Loddon Plains Landcare Network

The Loddon Plains Landcare Network is up and running and looking forward to a great year in 2010! The Network has secured a $10,000 Second Generation Landcare Grant for use in what could be considered a practical and also symbolic network wide activity in Spring. The activity will involve up to 40 volunteers working with network members planting 2000 trees in four selected sites across the network. The executive is also currently developing a partnership proposal to submit to the Norman Wettenhall Foundation for funding.

The LPLN was formed at Serpentine on 11^th September 2009 at a meeting of interested participants from different natural resource management (NRM) groups across the Loddon Shire but primarily north of the hill country. Discussion was held concerning the composition of the network with the most favoured model being one in which the network should have a Working Group and an Executive.

The Working Group (made up of members from 9 NRM groups) agreed on a set of guiding principles for the network moving forward. A fundamental principle is that all groups must fully retain their individual identities.

The other agreed principles recognise that the network provides a critical mass of like-minded people in a defined geographic area who are provided with greater opportunities to:

· Achieve connectivity across the network’s landscape via both vegetation corridors and cultural heritage trails.

· Recognise, value and share local knowledge about both the natural environment and sustainable farming practices.

· Share the diverse skill base that all members bring.

· Attract public and private funding for on-ground works to improve the condition of the natural environment that are critical to the goals of both the broader network and the individual groups.

· Participate in research trials across different landscapes.

Network member groups to date include; Loddon Vale Landcare, Wychitella and District Landcare Northern United Forestry Group, Salisbury West Landcare, East Loddon Landcare, Wedderburn Conservation Management Network, Inglewood Landcare, Yando Landcare, Kamarooka and North Central Landcare. Friends of Kooyoora have also agreed to participate in the new network. It is expected that other landcare groups will join the network in the near future.

As mentioned above the Executive is in the process of working through a procedure with the Norman Wettenhall Foundation (NWF) that involves firstly the accumulation of information about the network’s area such as; demographics, the acquisition of reliable and informative mapping, environmental assets and the activities of member groups etc. If funding is obtained then in the next step a Project Officer would be appointed and an action blueprint assembled. From this blueprint the judicial selection of high priority asset areas is made, these high priority asset areas are termed “ecoships”. Further funding is then sought, with the aid of the NWF, for the adaptive management and development of these selected areas. The cyclic process then begins again anew until objectives set in the blueprint are achieved.

Article by Mal Brown and Michael Moore