracts (ie. $129,396, $130,303, $127,778 consecutively).

Green Army

The Green Army Team that is shared with the 6 partners of the ACT is doing very well. They are an enthusiastic group and really enjoying the work. For SACTCG they have worked on a variety of jobs including erosion control at Mugga Mugga and Farrer Ridge, Briar removal at Cooleman, planting and site prep at Strangers Paddock, Uriarra village planting, weeding with FR ParkCare and MOTH as well as Waterwatch with Martin.

The 3 catchment groups and LYH have submitted another application for one team each 6months for the next 2 years.

25th Anniversary Landcare grants

The grant for fencing for rehabilitating an area of Strangers Paddock near point hut crossing for POSM through the commonwealth has received funding. We are working closely with Parks rangers and POSM. The Green Army Team have worked on site preparation on the 23rd and 24th April and the fencing contractor will start in mid June. Planting and transplanting of wetland plants will take place once the fencing is complete.

Smiths Rd Landcare

Fiona and visited Alex Monde again on Smiths Rd this week. We will be planting 300 trees in a roadside planting and investigating further paddock revegetation projects. Alex gave us a good orientation around the area and we look forward to supporting the new Mirunga Landcare Group at the end of Smiths Rd in NSW.

ACT Environment Grants

2014-2015

1. Cypress Springs waterways (erosion control structures): ~$15,000. This project is complete and will be aquitted shortly. I have postponed field visit on the Sunday the 31st May 10am to 12pm as there was not enough interest.

2. Revegetation of the MRC at Castle Hill: ~$8,000. The first 1400 plants have been planted. The next 1000 plants will go in winter as there is too much grass growth and it is too dry for an autumn plant.

2015-2016

This years grants are open now and closing on the 24th July. I am looking at a weeding project in the Gudgenby Valley. Please get any other project ideas to me ASAP.

ACT Heritage Grants

The first 4 of the 2014-2015 heritage grant walks with Tyronne and Wally Bell have taken place at Theodore grinding grooves, Tuggeranong Homestead site, Jeggaline (Lanyon property) and urambi The walks are becoming more popular with the 24th May walk on Urambi Hills attracting 44 people. The next walk is on the 14th June will be to Red Hill and the final on the 30th August will join with the other catchment groups in a “progressive” walk across the region were people can join in when the walk comes to their area throughout the day.

I have submitted a 2015-2016 ACT Heritage Grant on behalf of Landcare ACT. This project will be the first stage in a three year project to establish best practice guidelines for the integrated cultural and natural resource management in the region. This stage will undertake site assessments, provide Aboriginal cultural heritage training for the NRM community, develop educational media, and identify key issues to be addressed in the guidelines.

ACT Rural Grants

“Cypress Springs rabbit control and native grassland restoration” for ~$11 600. Work has progressed with an area being ripped to destroy burrows. Seeding may occur at a later date depending on what naturally re-establishes.

The 2015-2016 grant round has now been extended till the July 11th.

SACTCG equipment and tools

A lending agreement has been written up for the digital devises and these are available for use by members. We are keen to use the GPS function on the Samsung Galaxy notes for groups to map rabbit warrens and weed infestations in order to provide this information directly to PCS digitally. Tools including photo boards and a marquee are also available for groups to use.

The small grants for groups are available up to $660/grp. The current round will be issued by the end of June 2015.

Website and IT

We continue to use ArcGIS to map and our projects are beginning to be added to a spatial database with the help of Fiona. We would like to map our member group planned and completed activities on the ArcGIS program to assist with the strategic planning process, for communicating with PCS, for SACTCG reporting and to be useful for groups when looking at future works planning. Fiona has been adding material to the SACTCG website.

Office and Other Activities

All current accounts paid as of 02/06/2015. A reminder that Authorises need to logon twice a week to authorise payments or accounts can end up being overdue.
Radio Landcare monthly shows are running very well. Volunteers are welcome to join the show as guest speakers.