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
Wetland and bird watching invitation
LLPG Christmas BBQ
Platypus thriving in Skipton
What's in a wetland?
Climate Change: Not just for future generations
Coming up
Wetland and bird watching evening
Friday 3rd November, 2017 from 4pm John and Bev Steele's, Kurweeton-Larra Rd
Lismore Land Protection Group monthly meeting
7:30pm Thursday 9th November 28 High St, Lismore
Mount Elephant Community Management meeting
7:30 pm Monday 6th November, Mount Elephant Visitors Centre
Mount Elephant open day
Open every Sunday from 1pm to 4pm
LLPG BBQ and Golf Course walk and talk
Thursday 14th December, Lismore Golf Club
LLPG Christmas BBQ golf course walk & talk 6.00pm Thursday 14th December, Lismore Golf Club.
Arrive at 6pm for a walk and talk around the golf course and hear its interesting history from long time golf member Clive Bustard. Kids can join in with some waterbug collecting from the dam. Meat supplied, please bring a salad or sweet to share. RSVP for catering to Shari llpgsharim@westnet.com.au or 0409 070 089
Wetland and bird watching invitation
Join Lismore Land Protection Group on a visit to John and Bev Steele’s wetland on Friday 3rd November from 4pm. Hear from John and Bev on the positive impact their constructed wetland has had on the birdlife on their property as they changed what was a wet, unusable part of the paddock into a thriving wetland and brolga habitat. Meet at the gate to the wetland on the Kurweeton –Larra Rd, 3.5 kms from Lower Darlington Rd. More info contact John 0429 433 581 or Shari 0409 070 089
Platypus thriving in Skipton
A group of 13 volunteers recently joined in the platypus survey night along a 1.5 km section of Mount Emu Creek in Skipton. The group were rewarded for their efforts with 7 confirmed platypus sightings and 2 more possible sightings, all in separate waterholes.
These sightings build on the data collected by the Australian Platypus Conservancy around 15 years ago when their trap and release survey confirmed a healthy breading population of platypus existed within the Skipton township. These new sightings will be registered on the PlatypusSPOT app, a program on which the public can log any platypus sightings. Visit platypusSPOT.org to log your own sightings. Local sightings can also be recorded and viewed in the platypus record book held at the Skipton Post Office, this is also for public use.
To keep these platypus healthy it is important to understand their needs. Platypus like waterholes with logs which provide shelter for both them and their food source (shrimps, yabbies, worms, mussels etc). They like grassy edges, reeds and rocky bottom creeks with plenty of snags (logs). The main threats to platypus are opera house yabbie nets which can drown them in a couple of minutes, fishing line and plastic or elastic bands which tangle them, and harm from dogs.
Lismore Land Protection Group is looking to hold another survey night at Darlington next year between February and April when juvenile platypus will be leaving their burrows.
One of the platypus spotted in a waterhole on Mount Emu Creek in the Skipton township
Thank You
A big thank you to Greg and Margaret Lucas of Weerite for donating a set of 3 point linkage discs to assist with preparation of our Landcare tree planting sites. These will be available to members on loan or hire basis.
What’s in a Wetland?
The Victorian volcanic plains (VVP) were once covered in native grasslands with wild flowers and herbaceous plants, scattered grassy woodlands, and large areas of wetlands. The “wetlands” ranged from permanent waterbodies and semi-permanent swamps that periodically dry out in some years, to lowlying depressions that either pond water or are even just very soggy ground for part of the year. The water could range from fresh through to brackish or salty. On the VVP, “wetlands” (communities) included salt lakes, lignum wetlands, swampy riparian woodlands, plains grassy wetlands, plains sedgy wetlands, and creekline herb rich woodlands.
These wetlands, and the boggy “drawdown” areas surrounding them are important to many species of birds, amphibians, reptiles and insects. For brolgas they provide sites for nesting, as well as feeding and foraging, roosting, and resting. They host a number of rare and threatened species such as the Growling Grass Frog, Legless Lizard, and Corangamite Water Skink, and numerous bird species. A single square metre of freshwater herbaceous wetland can contain as many as 20 or 30 individual plant species, some of which are very rare.
Now, like the VVP grasslands, the wetlands are becoming rarer, with significant areas of wetlands lost through drainage and change of land use for cropping and grazing. Under particular threat are the seasonally herbaceous wetlands, which are generally fresh and often ephemeral, shallow soggy swamps (meaning the ground isn’t too salty for cropping).
A DELWP study in 2009 found only 2% of wetlands in the East Grampians region were impacted by cropping activities. However, a review in 2016 found a significant increase with 45% of wetlands affected (drained). (Casanova & Casanova 2016). In Corangamite region it is expected to be a similar situation. This includes semi-permanent swamps, as well as many low lying, seasonally wet areas in paddocks that provided a variety of “wetland” habitats.
Lost along with these is the biodiversity (flora and many forms of fauna species) and the beneficial services they provided such as buffering runoff and filtering water. The birds, reptiles, amphibians and insects that inhabit them also help with pest control, as a single frog alone is able to eat considerable numbers of slugs per day.
Often cropping these areas can incur significant risk, particularly in wet years, and draining them can fall foul of legislation. So perhaps think carefully whether you really need that bit extra, or are happy to leave it as is.
Climate Change; Not Just For Future Generations
This year we have been somewhat fortunate to get through with a fairly good season, however you don’t have to go too far north and the season has been remarkably different. Some areas south of the divide have seen either the wettest September on record or for 20 years, and have had below average temperatures, while areas north of the divide have seen some of the driest September on record and temperatures well above average.
For the 6 months (April to September) much of the eastern states north of the divide experienced decile 1 (very much below average) or decile 2 or 3 (below average) rainfall, despite it not being an El Nino year, and neither the Pacific or Indian Ocean conditions being conducive to lower than average rainfall.
Meanwhile daily maximum temperatures over the 3 months (July - Sept), and 6 months (April- Sept) have been almost consistently higher than long term average, with much of inland Queensland and Northern Territory 2 to 3oC higher, and considerable areas 3 to 4oC or even 4 to 5oC higher (especially on a monthly basis such as for July or September, with August only being 2 to 3oC above).
Globally, 2017 is shaping up to be amongst the warmest years on record. To date, 2017 is 0.87 oC above the above the long term average for the period 1880 to 2017. This is likely to make 2017 the third warmest year on record, amongst (in order of warmest years) 2016, 2015, 2014, 2010, 2013, 2005, 2009 and 1998, which were about 0.6 to 1oC above the long term average for the period 1880 to 2017. (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration).
Recently we have seen a series of “unprecedented storms in the USA, and with three category 4 or 5 hurricanes. There have also been “unprecedented” fires in the US and Europe, coming late in their summer fire season. Closer to home we have seen an early start to the fire season with serious fires in NSW. There appears to be a trend here, and it seems “unprecedented” is being used a lot lately in regard to fires, storms, flooding. It may not be too far into the future that these “unprecedented” events become the norm, with reports indicating that current pledges by nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2030 are far short of what is required to give us a 2/3 chance of limiting global temperature rise to less than 2oC by the year 2100. Note that’s only a 2 out 3 chance anyway! Otherwise we are on track for a rise in global temperatures of 3oC or higher, unless more is done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
This year we have dodged a bullet when much of the country hasn’t, however if serious action isn’t implemented to reduce emissions we may not be so lucky in the future. Farming here could become like farming at Wedderburn, or even Kerang. Certainly energy supply and cost is important, but we have alternatives for that, whereas the alternative for our climate is a very poor one and best avoided.
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
