A bright future for Silver Banksias

Silver Banksia

The Australian Network for Plant Conservation and the newly formed Friends of the Forgotten Woodlands Inc, hosted a workshop on Friday at Lake Bolac about Silver Banksia, Banksia marginata. Coincidentally 24 February (1743), was the birthday of Sir Joseph Banks, after whom the genus banksia is named.

Over fifty people from far and wide representing landcare, CMAs, ARI, universities, VicRoads, Trust for Nature, DELWP, Wettenhall Foundation, propagators, seed collectors, landholders, Field Naturalists, Conservation Management Networks, Parks Victoria, consultants, committees for management and municipalities, gathered to hear about work to improve the future for silver banksia.  This meeting was the result of the hard work of a few interested parties and followed on from a much smaller meeting in March 2015  where attendees spent time mapping the remaining populations and discussing issues that have led to local extinctions.

Searching for the Story of Honeysuckle

Silver Banksia or Honeysuckle

At the Biodiversity Across the Borders Conference in Ballarat last Friday the theme was Biodiversity in Rural landscapes. Ian Lunt (Charles Sturt University) gave a great address entitled ‘From science to inspiration: 10 tips to promote ecological literacy and successful conservation in our communities’.

He spoke about telling better stories and about making our messages more visible. Ian gave several examples about the shapes our stories take  with the advice not to start on a negative note, to think of a positive headline, that positive messages get engagement and to hook the audience emotionally. You may like to read an engaging article by Ian, hot of the press from the latest edition off Park Watch, ‘Forgotten Woodland Future Landscapes’.

Bringing Back the Banksias, Sheoaks and Bursarias

Silver Banksia

Recently a meeting was held at Lake Bolac to determine  the interest in developing a project to bring  silver banksias, drooping sheoaks and sweet bursarias back into the landscape.  A wide range of participants attended which indicates  a great level of interest in this idea.

The event was facilitated by Russell Fisher who uses a range of techniques to gather information. He began by interviewing Bill Weatherly, a farmer with an interest in tree growing, and Martin Driver from the Australian Network for Plant Conservation, about their perspective on the issues involved in trying to re-establish the three keystone species.

Imagine how different the landscape would look if we could get more of these species back into the wider Victorian Volcanic Plains landscape. According to Martin there is wide interest in NSW for a similar project.