We are very excited to be heading back to our Office at Kelly Reserve late next week, so please drop in and have a sticky beak and say hi.

Our monthly Central West Lachlan Landcare meeting will be held on Wednesday, 16 March at the Parkes Shire Council Meeting Room, followed by dinner at the Services Club.

We have a lot of exciting things happening in the next six months to be discussed. Our speaker will be Michael Chambers, Environmental and Sustainability Coordinator with Parkes Shire Council. He will be talking about the PAC Park project that is currently being undertaken to protect the existing natural assets and improving riparian and wetland health and biodiversity.

Central West Lachlan Landcare are pleased to be participating in the Back to Bulgandramine Cultural Gathering on 4 and 5 June at Bulgandramine Mission.

The Mission covers 161ha and is an important place to protect and most importantly, to be used, to educate our future generations about Aboriginal culture. This site was the focus of a Protecting Our Places grant that was initiated by Gerald Carnie, that CWLL oversaw in conjunction with the Bulgandramine traditional owners, to address weed issues that had made some areas difficult to access.

The Festival is a family event and will be an opportunity to learn about the history of Bulgandramine, participate in activities, watch demonstrations and enjoy performances on Friday and Saturday evenings. We will be running a bus from Parkes on Saturday and return, so if you are interested in being involved, please feel free to give me a call on 6862 4914. More details in the weeks ahead!

We will be at the Parkes Field Day on Friday, 11^th, so we would love you to drop out to the lovely surroundings at the Racecourse and catch up. I would particularly like to talk about opportunities with the 2015-16 Pest and Weed Drought Funding. Central West Lachlan Landcare hope to be involved in this program and we would love to hear from you if you have a genuine need for options to address Pest and weed management problems in your area.

I am excited to be heading to the Bedgerabong Youth Pig Show on Wednesday, 27 April. This is shaping up to be an interesting day for students and includes information on pig show preparation and junior judging with presentations to cover paddock to plate – yes, that includes tastings, for sure!

The second day will see the Forbes Stud Pig Sale and Trade Fair sticking with the paddock to plate theme and with presentations from companies that will cover everything you need to know from artificial insemination to getting some pork on your fork. For more information, please contact Anne Earney on 0427 808 158.

I am looking forward to being able to distribute our Sustainable Schools and Landcare Learning resources to schools that have been sitting in storage.

CWLL will host a special day on Thursday, 31 March for teachers to visit our Office and have a talk with us about the resource boxes and how they can be used in schools. We will have our boxes our ready to take back to school with you between 9.30am and 2.30pm. Information will be going out to schools next week.

I still have vacancies at our seed collection workshops on 28 and 29 April. This will be practical, hands on workshop covering: basic species identification; picking seasons – when is the best time to collect seed; equipment – the tools you will need; drying, cleaning and storage of seeds. This is one of just two sessions held in the Central West region, so places will fill fast.

Flora and Fauna surveys can also be undertaken. Under the guidance of Mikla and Ryan, landholders will be able to explore their property and identify the wide array of plants and animals that have made it their home.

For these and other opportunities, please don’t hesitate to contact me on 6862 4914 or go to our website at centralwestlachlanlandcare.org

Until next week, happy Landcaring!