MARCH 2018……. MT ROGERS NEWS

Hazard Reduction Burn

March came in with a rush of activity when there were several reports of ground being cleared, branches sawn off trees, trees cut down and several of ‘our’ most treasured, centuries old Eucalypts having ribbons round their trunks.

It took Brian Bathgate, Mt Rogers’ Land Manager for TCCS, an hour or two to find out what was happening. The Fire Management Unit had begun preparations for a Hazard Reduction Burn (HRB) in the reserve without alerting the Land Managers, much less the reserve’s community.

There is a Brett McNamara article in this week’s Chronicle on page 7. It does not seem to explain what HRBs in our reserves are designed to achieve other than “to enhance, protect and conserve our beautiful bush capital”.

There was a HRB on the eastern side of Mt Rogers in August 2011. The currently planned burn is part of the broad ACT-wide schedule of HRBs. I put a map of the target area on the seat by the notice box. It shows that the burn will affect the vegetation between the track up from Jacob Place (Flynn) and the rocky track up from the notice box. I placed some Living with Fire brochures in the notice box and in residents’ letterboxes in adjacent streets.

Rachel’s visit

Rachel Tokley is Urban Volunteer Group Co-ordinator for TCCS. On Wednesday 7 March Rachel visited Mt Rogers for the first time and heard about our concerns. More importantly, she was really impressed with the place, the sense of community that we have and what we have achieved with your decades-long landcaring, erosion management, stewardship and species observations.

Since she has an extensive network of contacts within and beyond the ACT Government’s agencies, Rachel encourages us to report management issues to her, rachel.tokley@act.gov.au and ph. 0478 404 999. This would include the state of the path, the dumping of rubbish (e.g. those mattresses), fallen trees or branches.

Fix My Street is another, though online, reporting option.

The Rock Sign & a ‘garden’?

The Rock Sign has been tagged. Rachel has organised for the Graffiti Unit to remove the vandalistic paint-job and cover the rock surface with a clear ‘paint’ that makes graffiti easier to remove. If we planted some native daisies around the sign’s boulders, would those of you who come up by car be able to bring bottles of water to help the little plants establish? It’s a very exposed position of course but it might have been native grassland there 50–60 years ago. 
Here's the Rock Sign again, after its installation in December, in case you've not seen the photos in one of the blog posts further below. 

Clare

For the first part of Rachel’s visit we were accompanied by Clare from the Fire Management Unit. Clare took photos and GPS co-ordinates of areas and rarer native species that are especially sensitive to fire damage and important to us. Her camera was busy because this HRB will affect the most extensive high-to- reasonable quality woodland zones in the reserve.

The HRB needs to be a series of cool patch-burns as there are very few places where damage to habitats and ground-dwelling species can be avoided. The ancient trees are marked for special care and the ground has been cleared around them. HRBs are done to “reduce fuel load” but there are differences of opinion between ecologists and fire management personnel especially surrounding the effects and frequency of burns. At least this target area hasn’t been burned officially for 40–50 years or more.

There have been visible HRBs in Namadgi in the past 10 days. Residents should be notified of the pending HRB with signs going up at entrances to Mt Rogers.

Weeding

The Sunday 25 February working bee against the Tree of Heaven infestation was rained out as the spectacular dump of 92+ mL hit the region. On Monday 5 March Phil and I moved through the bush east of the notice box pulling or cutting & daubing scores of young woody weeds. We ‘extrapolated’, from what we found, that there’s plenty of similar work throughout the reserve should anyone feel so motivated! As usual the weeds we found originated from berries carried into the reserve from garden plants. One stranger that I dug out turned out to be a young Asparagus Fern. The well watered ground made our work relatively easy.

Koels departing…less one from Fraser

This last week has been quiet in most areas of the ACT as the Koels begin their migration out of the region. Red Wattlebirds, Noisy Friarbirds and Honeyeaters also move away. April is the time of traditional Honeyeater migrations through the river corridors with thousands of several species passing through to warmer places. Small groups of these migrating species may pass through Mt Rogers.

One fledgling Koel won’t be migrating. Hayward found the injured chick on the edge of Mt Rogers and carefully took it home. It was after-hours. Ruth emailed a “what to do?" message but I didn’t receive it before they’d taken the little bird to the 24-hour Gungahlin Veterinary Hospital. The vet said it had ‘neurological damage’ and would need to be euthanased.

As Koels are still newcomers to ‘Canberra’ I thought the Australian National Wildlife Collection would be interested in the bird as a specimen. I phoned the clinic-hospital and the staff, understanding the situation, agreed to put the corpse in their freezer. I collected the surprisingly small bird and, a few days later, took it to the ANWC at Gungahlin.

The efforts of probable Wattlebird parents in raising the young cuckoo won’t be wasted as it is now in the research collection. The Injured Wildlife Hotline is 0432 300 033 and Website www.actwildlife.net.

Lyndon’s Red-Capped Robin

Mt Rogers bird- and wildlife-watching identity, Lyndon, made news on the COG (Ornithologists’ group) email line recently. He ended up with a Red-Capped Robin on his cap whilst photographing at Yerrabi Pond, Gungahlin. Steve W was on hand with a quick photo. The robins are also seasonal migrants. The story and photo are in the blog-post below this one, and the photo is repeated here.

Working Bees

The next working bee is on Sunday 25 March, meeting at the Wickens Place carpark at 09.00 am. We’ll try again for another assault on the Tree of Heaven. Monday 1 April’s a holiday.

Rosemary, Convenor
Mt Rogers Landcare Group  
6258 4724.    
16.03.18.