Have you thought about joining the Motley Crew? We are having our first social planting session on Saturday morning at PAC Park.

PAC Park is located in the Middleton area of Parkes and access is via East Street near the railway crossing. We are getting together from 9am and will be finishing with a cuppa and morning tea at 11am. We will be working on the Parkes Shire Council PAC Park project. Michael Chambers, Environmental Officer with Parkes Shire Council will be helping on the day and available to give an overview of the project.

I would love to have these groups working in Forbes, Peak Hill and smaller centres. If you are interested in being involved, please give me a call on 6862 4914. Please RSVP and leave a message so that we can make sure that we have enough for morning tea!

Once we shuffle everything back into our office next week, we are looking forward to meeting with primary school representatives who are interested in borrowing our educational resource boxes. We will have them available on Thursday, 31 March between 10am and 1.30pm. If this doesn’t suit, just give me a call or email. We have these resources available for exchange during office hours, 9am – 3.30pm, Monday to Friday.

Have you got a collection of old glasses that you don’t know what to do with? You might be proactive and have already found a collection agency that reuses the, but if you haven’t, read on.

Planet Ark have suggested a few ways that you glasses can be recycled and used by people less fortunate than ourselves.

The Lions Recycle for Sight Australia distributes your old glasses across the world to Lions Clubs, Rotary Clubs and other humanitarian organisations, who then distribute them to people who can’t afford glasses.

The program has been running for the past 15 years in Australia, as part of the Lions Clubs International Worldwide Eyeglasses Recycling Program. Since it began, 2.5 million pairs of glasses have been distributed to those in need. That is amazing!

PersonalEYES are another group that collect prescription and non-prescription glasses and sunglasses and provide them to people around the world who can’t afford glasses. If you have old glasses at home, donating them is as simple as posting them in a padded bag.

I have put both links in this week’s article on our website.

The Central West Local Land Services (CWLLS) are holding an update session on Silverleaf Nightshade in the Parkes district on Wednesday 6 April 2016.

Dr Hanwen Wu, Senior Research Scientist – Weeds (NSW DPI) will be presenting information on control tactics and integration of these tactics to enhance control of this problem weed.

The Silverleaf Nightshade is a significant problem to many landholders, big and small. The group will visit two properties to discuss tactics being used by producers in cropping and grazing situations, so participants will have the opportunity to speak with landholders and scientific experts to see how they are implementing strategies to control the weed.

This is a free update and includes morning tea and lunch. For further information or to RSVP, contact Belinda Hackney at belinda.hackney@lls.nsw.gov.au or on 0438 358 819.

The CWLLS are also Healthy Farm Dams workshops being held in Parkes, Forbes, Trundle, Condobolin and Grenfell between 18 – 22 April to provide advice on managing your farm dam. I will have more information about these events next week.

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!