With a second wet spring, the weeds have sprung away at ImLal.  We have been trying for months to get both sites sprayed with a cocktail to knock off the grass but not the trees and shrubs. The spraying finally took place at the end of April.
     Macspred provided advice as to the cocktail of herbicides to apply for weed control on each site.
    In ImLal South, we were facing a high content of flat weeds and emerging blackberries; whereas in ImLal North there was a  high content of grasses (pictured). 
    On the north site, the mix applied by the spraying company, Jensans,  was Halomac and Simazine with Brushwet . Clomac was added to the mix in the south site where tree and shrub growth is more advanced. 
                                                                                             It will be interesting to see how much collateral damage there is.

Diana Lloyd, a Southern Cross University lecturer is running a sustainable forestry unit and one fine April morning she brought a group of students to visit.  A number of the students work with such forestry 'heavy hitters' as Australian Paper, and the Victorian government agencies of DSE and DPI.  Two employees from Australian Paper bought copies of Recreating the Country and said they could see how such plantations might suit mining site rehabilitation. 

Diana Lloyd reported the students thought the biorich plantation concept was "impressive." They commented on the importance of maintaining the purity of the biorich design. 

"Some would have preferred that species like the redwood weren’t part of the plan," she said.

Even though we missed out in this round of Communities for Nature (CFN) grants, we will continue monitoring –  both of plant growth via Ballarat Uni and through bird surveys with Tanya Loos. At our last bird survey last Sunday, the group saw three new species – migratory rather than living within the plantation, I hasten to add.

CfN grants seem mainly focused on expanding revegetation areas, rather than the mundane matters of management.  We were pleased to see that the Regent Honeyeater project in NE Victoria was a major recipient. It's a shining example of a community of landholders creating connected habitat in the Lurg Hills near Benalla to bring back an essential 'food stop' for an endangered migratory bird species. We went on a field trip there last spring, which Steve Murphy wrote up and was published in Australian Forest Grower magazine last summer (Vol 34/4).