One local organisation has celebrated moving into a new home last week with a get together of passionate volunteers who share a focus on sustainable land management.
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Far South Coast Landcare Association (FSCLA) launched its new office inside the old Plumb Motors building on Auckland St on Friday, April 29 to a room full of volunteers, professionals and politicians passionately discussing projects and foreseeable future issues in the area of sustainable management.
Volunteer Don McPhee said it felt as though the organisation was launching a “new era” along with it’s new premises.
He spoke of combining the organisations stronger productivity focus on topics such as fertilizer with traditional issues such as weed eradication into the future.
“There is a massive task ahead and Landcare has the capacity to do more than its funding has allowed it to do so far,” Mr McPhee said.
“I guess the challenge is finding a business model for Landcare to avoid relying on public funding.”
The involvement of 200 farmers through their farmers network and the need for adaptation programs as climate change “takes hold” were also key talking points.
Over 60,000 people volunteer with the organisation in NSW alone.
The organisation also announced it is hosting a Local Landcare Coordinator, funded by the NSW State Government, supported through the partnership of Landcare NSW and Local Land Services.
Chris Post’s new role will be to build “Landcare’s level of independence and strength”, while promoting what Landcare does across the community and government.
The FSCLA is also beginning a ten year, $500,000 Bush Connect Project, funded by the NSW Government’s Environment Trust, Mr Post said.
The project will build or protect strategic vegetation links between the coast and escarpment, and increase the effectiveness of partnerships between agencies, industry and the community.
One of the organisation’s long term projects has involved the planting of 13,000 trees by children to re-vegetate a river corridor between Gulaga and Biamanga national parks.
Coordinated by Dean Turner from not-for-profit organisation The Crossing Land Education Trust the project on the Woodville property is aiming to protect koala populations in the area and allow the animals to move between the national parks and surrounding areas.
“From all the survey work done over the last seven years we’ve got a lot of data about what is needed,” Mr Turner said.