header image
 

Apollo Bay Landcare Group President’s Report, Summer 2007/08

In the last Newsletter, I spoke about the meeting we had with the CFA concerning Fire Fighting in the Otways.  Since then, members of the Committee have attended two more meetings at which the important issue of fire strategy was discussed.  In August, DSE Parks Victoria and the CFA discussed their plans for fire management in the area.  The priority for fire control is those areas where fire could threaten lives or assets, ie, the areas surrounding the coastal towns.  This priority is of course absolutely reasonable.  But, at the other end of the scale, there is no strategy in operation for the management of fire in the deeper Otway ranges where an intense wildfire could result in species destruction and a loss of topsoil which might take centuries to replace. 

At an extremely interesting Workshop sponsored by Greening Australia, Kevin Tolhurst from the University of

Melbourne discussed the complex factors involved in the impact of fire on species survival and regeneration, including the patchiness of the fires and the frequency of fire events.  The ecology is very complex and the details are discussed elsewhere in this issue.  But it appears that controlled burning at appropriate intervals may be the optimum approach.  Implementation is, however, difficult.  The responsible bodies are legislatively required to extinguish fires in the minimum time, so there can be no decision to allow natural fires to continue as happened pre Cook.  One clear need is more information to enable the most enlightened strategy to be put in place and the most informed decisions to be made.  It will then be a political challenge to find and implement the best approach to preserving our precious environment.

In the middle of September Greg John and I attended a Steep Slopes and Direct Seeding Workshop presented by the Corangamite Seed Supply and Revegetation Network.  Experts presented their experiences of revegetation using direct seeding in Gippsland, where – at least on moderate slopes – they achieved much higher plant densities and improved species diversity compared to tube planting.  They concurred that the optimum method comprises several sprayings, mouldboard ploughing and then seeding.  They believed, however, that a success rate of only a few percent would be achievable on the very steep slopes where the use of machinery is not feasible (for example, the north side of Wild Dog Valley) which we are targetting.  In this case it may be a case of using excess seed – subject to availability – or mixing the seed in balls of soil and nutrient before distribution, in order to achieve the desired result. A similar technique may be useful for seeding in areas of intense blackberry infestation.  We shall investigate further!

We have received news that we have been awarded a $40,000 New Generation Landcare Grant to assist in the restoration of Skenes Creek.  The group is holding a walk down the creek with the CCMA in the first week of December to gather information so that we can specify a Vision of what needs to be done, as we did with the Wild Dog Creek.  We look forward to the participation of the landowners in this activity.

And most important of all, our Action Plan for the Wild Dog Creek and Estuary was accepted by the CCMA. They have obtained substantial funding for the removal of the willows this summer and are seeking further funds for regeneration and protection of the Creek in the following years.  Further details of this exciting development are contained in this Newsletter. 

~ by SOLN on November 24, 2007 .



Leave a Reply