Hi Landcarers

This week I am pleased to introduce our new Green Army Team who will be working with Central West Lachlan Landcare until June.

Our Team consists of seven participants between the ages of 17 and 24 years, overseen by a team supervisor.

The participants have undertaken two days of induction training and two days of first aid that will contribute to their experience over the next 18 weeks of the Programme. The team have also undertaken CENTROC Work Health and Safety Induction for Local Government. Our Councils take WHS very seriously and we appreciate their partnership.

The teams will be working on local projects to maintain and improve our biodiversity in our local area. Obviously, given the warm weather, we won’t be commencing planting probably until March, but hope to be able to access some of the planting that our previous Team undertook during 2016, which involved planting over 7,000 plants in the Parkes and Forbes Shires.

CWLL are also looking forward to working with Parkes and Forbes Shire Council’s on projects that will benefit our communities and provide a cleaner and greener area for us to live in. It is a pleasure working with Skillset to provide work experience opportunities to young people in our community.

The focus of the projects will be working on increasing the biodiversity and connecting our Box Gum Grassy Woodlands and Weeping Myall Woodlands in our local area. These woodlands are listed as Endangered Ecological Communities under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, so provide an excellent opportunity for us to work on connecting woodland areas and corridors to increase habitat for native species.

The group won’t just be planting trees, they will also be learning to identify, collect and grow local seed, they will be learning how to work as a team and gain experience that will provide a platform to future work opportunities when they leave the Programme. We are keen to hear from local landholders or local groups who are looking to undertake projects that they think the Green Army Team could contribute to. Just contact me at our Landcare Office on 02 6862 4914.

The Green Army is a hands-on, practical environmental action programme that supports local environmental and heritage conservation projects across Australia. It is an Australian Government initiative for young Australians aged 17–24 years who are interested in protecting their local environment.

I also wanted to mention two field days that are coming up in our area, the first is the Forward Planning For Your Paddocks workshop that is run by the Central Tablelands Local Land Services at Eugowra on Tuesday, 14 February between 8am – 11am. If you would like more information or to book your spot, contact Phil Cranney on 0458 745 478.

The second is the Forbes Pasture Pre-season Workshop, which will be held on Tuesday, 21 February between 8.30am – 11.30am at the Forbes Services Club. For further information or to RSVP, please contact Chris Robinson on 0447 636 129.

Both workshops have the following speakers making presentations: Dr Belinda Hackney, Central West Local Land Services, talking about pasture legumes and crop-pasture rotation options; John Piltz, NSW DPI, speaking on fodder and forage crop options; Frank McCrae, covering lucerne and perennial grass options; and Neil Ballard, Global Pasture Consultants speaking about management of pastures and nitrogen in rotations.

This project is supported by Central West Local Land Services through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Programme and Catchment Action NSW.

For further information, follow the links on our website at centralwestlachlanlandcare.org or on facebook. Until next week, happy Landcaring!