Twenty five landholders braved the wintry weather for our workshop in Bredbo on the 9th of July. Margot Law, from ‘Who’s living on my land?’, trained everyone to survey their land for wildlife with infrared cameras and lent out sixteen cameras – watch this space for the results!
The workshop also covered a range of topics, with a focus on land management for wildlife:
Land For wildlife
Lesley Peden from Kosciuszko to Coast kicked of the day with a presentation on the Land for Wildlife program which offers free property assessments to support nature conservation on private land. Lesley shared her wealth of knowledge on sustainable land management and funding opportunities available to assist landholders protect and improve their property’s biodiversity value.
Biodiversity on grazing properties
Jo Powells from South East Local Land Services described their work on investigating the effect of soil fertility and grazing on native grasslands in the Monaro. You can read more about her interesting research in this scientific paper. She also pointed out a new smart phone app ‘NSW Weed Wise‘ which is a great resource to help landholders manage weeds on their property.
Landcare
Georgeanna Story, the new coordinator for Upper Murrumbidgee Landcare, brought along a bunch of native animal samples that she has collected – including bones and scats – to show what kind of signs you can look for on your property to identify animal species. Georgeanna is more than happy to help landholders from the Upper Murrumbidgee region identify animal signs – just send a photo (with a scale) and location to upper.murrumbidgee@gmail.com
Drone demonstration and Bush Heritage tour
After lunch we headed out to Bush Heritage’s Scottsdale Reserve for a drone demonstration and a tour of the nursery and property. It was really interesting and inspiring to see their different techniques for restoring their grassy woodland and native grasslands!
Photo credit to Georgeanna Story from Upper Murrumbidgee Landcare
