It has been another busy year for the Upper Ovens Valley Landcare Group but continued to be overwhelmed by the impact on our activities by Covid19 restrictions that came in again in early in 2021. We continued our planting activities while meeting the restrictions and adjusted as needed as restrictions changed from time to time. Thankfully we have had no reports of any health issues and our members have been diligent in following the rules while still getting significant work done on the ground. This has been a great achievement given the circumstances. Many of our meetings have been by Zoom and regrettably we still haven’t been able to get back fully to our normal large gatherings for activities and social get togethers.   Nevertheless, many have pitched in to keep the program going. 

The Ovens Buckland Confluence

This project has been chosen for us to focus on due to its important remnant and threatened vegetation communities under threat and its biodiversity connectivity values, given its one of the few corridors where vegetation almost connects from one side of the Ovens Valley to the other.  It links Mt Buffalo National Park to the River Reserves and Sate Forest to the north. This is one of the main focal areas identified in our Environment Plan.

This project has progressed in three stages.  
For stage 1 we received $31,500 from DELWP to complete weed control and planting (2500 plants) on the “Right bank” section at Telford’s Lane and production of a Riparian information brochure. This was largely completed in Spring 2019.  Stage 2 involved UOVLG entering 10 year agreement with NECMA as part of the Ovens Flagship Program to restore the “left Bank” accessed off the Mt Buffalo Road where we planted 3100 plants and completed this in Winter 2020. The focus this year has been all important maintenance and we planted another 100 redgums. The trees are doing well but the expected impacts of feral deer have taken a toll through browsing and knocking over guards. Nevertheless, the area is restoring really well and NECMA has done some follow up weed control. 

We applied for a grant to do Stage 3: upstream of stage 2 behind the Porepunkah School plantation. We have been again successful and will be doing this in 2021/22 in conjunction with the Porepunkah School.

 

Ovens River-German Creek

 

This project received funding from the National Landcare Program to undertake riparian weed control and do some trials on the most cost effective way of protecting new plantings from deer browsing. There has been extensive blackberry control and given the mature forest through there we can expect to see an increase in natural regeneration with weeds gone. There are 12 trial plots of plantings experimenting with from the most expensive Deer proof fencing (2 methods), Simple netting, just guards and no protection at all. The netting has proved ineffectual and we have removed it. We need now to return now to carry out more maintenance and monitoring.

 

Germantown Streamside Reserve
 

The Reserve has been a focus point of the UOVLG and a friends group over the past 8 to 9 years. Projects included signage, an information shelter, walking track development, seating, boardwalk, realignment of the picnic ground, and weed control / revegetation work over multiple years.

 

Current Work in 2021- Small-scale targeted revegetation work by Landcare has been undertaken over the last 12 months continuing a theme that has been underway for the last several years. The focus has been on the right-hand side of the Ovens River which is under the legal jurisdiction of Parks Victoria. Indeed, our close working relationship with Parks has resulted in the latter undertaking extensive weed control and providing funding under the Good Neighbour Program for Landcare to undertake the latest revegetation work. 

 

Future Work-Revegetation work over the last three years has resulted in just under a thousand seedlings being planted. All seedlings are currently enclosed in 1.2m corflute guards. This represents a major challenge in the short to medium term. Careful  timely removal and responsible disposal of tree guards will be crucial to the long term success of previous planting activities.

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Bushfire Recovery: Threatened Species Program
 

We received a grant from the Federal Government to provide assistance to the recovery of the Threatened Omeo Gum (Eucalyptus neglecta), which occurs mostly in riparian areas high up in the Buckland Valley and much was burnt in 2020. Part of the project is also to provide community information on the impact on and recovery of threatened species following wildfires.  We managed to collect lots of seed and ran an awareness day up above Beveridge’s Station. The Alpine Nursery is now propagating 1000 plants for us to plant up there. We organized a fire and threatened species recovery forum with some very well regarded speakers but have sadly had to postpone this until Autumn next year due to Covid10 restrictions; many of our speakers are form Melbourne.

 

Upper Ovens Valley Landcare Environment Plan 
 

Our Environment Plan that has been in the making for a couple of years, is now complete and was launched on 17 September 2019.  The Plan has continued to guide our grant applications and work to give us direction over the next few years. 

 

Community Awareness
 

We have been limited in face to face community awareness activity due to Covid19 but there have been a number of other initiatives.  
Following discussions with Alpine Shire Council and the Platypus Conservancy on a platypus education program, this has progresses after a long hiatus: We worked closely with the Alpine Shire to design and produce a high quality brochure highlighting the values and risks to the Ovens River Platypus along with 6 signs that are being installed.
The new quarterly newsletter design is proving popular and promotes our activities to a high standard and potentially is showing up in our high membership renewals this year.
The website continues to be updated and members continue to load information onto out Facebook page.
We had a number of media stories this year which also highlighted our activity in the community.
We will keep doing these when we can as part of our aim is to increase community awareness of this wonderful environment. 

 

Waterwatch
 

Six volunteers monitored the 6 Waterwatch sites during the year. 
Covid-19 requirements prevented monitoring in the early part of the year, sites were monitored between 7 to 9 times of the annual 12 possible monthly site visits.  An individual unsupervised QA/QC was carried out in March 2021 as the usual group session was not possible due to Covid-19 restrictions.  The Tracer pH/Temp/Salinity meter was replaced by a separate Salinity meter and a new brand of pH/Temp meter during the year due to the unreliability of the meter.  The new meters are more robust and easier to use so hopefully will be more reliable and have a longer life than the Tracer units.

 

Junior Landcare
 

Junior Landcare has been operating throughout the year led by Gavin and Jane and assistance from Jen. Covid19 has affected some planned programs. Nevertheless there have been sessions at the market and working with the Harrietville School.  There have been educational sessions about the impacts of land degradation through gold mining, the importance of invasive weed control and the role regeneration plays in improving riparian zones and river health.

 

Market
 

We are continuing of course with our stall at the Bright Make it, Bake it, Grow it market thanks in particular to Rob Duncan’s enthusiasm.  It has been off and on during the various stages of Covid19 restrictions.  This is a great opportunity to promote Landcare so please drop in, and we can always use the help if you have time. 

 

Membership 
 

Membership is the core of Landcare. The funds are used to pay for administering the group and supplementing projects where we need to.  It’s also important that we have a registered base of supporters for communication and influence and of course getting things done for the environment. In 2020/21 we had about 100  financial members which is the highest membership for some time and may indeed be a record!

 

What have we learnt and where to from here?
 

We will have two new projects in 21/22: Murray Darling Healthy Rivers Program for weed control and revegetation on the Ovens Riparian area between Bright and Germantown and a Living with Deer project.  Added to Stage 3 of the Ovens/Buckland Confluence and the Omeo Gum threatened Species project we will four new and active projects this year along with likely involvement in the DELWP/NECMA EC5 program.  Our volunteer capacity is being stretched.  We will need project management support. We aren’t equipped to be an employer, so we are exploring other options to support our committee and members.

The other issue for us has continued to be dealing with the damage that deer and wallaby browsing affects the success of our revegetation works. The large corflute  “beast guards” have been more effective but we do worry about the use of plastics on a large scale.  We need to look at new approaches to protecting trees and continuing to revisit previous sites for monitoring and maintenance.

There is so much to do to continue to help restore the damaged Riparian areas in particular of the Upper Ovens and work with landowners over some issues such as managing the impact of feral deer. 
We will continue our limited activities program aligned with whatever the current restrictions are until we get back to “Covid normal”. The focus will be on starting up our 4 new projects and revisiting the past planting areas to do some maintenance, weeding, remove guards where needed, put up some new signs and evaluate how they are going. 
Thanks to the committee for all their support during what has been again a difficult year, in particular Gavin who was secretary and now left that role and Jane who assisted. Thanks to Jen for stepping in and acting as secretary until we have a new committee.
I welcome the new Committee and wish them all the best.
Peter Jacobs
President
Upper Ovens Valley Landcare
0487 295198
secretaryuovlg@gmail.com