Last Updated: 16 November 2006.
Like to help care for our bit of river?
Our Environment House/Friends of Maylands Peninsula Foreshore (FoMPF) workbees are advertised by email about aweek in advance. (Plans are made according to weather forecasts.) There's no obligations - no guilts, if you get a better offer! Just RSVP if you think you can probably make it but no drama if you don't show up. We don't mind about emailing 100 people and having any dozen turn up! Email brenda@environmenthouse.org.au with 'Add me to FoMPF email list' in subject line.
A good little work bee down at our bit of river.
Brenda Conochie, Sunday 4 Feb 2006
We had a good little work bee this morning. Bruce, Annamaria, Maggie, Alan, Lyn, Rob and I met at 8.30am (early because it was going to be hot) at the Maylands Boat Ramp, near the Police Academy, and headed downstream to the "175th anniversary plantation" - the 750 trees and shrubs we planted on Foundation Day 2004. See species list and photos.
The survival rate has been pretty encouraging - around 80%. Around 500 were our Casuarina obesa (swamp she-oaks) grown out the back of Environment House from seed collected down at the river.
Liberating our young trees from their plastic protection
Our first task was to remove the green plastic protective jackets with their thin wooden spikes from most of the trees and shrubs - the ones that are now big enough to be spotted by Council mowers.
It was a great feeling seeing the young trees and shrubs spread their wings freely without the plastic. It was a bit like taking the trainer wheels off your kid's bike! We were keen to preserve the plastic for future plantings so getting them up and off the prickly Hakea prostrata without wrecking the plastic was quite an operation.
Not Weeding!
Some of us were keen to weed, aware that the public might think they should be 'tidied up', but others convinced us that it would be silly in this dry weather, as the weeds really do help retain moisture where it's needed. We also left the plastic jackets on where the weeds were high, so Rob can spot them when he's whippersnipping around our trees in patches where Council can't easily mow.
So if you go down in the woods today, you'll understand why things are left the way they are! Local resident Lyn said she thinks we should get a sign made that explains who planted these trees and why we have left some jackets on and not weeding in summer.
Collecting Seed
The other task was to collect seed, so we stripped handfuls of rough dry brown flowers from the Juncus kraussii rushes near the water's edge. These will be planted and cared for in our wetland nursery out the back of Environment House, then taken back to the river and planted in strategic locations in about a year's time.
A Friendly Finish to the Morning
At 10 0'clock we gathered up all the gear and made our way upstream to the fenced-in little brick building in the public open space off Hardey Rd. We finished off with a cool juice, a hot cuppa and a yarn on the shady verandah, grateful for the use of this little clubhouse.
Last Year and the year before...
2004-05 Seed collection, propagation, planting and weed control
We have continued to replant sedges along the Maylands foreshore of the Swan River throughout the year. Plants grownat Environment House from seed collected along the foreshore, and replanted at the Maylands foreshore have included ~2000 x 40 mm cells of Schoenoplectus validus and 10,000 cells of Juncus kraussii. A further 2000 mature Juncus kraussii dislodged by erosion - mostly after days of heavy boat wash - were collected by canoe and re-planted along the Maylands foreshore. Less than half (but still a worthwhile number) of these replants have survived their ordeal.
A couple of dozen two year old Casuarina obesa were provided to Council for the planting of the public open space off Hardey Rd. We gathered up a team of keen tree-planters to help Council workers on that day. 35 local provenance freshwater melaleucas also grown at Environment House (to 1.2 metres tall) were also planted on the small isthmus off Ascot Island in consultation with Belmont City Council. 20 Marri trees (to 1.2 metres) grown from Maylands foreshore seed at Environment House were donated to the Friends of Blackadder Creek for revegetation projects in the Midland area. A group of us also enjoyed a day helping Friends of Blackadder Creek to plant around their wetland area and were looked after with a nice BBQ lunch.
Maintenance of the 175 Anniversary Plantation (now known as the 'one-seven-five') has continued throughout the year. This maintenance mostly comprises brushcutting, weeding and re-erecting protective plastic. Some of this work has been done with the Friends of Maylands Peninsula Foreshore group - which Environment House sponsors. With all the revegetation work, we have consulted with the City of Bayswater's Environment Officer Jeremy Maher, and at times with the Manager of Parks and Gardens Charlie Casilli.
Lopping of weed seed heads:
Seeds from Watsonias adjacent to the samphire flat and other parts of the Maylands foreshore were collected and disposed to landfill to reduce the need for future herbicide use.
Clean Up Australia Day
Environment House again coordinated the clean-up of the Maylands Peninsula foreshore from East Street jetty around to the MaylandsBoat Ramp. 32 x 100 litre bags of rubbish were collected, mostly plastic bags and bottles.
7 June 2004: 175th Anniversary plantation
We are grateful for a grant of $2100 from the WA Government to mark our state's 175th birthday. Our celebration was a community planting on the Maylands foreshore, followed by a river trip on a little BBQ party boat. The idea was to plant trees and shrubs to help stabilise the riverbank, badly eroded by heavy boat wash, downstream of the Maylands Boat Ramp. (Last year we collected seed from salt sheoaks - Casuarina obesa - and had planted and raised thousands of seedlings behind the shop.) For a few weeks before the 7 June planting day, we put some baby casuarinas (common name is sheoaks) out the front of the shop with a sign calling for helpers to plant them.
26 people turned up on the morning - a wonderful friendly mix of ages and countries of origin - about the right number to put in 750 seedlings in a morning, then to enjoy a trip upstream in a hired BBQ party boat with a flat bottom, creating virtually no wash.
With the grant we also bought melaleuca and hakea seedlings to mingle with our casuarinas, and some great new planting gear - two Pottiputki planting tubes and two pairs of 'kidney baskets' with harnesses for carrying seedlings beyond wheelbarrow country. (This gear has been much-used since then in other planting projects down at the river.) It was a very satisfying Big Day Out and the survival rate of the seedlings has been around 80%, which is apparently very good! We are grateful to the City of Bayswater's Environment Officer Jeremy Maher for helping us plan the planting and to the friendly Parks and Gardens staff for 'working around us' in this area.
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