Hello to all of our Landcare Members, Partners, Sponsors, and Friends throughout the Bass Coast Landcare Network and welcome to the June edition of the BCLN Enews.

This month's Enews contains a range of events, planting days, general news, grants and more! We hope you enjoy this edition.

For all the latest updates, follow us on Facebook and Instagram... just click the links above!

DEECA has partnered with Youth Affairs Council Victoria (YACVic) to deliver free online workshops on youth engagement for environmental volunteer managers. This session will provide some basic theory and guidance on developing strategies for ethical practice in your group. This workshop will be held on June 27th from 9am-12pm.

Click here to register.

Gippsland Intrepid's annual plant and dance is back again for the third year. 
Join in the fun at this great Trust For Nature property in West Creek, popping 4,500 plants in the ground, followed by a night of grooving to bands including Boxthorns, Maddy May, Queen Billy Pines and DJs BANDO, BassC, Caleb Jay and Lenny Lens. Dinner will be provided, as well as a great spot for camping, so bring your gear and enjoy!
​Gippsland Intrepid would like to thank Bass Coast Shire and the Koala Awareness Program for funding the trees for this event.

Click here to grab your ticket, before they sell out!

This webinar is for volunteer coordinators and managers of Victorian environmental groups interested to learn more about how to better promote their people, projects and achievements. 
The session will include hints and tips from a communications expert and a Q&A with environmental groups who are kicking goals in this space.

Click here to register​

GROUP AND NETWORK NEWS

There are still a few plantings left for June, as well as plenty over the next two months as well. Check the dates and locations below to see if you're available to help.
June 24th, Jumbunna, 1,400 plants
June 24th Woolamai, 2,000 plants
June 24th Archies Creek, 1,500 plants

Click here to view the full planting calendar, including site addresses, and RSVP information.

With wind and rain dropping off before the start time, this year’s Festival run on the 21st of May was a great success. We welcomed around 1,000 attendees who by all reports, enjoyed the activities on offer. Rick Coleman was a hit with at least 30 people at each of his two gardening demonstrations, how to build no dig and wicking garden beds. The Kids zone had the youngsters entertained with Sue from Island Eco-tours facilitating eco crafts, Jules from Festive Tribe and her Bass River play scape and Sian’s facepainting. The ‘For Our Future – Eco Arts Project’ hosted fully booked workshops in the hall and a community concert on the main stage, and 11 presentations were also enjoyed by participants on the main stage sponsored by Bass Coast Community Foundation. BLCN would like to thank our volunteers, John, Peter and Heather for helping on the day, and our sponsors Bass Coast Shire Council, Westernport Water, Westernport Biosphere Reserve, Ecoliv, and Earthworker Cooperative who made this event possible. 

After 2.5-3 years (Covid lockdowns announced 24hrs before the event) Korumburra Landcare Group had a great morning with Fungi expert Tom May. Tom is a mycologist at Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria with a passion for improving knowledge and conservation of Australian fungi. He was able to give an in depth, insightful and engaging presentation on fungi, with over 2,500 species that are known in Australia, and plenty more that are still being found and identified. After his presentation, the group went for a walk into the Outtrim Nature Reserve, where once they got their eye in, they could hardly go one step without stumbling across some type of fungi, with much more too small to see with the naked eye.
A massive thank you to Tom May and to Paul Calvert, and to Jim and Rosemary for behind the scenes organising, Don for ensuring the reserve was looking at it best, Marie and all others who cooked/baked food for lunch and sweets.

Click here to learn more about Korumburra Landcare Group​

Big thank you to our hard working volunteer dung beetle monitors for completing a years’ worth of beetle trapping in Southern Gippsland. Results have confirmed a suspected gap in dung beetle activity over Winter, however we found good activity in Spring, Autumn and especially Summer. 
To protect dung beetle populations it is important to use drenches that have little impact on larvae – eg. Cydectin.
Now we know what beetles are active, where and when, we will continue investigating suitable winter active species to introduce in the activity gap. This work has started by trying to breed B. bison and O. vacca, but with mixed results, and we will look at other species. This project was undertaken in partnership with South Gippsland Landcare Network, and funded through the Victorian Landcare Grants and WGCMA.

Click here to view the full report, and a larger version of the graph.​​

Farmers from 12 properties across Bass Coast recently participated in our 'Introduction to Soils' workshop program. This included having soil chemistry, biology and carbon tests done, and attending two workshop days in May to learn from soil scientist Declan McDonald. Workshop 1 was held at the Archies Creek property of Ric and Mez Oldham and was a soils 101 introduction. Week 2 was held at the Kardella property of Declan McDonald and drilled further down into the participants soil test results and provided guidance to participants on how to interpret these results. Feedback was extremely positive with one participant quoting, ‘a terrific program/workshop series with fantastic learnings’.   
All participants said they had gained new knowledge and had plans to go home and take action to improve soil health on their properties.
This project is part of the Farmers Digging Deeper project and includes similar workshops across the wider region. This project is supported by Bass Coast Landcare Network, through funding from the Australian Governments National Landcare program. 

Click here to learn more about the Sustainable Agriculture program​

Korumburra Landcare Group's first community planting of 2023 at Karolien and Aaron's property in Strzelecki is one of the most continually steep properties that the group have planted on. A great turnout with 20 people attending, all managed the 1.8km walk down to the site. Groups were organized as there were some easier sections for bodies needing flatter ground, while those who were able tackled the steeper slopes of the creekside. Karolien and Aaron did a fantastic job of site set up, with buckets of mixed plants ready at each section, everything spot sprayed, and all fenced off. That good old saying “many hands make light work” makes for a fun time, as they managed to plant the 1,400 plants in 2.5 hrs. Time flew, as they all got stuck in, along with fun chats along the way.  Listening to some of the conversations was quite interesting - from First Nations Peoples to plants, to past jobs, cars, wombats, tv shows and much more… how they planted with all that chatter?! Once finished, everyone decided to hike uphill the entire way back to the house, stopping to “admire the view”. In reality it was a chance to catch your breath! Lunch was delicious sausages and burgers made with home grown beef! Thanks to Karolien and Aaron for the preparation and lovely lunch and a massive THANKS to all the volunteers. Without them, the day would not have been as fun and productive.

Click here to learn more about the Korumburra Landcare Group

BCLN is strengthening its partnership with the Western Port Biosphere Foundation through working as a delivery partner on their Blue Carbon Planning Project funded through DECCA. Our Natural Resource Management team will be working with landholders on the Western Port coastline to help them with Water Stewardship plans and implementing Blue Carbon projects such as protecting and enhancing Saltmarsh, Mangrove planting and weed control. We are very excited to have the opportunity to be working alongside Glenn Brooks-MacMillan and his team at the Foundation, who have extensive experience developing the Water Stewardship plans and working with Landcare. The project will also involve our Works Crew working alongside the Bunurong Land Council NRM team to do some of the on-ground works. On a recent visit to John Carney's property at Queensferry, we have identified some great opportunities for partnership projects and potentially setting John’s farm up as a demonstration site for Blue Carbon projects in the future.
Image caption - Joel, Luke and John looking at Spiny rush weed

In 2021, we planted our first plants for our Arborists for Forests (AFF) Initiative. Two years later, they are growing into the first forest established by our partnered arborist companies! Thank you to Bass Coast Tree Care for funding the first year of the Initiative and to Arborzone Total Tree Care and South Gippsland Tree Care, our other contributors to the initiative over the previous year.

Click here for more information about this program. 

Asparagus Fern and Bridal Creeper are two weeds to set your sights on this Winter. Asparagus Fern is a highly invasive climbing plant with small green leaves along a twining stem. Small white flowers in Spring develop into orange berries. This plant spreads via seed dispersal from birds, or rhizomes. Bridal Creeper is a deciduous, woody-based scrambling climber, which smothers ground flora, smaller shrubs and trees. It has greenish-white flowers in spring followed by green to red berries and is dispersed by birds dropping seeds, as well as tubers and rhizomes on dumped garden waste. 
Small patches of these weeds can be removed carefully by hand, but larger infestations may need to be chemically controlled with Metsulfuron, also known as Brush-Off. 

Click here to learn more about weeds in the Bass Coast Shire.​

GRANTS, TRAINING, INFORMATION, RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR LANDHOLDERS

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Are you a small agribusiness or farm? Bass Coast Shire Council, along with ION Group and Agriculture Victoria are running a FREE Small Agribusiness and Farming Diversity and Resilience Program to empower your farm or agribusiness! Seize this opportunity to enhance business planning, succession planning, risk management, improve mental health and well-being, and explore innovative diversification strategies with other like-minded participants.

Register your interest here.

​Victorian Gorse Taskforce’s (VGT) Community Grants for 2023-24 is now open. The VGT, with support from Agriculture Victoria, offers funding support for community-led gorse control projects. VGT’s Community Grants’ objectives are to reduce the impacts of gorse on environmental, agricultural, and social values, strengthen community and stakeholder connections for better gorse outcomes, build community knowledge and capacity in managing gorse and promote best practice gorse management.
Community groups may apply for funding up to $8,000 for gorse control works on private land. All participating landholders may receive up to $1,500 in grant funding but must match this with their own monetary contribution. Applications close: 30 June 2023.  

Click here to learn more about the grants, including eligibility and application details.

Do you have children on your farm?  If you would like to learn how to keep your kids or grandkids safe, check out the great resources on the Making Our Farms Safer website, which contains the Child Safety On Farm handbook, Kid Farm Safety Checklist, case studies, videos, and more. 

Click here to view the resources.​

Bellarine Catchment Network has recently published an Inclusive Volunteering Guide. This practical guide provides community and environment groups with a framework to make volunteering inclusive.
The guide dives deep into 4 different communities:

• First Nations and the Wadawurrung
• Culturally and Linguistically Diverse
• people with disabilities,
• and people who are LGBTIQA+  

This guide features resources and practical tips about planning events, advertising and facilitating volunteering opportunities.

Click here to view the guide.​

Our May blitz was all about Saving Seed, with a very enthusiastic group learning how to start their own seed collecting and saving journey. Our very own Lisa Wangman ran this session, discussing the differences between hybrid, open pollinated and GM seed, different varieties of annual and biennial veggies, the timing for collecting and processes involved. Participants got to do a mini blitz on the day, removing spent vegetables and weeds, and collecting seeds from vegetable plants left to mature for this purpose. They then used the hall and kitchen to prepare and sort the seed for drying out at home, sorted some already dried seed into packets and got to take home seed from different veggies already dried and packaged up from the River Garden. This popular session is definitely one we will run again!

Click here for all things River Garden, and to get involved in our Blitz sessions in this great community space. ​

Capturing Carbon for a Biodiverse Bass Coast - In local planting projects!

If you feel passionate about the environment and want to contribute to action on climate change by reducing the impact of your car on our planet, why not consider becoming a part of our ‘Capturing Carbon for a biodiverse Bass Coast’ program? Head to our web page at the link below and simply click on your car's size to make a tax-deductible donation, so we can plant indigenous plants in biodiverse plantings across Bass coast on your behalf. These plantings will increase habitat and important wildlife corridor connections while capturing carbon from the atmosphere. All your friends and family will also see your complimentary car sticker showing your commitment to the Bass Coast environment and climate action.

Landcare Public Fund making projects a reality – Donate today to make a difference!

The Bass Coast Landcare Public Fund is a regional non-profit organisation focusing on conserving biodiversity throughout Bass Coast.​ We do this by supporting community groups to work in their local area to add value to their conservation efforts, encourage broader community ownership and participation and by working in partnership with other land managers. We work to help protect native plants and animals in Bass Coast’s most ecologically important landscapes. Your tax-deductible contribution, no matter how small, helps to protect native plants and animals in Bass Coast’s most ecologically important landscapes. ​

What's your story?

We would love to hear from you and your Landcare group with stories and photos of what's been happening in your area and any suggestions of things that you would like to see in your E-news.

We look forward to meeting and catching up with you at upcoming events and activities around Bass Coast.

Until next edition, 

Happy reading, from the Bass Coast Landcare Network.

The Bass Coast Landcare Network would like to acknowledge and pay our respects to the Traditional Land Owners within the Network area, The Bunurong and Boon Wurrung people. We also recognise the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and organisations in Land and Natural Resource Management.