25+ years of Landcare in the central tablelands
25+ years of Landcare in the central tablelands
Central Tablelands Landcare - supporting Landcare around Orange and Bathurst
Building our Future -
LLCI001-008
The issue
Central Tablelands district began as “Orange Bathurst Landcare” back in the early 1990’s. It was one of the first districts in Australia to have a Landcare Coordinator. Since the early 1990’s through to the early 2000’s the number of Landcare Groups grew to over 70. After 2005 active Landcare group numbers dropped to around 49 and have continued to decline with the rising costs of insurance for small groups and a lack of money for groups to implement on-ground projects. In 2010, Central Tablelands Landcare has moved to support individual members along with groups in the district and has a membership of close to 500 households in the district in addition to about 20 smaller Landcare or natural resource management groups.
It has been a challenge to continue to grow our membership and community profile with changes to Landcare funding and support structures over the years.
The solution
In recent years, Central Tablelands Landcare has continued to be successful in the delivery of a wide range of projects and currently employs three staff on a casual basis.
Central Tablelands Landcare has attracted grant funding from a range of funding programs including; the Australian Government's Biodiversity Fund, 25 Year Landcare Anniversary Grants, Green Army and Community Actions Grants; as well as through the NSW Government's Local Landcare Coordinator Initiative, Environmental Trust and the Central Tablelands LLS.
These grants have assisted Central Tablelands Landcare to deliver programs to meet their goals of promoting sustainable grazing, healthy soils and biodiversity in our Landcare district.
The impact
In 2016 Central Tablelands Landcare delivered 30 workshops/field days that were attended by nearly 400 participants covering a range of topics including compost on farms, beekeeping, dung beetles, native plant identification, soil health and pasture cropping.
Central Tablelands Landcare was a host to two Green Army teams in 2016 which assisted with the propagation of 5,000 local tree and shrub species in our Landcare Nursery and worked with landholders to revegetate four dams and adjoining riparian areas.
Our major project for 2016 was our Environmental Trust funded Stepping Stones project. In this project, we have focused on revegetation works that include at least one old remnant habitat tree. All 8,000 plants for this project are being grown in our Landcare Nursery from locally collected seed.
Key facts
- About 500 membership households
- 30 plus events run annually attracting about 400 participants
- Propagation of local tree and shrub species