Southwest Lovett Bay Coastcare AGM
27 September 2020 1100hrs
President’s Report
Welcome to our first AGM for the Southwest Lovett Bay Coastcare Group.
I would like to begin by acknowledging the Traditional Custodians of the land, the Garigal People, on which we meet here today and pay my respects to their elders past and present.
It has been a BIG year!
First, we came together with a common desire amongst Western Shores neighbours to get rid of the bamboo and other weeds on both public and private land, and restore and preserve the ecologically endangered communities of Pittwater Spotted Gum and littoral rainforest in this southwest corner of Lovett Bay.
Then came the will to pursue this long-standing desire to tackle this impenetrable bamboo infestation. We all knew it could not be a half -hearted attempt. We had to go at it with all guns blazing and throw everything at it. So we formed the Southwest Lovett Bay Coastcare Group under the stewardship of Lesley Stevens, our current secretary. After our first meeting on 31 August 2019, Lesley collated our thoughts and put down our concerns in a grant application to the Greater Sydney Local Land Services for funding to help us eradicate the bamboo. To apply for funding we established a membership base, elected committee members, set up an Instagram social media account and connected with similar groups and established an incorporated body with assistance from our Treasurer. And then we began the work!
Our application was successful and we were awarded $20,000 for eradication work over a 1.5 year period ending on 16th of December 2021.
We were very lucky to employ Paul Webb as a contractor to Dragonfly Environmental as our field officer to get the ball rolling. Paul was fantastic working on average one day a week to tackle the bamboo, lantana and cocos palms. He encouraged locals to come along and help out and was generous with his knowledge and time to give us all a greater understanding of these wonderful ecosystems and their flora and fauna. Paul will give us more details about his work later in this meeting.
Our first foray as a Coastcare community was a weed identification day with Michael Kneipp from Northern Beaches City Council (NBCC) in March of 2020. He was ably assisted by Paul Webb and other experienced members of adjacent Landcare groups. We learnt how to identify many different weeds and different techniques to eradicate bamboo and lantern. We also made our first assault on the bamboo, clearing sections away.
This was followed by another Bamboo Out Day on 25 July 2020. We had a tremendous turnout of helpers and lead by Paul Webb we made a huge impact on the bamboo infestation. There were 20 people attending for the half day and by midday the contours of the land was starting to remerge and lovely native species of Xanthorrhoea and poison peach and False Rosewood were disentangle from the strangle hold of the bamboo maze.
We had a site inspection on the 5th of August by our public landowners from National Parks and Northern Beaches Council and also our funder Greater Sydney Local Land Services. They had not been on site before and were very impressed with the scope of the project and our progress to date including the great community involvement.
We have also collected local seeds and given them to Northern Beaches Council nursery to grow up and a few of us were lucky enough to receive a few tube stock plants from NBCC as part of their seedling give away during COVID. These seedlings were endemic to this region and have all been planted.
And today just after our AGM finishes a hazard reduction will go ahead in our targeted area to burn the undergrowth and reduce the fire load for the coming fire season. We have worked together with the local RFS to organise this hazard reduction that will burn the piles of cut bamboo and other weeds. This will not only provide protection for homeowners but it will clear away any remaining sections of bamboo and Lantana and will enable Paul Webb to clearly identify and deal with any regrowth in the next growing season. Paul will give us more details on this later in his report.
So to the future and the remaining time we have with this grant.
Firstly we must congratulate ourselves on achieving so much to date. We have cleared the bamboo and most of the other weeds in such a short space of time and with great local participation from our members and the extended community. We are keen to keep going and maintain our vigilance to completely eradicate these weeds for good. Paul will fill us in on his plans going forward for the remainder of the grant.
As well as keeping our eye on any regrowth we also plan to follow up our seed stock with the NBCC and develop a plan for restoring a wildlife corridor along the 11 properties that back onto the track and will approach the NBCC and National Parks for tube stock.
So all in all a very successful beginning and a big thank you to all for being part of this project.
Jennifer Steele Cook
President
South West Lovett Bay Coastcare.