Readers may recall a letter in YAN's July e-newsletter by Ted Deveson of the FX-FJ Car Club of Canberra. Ted explained that the club was keen to find a property to do some tree planting on one of their Sunday outings. Bimbi Turner of Silverdale responded straight away, and a couple of months later, vintage Holdens carrying trees and volunteers were on their way to Bimbi and Kim's place. Below are Ted and Bimbi's accounts of the day. 

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On Sunday 4 September members of the FX-FJ Car Club of Canberra planted gum tree seedlings at ‘Silverdale’ near Bowning in collaboration with the YAN Landcare group. The planting was part of club drive through towns nearby and was followed by a Fathers’ Day lunch at the Bowning Hotel.

Bimbi and Kim Turner offered to host our planned event, providing a fenced site for the trees and they treated us to morning tea before we got to work on the shovels. We planted a mix of eucalypt species including red stringybark, scribbly gum, brittle gum and yellow box, and Kim and Bimbi brought up straw and water to help finish the job. Forty-five trees were planted, mulched and watered in an hour and the 20 mm of rain that fell four days later will help to settle them into their new ground. Hopefully, the trees will now grow strongly and will be seen from the Lachlan Valley Way when any of us drive that way in the future - Ted Deveson, FX-FJ Car Club of Canberra

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A happy morning on the 4th Sept. was spent at our property Silverdale when the FJ Holden car club drove their beautiful clean vehicles to our home for morning tea in the sunny garden. Then up to a fenced tree line to plant 45 trees generously donated by Ted. The job was done in no time planted watered and mulched within two hours. Since then the good Lord has regularly watered them and all looking good. We chose a sight adjacent to our boundary on the Lachlan Valley Way so members of the car club will note there progress if driving by. Kim and I are very grate full for the happy tree planting - Bimbi Turner, Silverdale

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YAN President Kath McGuirk attended a Grasslands mini-forum at Charles Sturt University in late September which arose from a working relationship between ACT Friends of Grasslands and Charles Sturt Sustainability lecturers and grounds staff. The forum was designed to provide an environment for practitioners, researchers and community advocates to come together to exchange knowledge and experience which will lead to improved management of grassland ecosystems across the ACT, Riverina and beyond. The forum was a mix of information sessions on the latest research in Grassland management, and Box Gum site visits in Wagga and on the Charles Sturt University campus. The photos below show the biodiversity of these site visits.

Yass Landcare Group held its first Bushfire Readiness Forum on World Environment Day - 5th June 2022.

The Yass Valley Council recently reassessed its bushfire plan mapping and saw its bushfire plan map rise from 30% to 90%. Thus even though the Yass region wasn't subject to fires during the 2019-20 events, this region may not be so lucky in the future.  

The forum consisted of speakers from Manton Rural Fire Brigade, Jeff Dau a Bushfire practitioner, Wally Bell from the Ngunawal Aboriginal Corporation and Alison Elvin President of Yass Landcare. Each guest speaker had several key messages to share.

Eric Gruber, the Manton Rural Fire Brigade leader, stated that when fighting a running fire it is vital to access property. Thus having a gate and gaps in tree lane plantings which would allow fire trucks through, are vital to ensure quick access to enable property protection. Thus gates in fence lines and gaps in tree lanes should be seriously considered in future plantings. Alison Elvin also suggested that an alternative to 20-30m wide tree lanes is to have small clusters of Eucalyptus with understory plantings and possibly plant the corners of a paddock as an alternative to tree lane.

The Bushfire practitioner Jeff Dau spoke about the need to address a number of items when preparing for the bushfire season. That include the asset protection zone immediately around the house; landscape, access, construction materials of the house etc, utilities that need to operate when the power fails, and your emergency management plan knowing when to leave and the route to take for a safe exit from your property.

Wally Bell spoke about the attributes of cool burns conducted under the direction of Aboriginal fire management experts. Preparation before the burn is most important, the fire must be cool so as to regenerate dormant grasses and to activate dormant seed in the ground. The cool burn must be able to be manageable by one person and burnt in mosaic patterns which in spring will encourage the growth on fresh green grass (which is attractive to kangaroos).

Alison Elvin had several tables of plants of various flammability values. She also provided some detailed resources entitled Reducing Bushfire threat with sensible Garden design.

The Yass Landcare Group is part of the YAN and has an active team of Landcare nursery volunteers who are growing regional plants from the Box Gum Grassy Woodland plant community. Their plant list will progressively increase to include plants with low flammability values to ensure that we are assisting local landholders to prepare for the inventible.