Member Groups; The Lismore Land Protection Group, Weering-Eurack Landcare Group, Leslie Manor Landcare Group, Cundare Duverney Landcare Group, Weerite Landcare Group & Mount Elephant Community Management
‘Night Stalk’ Spotlight Walk
Planning begins for the 2018 Landcare bus trip
Stay tuned for a volunteer platypus survey at Skipton!
Busy Bees Are Very Important To Us
Coming up
Lismore Land Protection Group monthly meeting
7:30pm Thursday 14th September 28 High St, Lismore
Mount Elephant Community Management meeting
7:30 pm Monday 11th September, MECM Centre Hamilton Hwy Derrinallum
Mount Elephant open day
Open every Sunday from 1pm to 4pm
‘Night Stalk’ Spotlight Walk Where: ‘Titanga’ homestead Lismore
(Enter at gatehouse off Hamilton Hwy) When: Friday 29th September From 5:30pm for a free BBQ
A nature scavenger hunt for the kids will start at 5:30pm, then a BBQ dinner, followed by a ‘night stalk’ spotlight walk looking for frogs & other wildlife. All welcome, bring the kids, torch, chair and gumboots. IF the weather is wet, location will change to Titanga woolshed. Follow the LLPG facebook page to keep up with any changes.
Please RSVP to Shari for catering. Ph: 0409 070089 or email llpgsharim@westnet.com.au
This event is jointly funded by the Lismore Land Protection Group and the Corangamite CMA VVP Grants.
Planning begins for the 2018 Landcare bus trip
Landcare and Community members are invited to join a 3 day / 2 night trip to Daylesford and Hepburn Springs area. The tour is designed to ‘challenge the idea of what is required to run a sustainable and profitable farming enterprise’. The Corangamite CMA will provide funding to subsidise travel and accommodation expenses. Visits will include farming enterprises that sustainably value add to their business and community Landcare projects with similar objectives to projects underway in our own region. The trip is planned for March 2018, with a maximum of 20 people. More details to come or contact Shari for more information
Stay tuned for a volunteer platypus survey at Skipton!
We have a new found love and appreciation of the unique platypus after hearing Jen Ellison from Platypus Education Group speak last month. Platypuses are found locally in the Mount Emu creek between Skipton and Darlington.
The ideal habitat for platypus is a river with earth banks and native vegetation that provides shade over the stream and cover near the bank to hide their burrow. Having logs, tree roots and a gravel river bottom all increase the likely hood of micro-invertebrate fauna (eg yabbies) which is their main food source.
Platypuses are a semi-aquatic mammal, and lay between 1 and 3 eggs, just bigger than a marble. Eggs hatch after 10 days, and the blind, hairless babies feed on milk. After 3 to 4 months juvenile platypuses leave the burrow.
Platypuses are shy creatures who feed at night. The best time to spot them is at dawn or dusk, especially between August to October when they are mating, and from February to April, when juveniles are leaving the burrow.
The main threats faced by platypus are loss of suitable habitat; poor water quality and in particular chemicals in water, and discarded elastic bands and plastic rings which get stuck around their necks and on limbs. Perhaps the biggest threat are “opera house nets,” used for catching yabbies, as theses nets can trap platypus who are also hunting the yabbies. Platypus need to resurface every few minutes to breath, so they drown quickly if trapped in these nets. Opera house nets are banned in some states, and there are alternative (more platypus friendly) nets to use.
LLPG plans to hold a community volunteer platypus survey along Mount Emu Creek during platypus breading season (October). Volunteers will be placed at regular intervals along a section of creek where platypus are suspected to be, then watch and wait. Watch this space for more details!
Busy Bees Are Very Important To Us Bees are incredibly hard workers, extremely important to the environment and agricultural industries, and probably unrecognised for the value they bring to us. But if they disappeared would we notice?
Eventually we would because bees pollinate many of our vegetables, crops and fruit trees, including potatoes, tomatoes, most stonefruit, berry crops, apples, citrus and cotton. For us locally, the list includes canola, broad (& faba) beans, lucerne and clovers. Add to this the fact that bees pollinate many of our native plants and flowering plants in the garden. Bees are essential to the functioning of many ecosystems. What would we do without them?
It is estimated that the value of honey produced by bees in Australia is about $100 million per annum, but their real value lies in their pollination services to agriculture, valued between $620 and $1730 million.
There are over 1600 native bee species present in Australia and over 20000 species worldwide, however many species of bees are either disappearing or have disappeared, and this has largely gone unnoticed.
We are probably most familiar with the (imported) European honey bee, which is the bee we usually see buzzing around the garden and crops and the major pollinator for many of our food crops. Over recent years there has been increasing concern about the loss of honey bees and collapse of bee colonies, probably most noticed by beekeepers.
The issues that bees face, and which contribute to the decline of bee species and their numbers can be grouped into the following categories;
Common Bee Diseases caused by fungi, bacteria and viruses, the impact of which is exacerbated when the bee colony is under stress from other factors
Pests and Parasites. Some of these can exist in small numbers in a bee colony and simply be a nuisance posing no real threat, until the colony is stressed. However some parasites such as the Varroe mite (varroe destructor) can coexist with particular bee species such as the Asian honey bee (which is resistant to it) but it is lethal to other species like the European Honey bee and can severely damage their hives. V.destructor is not currently present in Australia, but it’s probably only a matter of time before it gets here.
Stress related issues. Just like us or any other animal, stress can be detrimental to the health of bees. Rapidly changing weather, extreme heat or cold, or a week or two of cold days with rain and wind in Spring can affect bee foraging, they run out of pollen and nectar, and bee colonies can starve to death, particularly new colonies. New broods (eggs & larvae) need to be maintained at 35oC, otherwise they can die from chill or become infected with fungal disease. In extreme cases the entire colony can freeze or starve to death.
Importantly, bees feed on pollen and nectar and need a balance of both, which they collect from flowering plants when available. Excess is stored in the honeycomb, and used when there is not enough to collect, such as during winter, cold or wet days, droughts or summer when flowering has finished. Once established, and if left alone (not robbed of its’ honey) a bee colony rarely runs out of food. Swarming bees can be extremely susceptible to starvation due to cold weather in spring as they have not had time to establish the new colony and collect pollen and nectar to store.
Decline of Natural Habitat. Natural nesting sites for European honey bees are dark, sheltered enclosures, such as tree hollows, while many artificial ones (wall cavities, chimneys, drums, etc) often impact upon humans and the colony is removed. Also there is considerable loss of natural food sources such as native (flowering) vegetation due to clearing.
Use of Insecticides – which are designed to kill insects Bees are an insect! Even if a chemical states it is “safe for bees”, it quite likely kills other insects and mites that may be beneficial for bees and essential for the survival of the bees. Unfortunately many insecticides don’t discriminate between good insects and bad insects.
Compounding effect or combination of some or all of the above issues poses a serious challenge to bees and bee colonies, and it can be difficult to pinpoint the actual or specific cause. This syndrome is termed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) and it has had a devastating effect on bee numbers around the world. Research shows that the immune system of the bees is weakened and they become vulnerable to fungi, viruses, bacteria and parasites. Worker bees lose their orientation and don’t return to the hive, which within a few days becomes empty of bees. The cause of CCD is not fully understood, but possibly includes environmental stress, malnutrition, bee keeping methods and GM crops. Latest research points towards use of agricultural pesticides, particularly the use of a class of pesticides termed “neonicotinoids”. These were banned in Europe in 2013 for 2 years and debate is currently underway to continue that ban.
What can be done to help the bees
Increase the amount of food sources by establishing more flowering plants and a wider variety of plants to provide nectar and pollen over a longer period
Less monoculture, more variety in farming
Minimise the use of pesticides, and be aware of the type and impact of pesticides used. Avoid using “neonicotinoids”.
Support more local bee keepers, so hives don’t have to be transported long distances and are tended to, as poor maintenance of hives can lead to pests and diseases.
This newsletter has been funded by the Australian Federal Government’s “Victorian Volcanic Plains Small Grants” Program and the Victorian State Government “Local Landcare Facilitator Initiative”
Lismore Land Protection Group
19 High Street (PO Box 28) Lismore, Victoria 3324 Ph: 03 5596 2384 Landcare Facilitators:
Rod Eldridge: 0458 390146 email: llpgrod@westnet.com.au Shari McConachy 0409 070089 email: llpgsharim@westnet.com.au Find us on the Landcare Gateway here
