Hi Landcarers

On Wednesday evening, Central West Lachlan Landcare (CWLL) held their Annual General Meeting in Forbes.

The AGM gives us a chance to reflect on the last financial year, celebrate our successes and look to the year ahead.

The 2017/18 financial year will bring change for CWLL in terms of projects and priorities. The last 18 months have had a large focus on on-ground works with our Skillset Green Army Team and now that the Programme is drawing to a close, we will be placing more focus on training and education for not only our members but within our local schools.

The AGM accepted two amendments to our Constitution. The first, in relation to using different forms of technology to participate in AGM’s and the other, expanding our Committee size to allow for a greater range of expertise to draw from in this space. What a great problem to have!

Kindly accepting to head CWLL as Chair once again is Margot Jolly (Parkes). Gavin Tom (Back Yamma) has continued his position of Deputy Chair, Margaret Haddin (Cookamidgera) as Treasurer, Ben Kerin (Trundle) as Public Officer, Maree Yapp (Forbes) as Secretary and we are pleased to have Michael Chambers (Parkes) accepting a position on the Committee. We are thrilled to have two new members of the Committee in Jack Farthing (Forbes) and Darrin Kopp (Forbes).

We are also happy to welcome Cr Michele Herbert and Cr Barbara Newton as our invited Council representatives from Forbes and Parkes Councils respectively.

We are thrilled to have this wealth of knowledge and experience to draw from.

In the lead up to the Soil C Quest Crowdfunding Campaign, we were fortunate to have Guy Webb speak at our AGM. Every time I hear about this project, I am more enthusiastic about the possibilities that it has and what an amazing opportunity we have to be part of it and make a positive impact on the Climate Change problem.

If you don’t believe that it is happening, go online and read. Just type in the topic and find out what the ‘experts’ are saying. Have a look at how much funding our governments are putting into solutions and look wider afield to see what other countries are committing to.

If that isn’t enough to satisfy your thirst and you don’t think it is really happening, you would have to admit that if we can sequester carbon dioxide into our soils there are only positives to come from it.

I have been appointed as the Central West Natural Resource Management Working Group (CWNRMWG) delegate for the NSW Landcare Council and I am looking forward to representing our region at this level. Landcare NSW Council members from all State regions meet quarterly to determine the strategic direction for the operations of Landcare NSW.

Margot Jolly and myself have been invited to speak about our partnerships as a result of the NSW Landcare Coordinators Initiative, at the Parliamentary Friends of Landcare event at Parliament House in November. This is also a great opportunity to promote our fantastic area and the partnership that we have with Parkes and Forbes Shire Councils. These partnerships empower us to empower others and that benefits us all.

We have launched a new Facebook page due to our old page suddenly being taken offline by facebook. We are looking at this as a new opportunity. Follow us at Central West Lachlan Landcare Inc @CWLLandcare.

For more information about anything in this article, please contact Central West Lachlan Landcare on 02 6862 4914, cwllpo@hotmail.com, facebook or our website at centralwestlachlanlandcare.org

Until next week, happy Landcaring!