Mt Arthur Awareness Day
Mt Arthur Awareness Day
The Mt Arthur Trust invited interested parties to see what really happens at Mt Arthur, a special place where conservation and community come together.
Reaching Out -
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The issue
Mt Arthur is a local 2123ha beauty spot and tourist attraction for Wellington, but it also has an endangered community of Swainsona recta, the Small Purple Pea, which is the subject of an Office of Environment & Heritage National Recovery Plan. In order to preserve the habitat in what is, after all, a public reserve, the Trust had put into place some safeguards from trespass on the identified sites, and used the flowering period, when the plant is easily recognised, as the monitoring period, calling on volunteers for the count.
The solution
The day was widely promoted through our Co-ordinator John Ryan and his many media contacts, to assemble representatives from Local Land Services, Landcare NSW, the Mt. Arthur Trust itself and the local Aboriginal Reference Group to address as many interested people as possible: thanks to the wide publicity, the audience was drawn from a wide area and numbered about thirty.
Channel Seven News was there, as well as representatives from the print media and the Inland Waterways River Repair Bus, to inform the wider public about the necessity for respect and care.
The impact
There was a much greater understanding of the difficulties of keeping an endangered species habitat safe. Everyone was very appreciative of the efforts of the Trust to keep faith with the principles and restrictions of the guidelines, and also very appreciative of how well Mt. Arthur is looked after in general, with improvement works happening in tandem with the Mt. Arthur Challenge, an annual bike and running event on the Reserve.
Learnings
The day achieved greater awareness of endangered plant communities and a greater appreciation of the associated difficulties. The tracks were narrow and rugged, designed for walkers and cyclers, with few places to pull off without doing damage to the environment, but by dint of sharing vehicles and staying in line, a long convoy was able to congregate near the key sites, or at least be in walking distance.
Key facts
- Awareness raising of a threatened species habitat.
- Understanding of the Trust's aims and raison d'etre.
- Mt. Arthur is a valuable asset for Wellington.