Give native plants a head start! Come and help preparing National Tree Day 2014 and replacing outgrown tree guards. When: Sunday, 20 July, 1-4pm; give as little or as much time as you want. Where: Meet at The Fair, nature park access Tay St, North Watson, view this map What:…
In 2009, the Explaining Change Project created three sample areas close by the Hackett water tank. This was so we could assess the relative impacts of rabbit and kangaroo grazing. One plot excludes both kangaroos and rabbits, one plot excludes kangaroos but allows rabbits and the third plot is a…
2645 residents of the ACT signed the petition to return Majura paddocks 5 and 6 back into Mount Majura Nature Reserve. Katy Gallagher tabled the petition in the ACT Legislative Assembly on the 26th November. The petition and background information are available here.
Because human memories of a changing scene – the when, what and how much – are inadequate, FoMM volunteers are using repeated photographs to record and so capture any changes. To be of real value, the photography must capture only the scene change, and not be affected by camera type…
In addition to the photographic monitoring we assessed the ground-cover of the three plots using the ‘point-step’ method to monitor vegetation (Sharp S, Gould L: ACT Vegetation Monitoring Manual. A Step-by-step Guide to Monitoring Native Vegetation in the ACT. Greening Australia Capital Region 2010). Rainfall in the months preceding the…
We now have four full years of repeat photography available, October 2009 – October 2013. Sequences of still images were converted to video format for display on the YouTube website. During the three years of the project we have learned the strengths and weaknesses of our photography, and how best…
Update (19/07/2014) The ACT Government, Environment and Planning Directorate released Draft Variation of the Territory Plan No 297 (see here) which proposes to return paddocks 5 and 6 to nature reserve and invites public comments by Friday 29 August 2014. Update (02/06/2014) The Chief Minister Katy Gallagher informed Friends of…
Friends of Mt Majura Media Release Monday, 18 March, 2013 The grazing impact of Kangaroos: A three year experiment The results of a three year experiment by a local ParkCare group demonstrate that grazing pressure by kangaroos has serious consequences for the integrity of endangered grassy woodlands. Since late 2009,…
Letter to Shane Rattenbury, Minister for Municipal and Territory Services requesting the return of land into nature reserve; click here. The Variation to the Territory Plan No 182 (April 2002) moved an area north of the Hackett water reservoir from nature reserve to special purpose reserve, horse grazing. The area contains…
A cat was observed hunting woodland birds in the nature reserve that abuts the new residential development The Fair in North Watson. The Fair is a declared cat containment area. FoMM wrote to Simon Corbell, Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development and Shane Rattenbury, Minister for Territory and Municipal…
