Landcare Opportunities - 20th January 2015
20 Million Trees Program
The Australian Government is working with the community to plant 20 million native trees & associated understorey by 2020, to re-establish green corridors and urban forests for environmental benefits such as conservation, carbon reduction & greenhouse gas emissions.
CO2 Australia is making an application to act as a Service Provider for this program, with Murrumbidgee Landcare Inc. assisting with site selection.
There is an opportunity, over the next 12 to 18 months, for individual landholders, groups and managers of public lands to be part of this program.
What’s provided and funded? Planning, community education, trees/understorey plant purchase, site preparation & planting (or direct seeding).
Brief requirements are:
- Areas of 10ha minimum (less if planted in association with adjoining landholders)
- Site must be fenced off (fencing costs not funded)
- No grazing in the stand for minimum 3 years
- Maintenance of the planting as permanent native vegetation.
Expressions of interest must be submitted to Murrumbidgee Landcare by Friday 23 January 2015
Native Seed Collection Workshops
The Australian Network for Plant Conservation, in conjunction with MLi, is proposing to run a number of native vegetation workshops across the Murrumbidgee/Riverina and Murray regions in 2015.
The workshops will cover a range of activities, tailored to suit the needs of participants. Topics can include: Plant identification, seed collection & areas to collect from, collection calendars, direct seeding and revegetation principles.
Expressions of Interest Close Friday 6 February 2015
Sustainable Grazing and Pasture Cropping Workshops
Colin Seis is a landholder from Gulgong, NSW. Since 1996 he has been developing and fine-tuning 'Pasture Cropping' and 'No Kill Cropping' methods. Pasture Cropping is a technique of sowing cereal crops directly into native perennial pastures. It combines grazing and cropping into a single land use method where each one benefits the other economically and environmentally. No Kill Cropping is a method that sows crops into existing plant and litter cover without eliminating any other plants. It works on the complementary effects of diverse pastures rather than competition factors. It is a very low cost, flexible approach to crop growing that gives growers flexibility throughout the growing season. These two cropping systems are the only ones in the world that work within grasslands rather than replacing grasslands to grow crops, and they have been increasingly adopted by landholders across Australia and internationally over the past 15 years.
Graeme Hand is a landholder from Victoria and CEO of Stipa Native Grasses Association. Stipa is an organisation that was formed in 1997 by concerned landholders. It focuses on the practical aspects of native grasses and their use in farming. Stipa promotes practical, low-cost, low-input methods of managing native and improved native pastures for improved soil and stock health, particularly utilising adaptive stock management as an effective pasture management tool. Graeme is a Holistic Management Certified Educator and has conducted workshops across Australia.
Graeme and Colin will be conducting a series of workshops on low-input pasture management across the region. The content of each workshop will be tailored to suit attendee interests (following feedback from a pre-workshop survey), and will focus on improving both biodiversity and farm business health.
Expressions of Interest Close Friday 6 February 2015
The Fungi: An Introduction to a Curious Kingdom
Alison Pouliot will be conducting workshops to introduce participants to the diversity, ecology and curiosities of the fungi kingdom.
Topics covered will include: the major fungal groups, the basics of fungus identification, fungal ecology, the natural and cultural history of fungi, and the importance of fungal conservation. Fungal specimens from the local area will be displayed, discussed and examined during the workshop.
If you've ever seen a funky fungus and wondered what it was called, and why it was growing where it was, this workshop will give you the keys to finding out.
Expressions of Interest Close Friday 6 February 2015
Please contact Murrumbidgee Landcare Inc if your local Landcare or sustainable agriculture group are interested in participating in any of these opportunities.
