Leaf litter, little critters, and preventing bushfires - whoda thunk it!

A missive of interest from Denis at The Nature of Robertson.  

This might not sound interesting to you, at first, but I am sending it as there is a Castlemaine connection.

However, on one of my Moth weekends at CSIRO last year, one of the scientists there told me had done a study on the importance of insects which break down leaf litter, as a key ingredient to fire protection strategies.

Hint. If you kill off these micro-critters, the leaf litter builds up, and you end up with a huge amount of what the Firies refer to as "fuel".

in other words, if you do not destroy the micro-organisms, the bush stays healthy, and burns less often or less "hot".

Anyway. you might be able to get hold of the book, or follow up this woman some time.

As an example of the hidden, unseen, things which silently chew away at stuff, here is just one of my Fungi photos with minute creatures living inside it.

They are not "insects" - wrong number of legs.

Technically arthropods.

Doesn't matter how or why, it is just exciting that somebody has written a book about such a topic, and managed to get it published.

All power to her, I say.

• those arthropods are "springtails" - look like minute "Slaters", but in fact they are less than 1/10th the size of a "slater" - photo attached jst for interest.

Denis

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Explorations for the curious

I've recently enjoyed introducing a range of people to Rachel Tonkin's Leaf Litter (Harper, 2006) 

The large format picture book has 14 double-page paintings depicting the diversity of life, action, death and life cycles amongst the leaf litter typical of southern Australia's temperate woodlands. 

Tonkin is based in Castlemaine so the species she's accurately shown are familiar. The range of species is enhanced by lift-the-flap excitement on each page and ten additional challenges for the observant to find are listed ahead of the excellent glossary. Below each page a detailed text suggests and explains features for searches and sharing both above and below ground level.  

Leaf Litter  is a beautiful book and a colourful way to convince people that rather than being dead, drab and lifeless, leaf litter is teaming with nutrient-generating organisms from microbes to invertebrates and reptiles, frogs and small mammals. Foraging birds enter each scene. Plants' form and seasonal changes give each painting structure with an ancient eucalypt focussing attention on textures and natural patterns. 

The paperback edition is available from the Botanical Bookshop for $18 and opens out nearly as well as the original hardback copies. Leaf Litter  is an ideal introduction to the vitality and essential nature of soil and an affirmation that we cannot afford to destroy the ground layer of the land.

                     It's also available online through Booktopia,

Rosemary Blemings

Related articles

• Leaf litter and soil protect acorns from prescribed fire

  ---

• Does leaf-litter decomposition reveal health of Europe's streams?

  ---

• Leaves indicate river health

  ---

• Importance of Leaf Litter

  ---

Planting fruit trees in Castlemaine!

Castlemaine! Castlemaine! Castlemaine!

Networker Julia has beein in touch.

Here's what she says:

Hi All,

Just a quick message today.

Fruit trees in the street

The group of Castlemaine community gardeners planting fruit trees on the nature strips is meeting every Saturday at 2pm while this good tree planting weather continues.

This Saturday, 8 August, we will be in Lyttleton Street (up from Urquhart Street). Bring heavy tools or just come along and give your support! The more the merrier!

For more details – or if you have a bit of nature strip that needs some fruiting trees for the future – please phone Andrew on 0408369097.

Enjoy the rain,

POST SCRIPT

Saturday morning

Fruit Tree Planters!

After some discussions with Council regarding roadside management and their streetscape planning it has been decided to hold off on this week’s planting in Lyttleton St to allow some input from Council staff.

We will still meet in the Lyttleton St area Saturday at 2pm to visit some prospective sites for planting this season.

We are of the view that Food Trees should be a part of any streetscape planting and will make that point to Council. We are also aware that many people plant and manage their own nature strip (and have done for many years) and feel that food trees are a real asset with a potential to be more and more important for food, shade and aesthetics.

So we will see you tomorrow and keep you informed of our future plans and activities.

Castlemaine Permablitz

Click to enlarge

Greetings!

There's been a lot of discussions about community gardening and how we all can be sustainable within our own communities - with that in mind, i write to invite you to the very exciting forming of Castlemaine Permablitz!

Driven by Hamish MacCallum, of Meridian Land Designs, the group aims to intergrate a diverse amount of people from Castlemaine's amazing community - by way of sharing knowledge and skills about edible, sustainable organic food gardens and coming together as a community to bring food gardening to people's doorsteps.

The following is a direct quote from Permablitz Melbourne :

Permablitz Defined

Permablitz (noun): An informal gathering involving a day on which a group of at least two people come together to achieve the following:
create or add to edible gardens where someone lives
share skills related to permaculture and sustainable living
build community networks
have fun
Permablitzes are free events, open to the public, where you learn a lot, share food, get some exercise and have a wonderful time."

The idea is that anyone who comes along and adds their assistance, in whatever capacity, for 3 permablitzes is eligible to put their hand up for a permablitz in their own backyard :o)

there'll also be on the spot tutorials on the day:
- how to construct a bushpost fence,
- using swales in vegie gardens,
- pruning fruit trees
- planting out an orchard,
and many more.

The first Permablitz here in Castlemaine will be at 101 Duke St, Castlemaine (2 doors from Wesley Hill Bakery) onSunday 2 August from 10am to 5pm

All welcome, vegetarian and vegan food provided.

Castlemaine Permablitz

many thanks and blessings to you,
Jika Mills.
0431 283 052
jika@theblessingtree.net

Carol, Commons, Community and the Castlemaine Forest

Picture from here

Brisbane Dateline

Networker Carol McDonough of Castlemaine in Victoria drew this site to my attention. Carol and I, along with Mikael Smith and Elyse Rider are, on behalf of GreenFaith Australia, doing a panel presentation at the Oceania Conference of the International Association of Community Development in Brisbane.

Our presentation is titled Taking Down The Fences. We will be discussing communally held resources and their protection by bringing to them modern economic, community, and resource management techniques.

Carol was doing some local research about the Lodden River when she came across the Forestwatch site and Hancock's role in destroying our forest and making its own unique contribution to climate change.

<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Brisbane Dateline</span> <div style="text-align: justify;">Networker Carol McDonough of Castlemaine in Victoria drew <a href="http://www.hancock.forests.org.au/index.htm#content_top">this site</a> to my attention. Carol and I, along with Mikael Smith and Elyse Rider are, on behalf of GreenFaith Australia, doing a panel presentation at the Oceania Conference of the <a href="http://www.iacdglobal.org/">International Association of Community Development in Brisbane.</a> Our presentation is titled <span style="font-style: italic;">Taking Down The Fences</span>. We will be discussing communally held resources and their protection by bring to them modern economic, community, and resource management techniques. Carol was doing some local research about the Lodden River when she came across the Forestwatch site and Hancock's role in destroying our forest and making its own unique contribution to climate change. </div> <a href="http://antar.org.au/no_to_racism_online"><img src="http://antar.org.au/sites/default/files/images/150x150-circle.jpg" alt="racism-free" width="90" height="90" /></a>
Common Pool Resources (CPRs), to give The Commons a more up-to-date nomenclature, are land, water, air, roads and routes, oceans, fisheries, wildlife, beaches and coastlines, forests and - some people would add - mainframe computers and the internet. All can be easily lost if we, as communities, do not value them and manage them well for our communal benefit. Lost? Yes, lost to people like Hancock's: lost for privatised, corporate profit, lost from community enjoyment and benefit, lost from communal regulation.

It is the destruction of the forest which is at the heart of global warming and carbon emissions which we struggle to control without forests. Major de-forestation has taken place across the world - and particularly in the tropical rainfoests of the Amazon, Indonesia, Melanesia which are to the Earth as lungs and kidneys are to our bodies.

Re-afforestation and forest restoration are not high on humanity's agenda - and they need to be.
More on this later.

And if you want to to meet the GreenFaith Australia crew and hear about The Commons and Common Pool Resources, please be at the IACD Conference next Saturday afternoon 20 June at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.