Sales are continuing slowly. We have offered free copies to communities touched by February’s fires and requests for these also are continuing, through Grampians Community Health. We’ve also had requests to use images and stories in various publications and even a church service in Advent. All of which we’ve freely granted. Brambuk continues to stock books, and I do mail orders. Profits are shared between FOGG , the SHARE appeal and GCH. … Read the rest
Category: Articles
WEBSITE NEWS
We continue to get regular inquiries , some easy some tricky. Students wanting help with assignments, requests for Beyond the Smoke books, complaints about weeds, requests for help with contacts for cultural activities, requests for ideas for walks, updates on walking track status …. It’s clear that we must be saving the Park quite some time, and we hope filling a need and raising our profile.… Read the rest
RED GUM WALK UPDATE DECEMBER 2009
The walk is now a short loop then straight out and return walk to the massive fallen tree we used to walk through. The new signs are in, but the replacement table is still under construction.… Read the rest
THREATENED SPECIES GROUP ACTIVITIES last quarter 2009
Weather has interrupted several of the planned excursions. Rain caused a hasty end to the spiral sun orchid survey of September 24th, but not till after a new patch was discovered – but no flowers to be seen.
Hot weather then caused the cancellation of several other searches for borya and pimelea.… Read the rest
INSECT TALK November 11 2009
In November Denis Crawford treated us to a fascinating and entertaining photo-talk on our insect life. We are lucky to have such a keen entomologist living locally who is happy to share his knowledge in a way that is relevant to us in our daily encounters with ……. Insects!
Denis is a regular contributor to Gardening Australia and Co-author of Backyard Insects.
Did you know that less than 1% of our insects are pests – out of the more than 85,000 species known in Australia? Maybe it will be a surprise to learn that half of these are beetles and moths, and approx. half feed on plants.
We also learnt that beetle species were one of our 1st important pollinators and that termites have been around for about 25 million years, diversifying their feeding as grasses then flowering plants developed? (I think I have that more or less right)….
As … Read the rest
GRAMPIANS WILDFLOWER SHOW 2009
h2. October 1 to 4
Another activity which is not actually FOGG, but which couldn’t survive without the support of our members. Once again the feedback from the visitors was excellent; we had to turn people away from our excursions – particularly the orchid ones. Numbers showed a very slight increase on last year’s. As well as the flowers, we had displays from DSE, Project Platypus Landcare and the Catchment Management Authority, plus a display to mark the 25th birthday of the GNP. Some of the posters are in this issue, and some will appear in future issues.
HOWEVER, along with many other community groups, the WFS is vulnerable. Volunteers are aging, particularly the knowledgeable ones – the younger folk are so busy with their jobs and businesses; there is concern about how to collect specimens sustainably and keeping to the regulations etc. The WFS committee is planning to meet … Read the rest
WIMMERA BIODIVERSITY DAY September 3 2009
Once again a most interesting day. I would strongly recommend every FOGG member who can possibly make it to keep this annual event in your diary. The first Thursday in September usually.
This year we had a mix of news from the field, and news about highly relevant political actions. Field Topics covered a report on bird surveys across the Wimmera (including in our GNP),managing river health, threatened orchids in the field and also under propagation, and the importance of fungi.
Other talks were on how the state of the environment report is put together, the intricacies of where those carbon offsets you pay for actually go, and on the Wimmera Mallee Sustainability Alliance.
Several of us took notes, but rather than reproducing it here, I suggest you log on to the Wimmera CMA’s website as their newsletter is due very soon and should contain reports.… Read the rest
GENERAL MEETING FOGG SEPTEMBER 12, 2009. (Following the AGM)
# Donation to the Mammal Survey Group, who have lost all their equipment in the February bush fires. Moved that we donate $1,000 to the group. Also to inform them that member Proo Pyke is willing to donate them sets of bird books to sell for fundraising if they are interested.
# Frank van der Peet to be congratulated on our excellent website.
# FOGG PHOTOS . We decided to purchase a portable hard disk to be kept in our volunteers room on which we can store members’ photos from events. Budget of $200. Frank to be requested to source it.
# A list was made of items we need to discuss with Graham and Mike (including progress on the volunteers room, follow up to Mike’s small mammal research, deer research, the proposed Long Distance Walk, Brush tailed rock- wallabies ….)
# PROGRAMME FOR 2010. Mostly on the 2nd Saturday … Read the rest
FOGG AGM 12TH SEPTEMBER 2009
VENUE; Picnic Area Mirranatwa Gap, the same place as the inaugural FOGG meeting in 1984.
PRESENT: Eleven members.
Apologies: Five members, including our president due to ill health. Thus no President’s report.
ELECTION OF OFFICE BEARERS
There were no changes this year, but it was agreed that there would be next year, as we do want to encourage some turnover.
President: Stan Parfett
Vice Pres: Proo Pyke
Secretary: Frank vd Peet
Treasurer: Kathy McDonald
Editor: Margo Sietsma
Public officer: Kathy McDonald
TREASURER’S REPORT.
Summary. Our closing bank balance is $5,424 . Income over the year has been mainly membership and donations totalling $1095, with some money still coming in from the sale of Beyond the Smoke books. Other donations have come in from Auswalk and from the company selling the soundtrack of the Brambuk installation. Outgoings mainly postage and donations to bushfire affected rangers ($500) and to the VNPA’s Jenny … Read the rest
ADVISORY GROUP REPORT December 2009
The AG has met once since the last newsletter, on Dec 1. Our main discussion was about the bush camping strategy as Graham indicates above. How do we balance public expectations with the environmental concerns over clearing, human waste issues, illegal fires and safety considerations?
We also congratulated Sylvia on her promotion and wished John Harris well on his retirement.
Our next meeting is the too-often deferred trip to Wilson’s Prom NP in February. We hope no fires this year.
I also represented the AG at the reopening of the Pines Plantation campground, which marked the end of all the fire recovery work.
I also attended a pre-fire season conference with Parks, DSE, CFA and Police. Stan was there too as FOGG representative. We looked at some of the autumn burns and some of Mike’s survey sites and discussed some of the issues. As the AG convenor I was there … Read the rest