Professor Bowman telling FoKL Members about early fire ecology in the Reserve
Professor Bowman telling FoKL Members about early fire ecology in the Reserve

August 2020 News

rex2020, Monthly News Leave a Comment

August’s program went well.

Prof Bowman gave us a very interesting ‘walk & talk’ on bush fires, and about what will happen when big fires hit Hobart’s surrounding hills. He recommended many, small, frequent fires, taking out areas of dead bracken, old dry grass and dry bark & dry scrub. However, this is difficult, as it doesn’t fit into the usual schedule of big hazard reduction burns. He also recommended making life easier for browsing and gracing animals, as they keep flammable vegetation down.

Then the rain washed out our Sunday planting activity. We had already paid for the plants and brought them down from the Plants of Tasmania Nursery, and they  needed to get into the ground. So on the Tuesday a few of us dug 120 holes in the designated planting area above the Weerona trail. On the Thursday 12 volunteers helped dig another 140 holes and plant 260 plants! We spent about 55 hours on the task, and I am so impressed with our members willingness to give of their time.

Here is a list of the plants:

Botanical name Common Name Plants
Austrostipa stuposa Corskscrew grass 48
Microlaena stipoides Weeping grass 48
Themeda triandra Kangaroo grass 48
Poa labillardierei Silver Tussock grass 48
Rytidosperma caespitsoum Wallaby grass 48
Lomandra longifolia Sagg 20 (donated by Kingston nursery

Half the plants were covered lightly with dead, burnt gorse sticks, the other half has individual plastic ‘sleaves’. It will be interesting to see how the different plantings perform.

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