Clearing the trails

The big storms of Spring combined with persistent rain to bring down many mature trees right across Riddell. It was the rain as much as anything that did it: as the soil turned to mush, the root systems have less grip, and those enormous wind gusts catch the leafy canopy and drag the tree over.

I marvelled at the speed with which Council trucks arrived to a couple of trees across Gap Road. An hour after I called one in, multiple chainsaws were buzzing and a chipper churning through the leafy branches. The crew took 20 minutes on the job and the road was safe again. I was a lot slower getting over with my chainsaw to Barrm Birrm, the bushland above Gap Road that Landcare looks after. The trail bikers don't stop to think about the damage they do to the fragile surface of soil, grasses and shrubs when they encounter a fallen tree. They simply rip a new trail around any obstacle. It's heart breaking to new tracks growing, for each will surely erode as the rains carry the loosened soil away.

I cleared a couple of trails, throwing the litter back over the detour, to push the bikers back to the established line. Keeping going at work like this requires stubbornness. You have to press on despite ignorance and rules, and staying hopeful is the key. Last week we had a balance of encouraging and discouraging events.

Down on the Rail Reserve, David Francis continued the springtime monitoring of the donkey orchids that he and Russell Best started in 2009. This year's showing is 26 plants at 5 locations, down from a peak of 129 plants at 7 locations in 2010. Funding from State Government has allowed us to get a contractor to spray the weeds around these locations, and this will open up the environment for this endangered orchid (go to natureshare.org.au and search for diuris punctata - it's a spectacular orchid). David found a big growth of Acacia melanoxylon plants, with many new seedlings within or adjacent to the orchid, so we'll need to pull these out.

But good news too - he waited patiently in a spell of warm weather, and finally got a photo of the insect that pollinates this orchid. It is Lasioglossum (Chilalictus) spp. - a small native bee. See David's photo on natureshare.org.au.  Knowing the pollinator means we can make sure the vegetation that bee feeds on is in good supply in the area, so the bees are around to visit the orchid.

The discouragement cam with discussing our Galenia eradication program with Macedon Ranges Shire. We survey Riddell each year to locate this highly invasive weed, then spray it. We've been doing this since 2009, and this year, our application to Macedon Ranges Shire for $1500 to cover the cost of a weed contractor was met with questions about our contractor's preferred mix of herbicides. With its metre long taproot, Galenia is a difficult weed to kill, but a mix of two herbicides does the job.

Turns out the mix may be illegal without a special permit, and the cost of the permit may take the budget available for spraying the weed, plus time on the paperwork to get the permit! We'll have to see. In the meantime, the only alternative to spraying is digging. If you have a strong arm and a crowbar, give us a call - we may end up using $1500 to do the job manually!

Ross Colliver, Riddells Creek Landcare, ross.colliver@bigpond.com