The Friends of Tarra-Bulga National Park are holding a working bee on this coming Saturday April 29th and are would welcome new or existing volunteers to come along.
The worksite is in a remote part of the park and getting there will involve a scenic 3km walk through beautiful tree-fern filled Mountain Ash forest. The work will involve removing tree-guards from previous plantings and re-using them to plant more over-storey trees.
The meeting point will be the park visitors’ centre at 9am. BYO snacks, drink, gloves. For planning purposes please RSVP to David on 0488 035 314 or email friendsoftarrabulga@gmail.com
Volunteer help is needed again on the first of our hands on work days for 2017. Environmental weeds are a menace and without extra help from passionate people they can quickly degrade precious habitats. On Saturday March 18th we will be continuing our ongoing efforts to keep Tutsan, Sycamore Maple, Blackberries and Ivy under control at a vulnerable site in the picturesque Tarra Valley.
No experience or prior knowledge necessary (help with weed id provided).
Meet at the Tarra Valley Picnic Area Car Park at 9.30am (finish at 12.30pm)
Tools provided (but you might like to bring along your own gloves.
For further details or to let us know you intend to come along contact us at friendsoftarrabulga@gmail.com or phone David on 0488 035 314.
Cyathea australis – Rough tree-fern, the broken of scaly frond bases (Stipes) on the upper part of the trunk of these ferns are a quick aid to their identification.
The Friends of Tarra-Bulga National Park are holding a working bee on Saturday April 30th and are would welcome new or existing volunteers to come along.
The worksite is in a remote part of the park and getting there will involve a scenic 3km walk through beautiful tree-fern filled Mountain Ash forest. The work will involve removing tree-guards from previous plantings and re-using them to plant more over-storey trees.
The meeting point will be the park visitors’ centre at 9am. BYO snacks, drink, gloves. For planning purposes please RSVP to David on 0488 035 314 or email friendsoftarrabulga@gmail.com
Weekends are busy times with lots of important stuff to do like shopping, housework, playing/watching sport, sleeping in etc, but why not put all that on hold tomorrow and join us at our working bee.
The Friends of Tarra-Bulga National Park are seeking volunteers on Saturday April 18th to help with some weeding and preparation for an upcoming planting day.
The worksite is along Diaper Tk and getting there will involve a scenic 3km walk. The work involves rehabilitating a site where a major infestation of Sycamore Maple was discovered several years ago. The site is quite overgrown with re-growth scrub and as well as looking for weeds to pull we will be clearing new tracks to allow easier access for a tree planting planned in July.
The meeting point is at the park visitors’ centre at 9am. You will need to take a cut lunch and your own drink. For further details phone David on 0488 035 314 or email friendsoftarrabulga@gmail.com
Come and help us turn this scenic but scrubby site back into towering Mountain Ash Forest
Our first group activity for the year will be held at a site in the park along Tarra Valley Rd that we have been working on for nearly a decade now. Initially we started tackling a serious infestation of Sycamore Maple, which is a tree that can be very invasive, it has light papery seeds that disperse in the wind, it can grow in shade and then potentially become a large tree. Over the years we have pulled out hundreds of new seedlings that have spread into the park and cut out and killed many larger saplings.
Tutsan with some fruit ready to spread more seed into the park.
We have now been successful at getting the Maple fairly well controlled and we have now also started on another weed (Tutsan) that is established at the site. Tutsan (Hypericum androsaemum) is a perennial shrub that grows to about 1.5m tall, it is related to St John’s Wort and is noted as being a serious threat to damp and wet schlerophyll forests. We have received a Communities for Nature grant to assist our efforts that will be used to fund contractors to spray the larger infestations as well as to purchase some hand tools and chemical to support our efforts.
We will be holding a working bee at the site on Saturday March the 21st. The meeting point will be at the Tarra Valley Car Park at 9.30am. Like many of our working bees’ the terrain will be steep and lots of scrambling through undergrowth will be required. Tools will be available but if you have your own favourite gloves or loppers please bring them along. Following the work we will have a free BBQ lunch provided down at the Fernholme Caravan Park (at around 1pm). If you are able to come along please call or email David Akers (0488 035 314) or friendsoftarrabulga@gmail.com preferably by March the 18th so we know how much food to buy.
We had our annual “Maple Pull” at a site along the Tarra Valley Rd yesterday. The fact that we had only a small crew turnout was OK because thanks to our consistent efforts we have got to the point where the task is mainly a search mission, when we first started out we were pulling hundreds of seedlings. Yesterday after tramping around the area we managed to find and either hand pull or cut and paint forty seven young Sycamore Maple, as well as prising out some Blackberry seedlings and the odd stray bit of Ivy. The Maple is being controlled, but we still have issues with Tutsan at this site, and that will be a future war, that we may one day have the energy to take on but it will be much harder to win.
While wandering around in search of Maple it was a good chance marvel at the fresh new Fungi blooms. They are a real feature at this time of the year and thanks to consistent rain to date in Autumn, it should be a bumper season for Fungi spotters. After the work, we looked after the workers (a tradition at Friends of Tarra-Bulga) and headed down to the Fernholme Caravan Park where David provided us with toasties, hot coffee and freshly baked banana cake. We were joined at the table by a Lewin’s Honeyeater. A great way to refresh after spending the morning out in the dripping wet forest.
Friends of Tarra-Bulga National Park 