At our recent Annual General Meeting a member commented that due to her disability she was unable to attend some events, specifically the monthly bird monitoring, as she takes a longer time to get to our first monitoring site. Consequently we have changed the meeting place to Black Spur Creek bridge on the Rail Trail which allows people to take their own time to get to the start of the event.
Coral Hughes noted that the Eucalyptus strzelecki is flowering along the track. Kate Walsh and myself have both noted that the frogs are croaking actively in the swamp area near the Apple tree bridge.
Last year we had 15 bird surveys taken at the Black Spur Wetlands, 6 surveys at Middle Bridge and 13 surveys taken at the Apple Tree Wetlands site from July 2020 to June 2021.
All survey sites are taken from the bridges and can be accessed via the Birdlife app or use the QR codes which are displayed on the bird sign at the Black Spur Creek bridge. Anyone can participate when they are on the Rail Trail.
We applied for a $25,000 Gippsland Transport Environmental Projects (GTEP) Pilot Program to control weeds and revegetate the Apple Tree wetlands. Although these grants should have been awarded in the 2020/21 financial year, delays mean it has not been announced. We are hopeful that these will be announced soon so that we can order plants to revegetate the area after weed removal.
The Tarwin Landcare group meeting with us in May was cancelled due to Covid closures and we hope to reschedule it on the 26 September.