Woody Weed Working Party – 2nd Take
When: Sunday, 27 April 2025 from 1pm to 4pm
What: Removing woody weeds to protect and enhance the critically endangered grassy woodland of Mt Majura’s north slope. We’d love to see you there.
Where: Meet at the nature park entrance near Tay and Ian Nicol Streets, The Fair, North Watson. Please be on time at the meeting point to join us on the walk to the target area, as well as for an introduction to the weeds and how to tackle them safely and efficiently.
Bring and wear: Sun protection, sturdy boots, body covering garden clothing and garden gloves if you have them; we’ll provide tools, herbicide and nitrile gloves.
For more information and a map of the meeting place and target area visit the FoMM website by clicking the button below.
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Mondays @ The Fair
Monday mornings at 9:30 we meet at the reserve gate at Ian Nicol St and Tay St car park, to tackle weeds, especially woody weeds in autumn. We may also water the newly planted Tall Sedges Carex appressa at the Fair dam, if rainfall is insufficient. And as the opportunity arises, we will tackle some evil grasses and St John’s Wort – the priority weeds for our environmental grant project. We have bought native grass seeds to spread on bare areas after roughening the soil.
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Come join us any Monday morning and help restore the endangered box-gum grassy woodland! Everyone welcome.
Invasive Species
Callery Pear – an Unfolding Horror Story
Callery Pear Pyrus calleryana is a beautiful ornamental tree which is recommended for landscape planting by the ACT government, despite being well documented as invasive in other areas of the world. Four cultivars are listed in the ACT’s Municipal Infrastructure Standards for Urban Landscape Projects and at least three are planted in Ian Nicol Street, immediately opposite wildflowers in the endangered box gum grassy woodland along Clancy’s track.
Since 2023 Canberra NatureMapr has been recording young Callery Pears in our nature reserves.
For an insight into why we need to change city landscaping, and the need for urgent amendment of the Urban Forest Act 2023, so that invasive trees can be legally removed from public land, look at this short video “Is this the worst Invasive Plant? – Bradford Pear”. For more about the history and science of the invasion spend an hour looking at this video from Ohio, the first US state to ban the sale of Callery Pears. The ACT needs to do likewise to avoid our green spaces looking like those shown in the videos.
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The bird most likely to be feeding on the Callery Pears is the Pied Currawong Streper agraculina, a species which has increased in numbers in the urban area, feeding in autumn on fruits of garden trees and shrubs and later on the eggs and young of small native birds.
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Mondays @ The Fair Dam
Several days in March have been spent in the area of The Fair dam, removing weeds and preparing holes for planting Tall Sedge Carex appressa. Our thanks to ranger Marty for augering deep holes in the dry soil. The holes have since been enlarged, water crystals added to the soil and the loose soil put back in the hole and marked with a flag or a stake, ready for planting. Given the lack of rain, the holes were pre-watered.
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Intrepid Planting 26 March 2025
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The culmination of the restoration of the dam at The Fair was the planting of Carex appressa seedlings. Seventeen enthusiastic members of ANU Intrepid Landcare and six FoMM volunteers met before twilight to plant 80 seedlings propagated by FoMM member Barb Read. Protective guards were placed to prevent grazing and the seedlings watered. Many of the Intrepid participants are first year students living in campus residences, some of them coming from overseas, so the event is also a way of meeting and socialising with other students.
FoMM regularly works with groups like Intrepid, so if you’re in a group which would like to do an environmental volunteering event click here to get in touch!
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Anke Maria Hoefer, FrogWatch Coordinator and her colleagues have released the 2024 report – you can find it here. Australia’s State of the Environment Report for 2024 Click here for the report summary for the ACT and the national context. A pretty average year for the ACT but nationally the heat is on, and there is an alarming increase in threatened species (but a lesser increase than in 2023). Read the biodiversity section for more information on what’s threatened. Good News Stories White Wallaby Bronwyn Wiseman reports that when she was running on the track parallel to the Blue Metal Road, she saw a white wallaby! Albinos are rare so if you see it on the mountain, please take a photo and send it to us or put it on Canberra NatureMapr. Wandiyali Wandiyali~Environa Wildlife Sanctuary has started a collaborative partnership with Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) to return threatened native animals to their good quality grassy woodland, just east of southern Canberra. Read about it on the AWC website.Click here to see what species have been sighted there and see Wandiyali’s website for pictures and stories of all their projects. Thanks to Jodie for mentioning Wandiyali! Conservation Works In a review of the threatened animal species in the IUCN Red List, researchers found that almost all species that had improved their status had received conservation interventions. Let’s celebrate this result, outlined here. But quoting the last sentence of the abstract of the published paper: “Scaling up the extent and intensity of conservation interventions, particularly landscape-scale actions that benefit broadly distributed species, is urgently needed to assist the recovery of biodiversity.” More Events Exhibition |
Fungi Forays – first date is Sunday 6 April
The Canberra Fungi Group run Fungi Forays in autumn, one per month at different locations. To find out how to participate see their website. One foray at Mt Majura last year found lots of different fungi in a small area.
Choir Concert : Riversong Saturday 17 May
Details and tickets at website. Fund raising for the Australian River Restoration Centre.
See their project The Forgotten River, about the Upper Murrumbidgee, our river catchment.
Conservation Challenges – part 2
They have not gone away.
With a federal election looming, there are many events coming up where environmental issues will be discussed. Some of these occur with short notice, so we suggest you subscribe to some other conservation organisations newsfeeds, so you don’t miss out on opportunities to raise issues of concern, issues needing improvement via the political pathway.
The Conservation Council ACT Region had a forum in early April with local politicians attending.
The Biodiversity Council has produced a detailed document on what priorities should be for funding for nature.
Invasives.org.au has produced a web booklet “Turning the tide on extinctions” with their wish list of priority actions and suggested funding needed.
Birdlife Australia has a wish list for new laws and adequate funding.
The Wilderness Society wants action on nature protection.
The Australia Institute, a public policy thinktank, wants better laws for the environment.
What does Tanya Plibersek, Minister for the Environment and Water, want?
Our incumbent federal politicians are:
Find out their priorities and those of the other candidates challenging them!
