TINformation December 2011
Members & Volunteers
It’s that time of year when preparations for reviewing the last 12 months are in full swing. Here at TIN that means planning for our Annual General Meeting and end of year gathering is underway.
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TIN’s End Of Year Party
Friday 9th December 2011, 7-10.30pm, Croatia-Wickham Sports Club
The End of Year Party is a chance to celebrate the successes and share the joys of community camaraderie.
All volunteers, members and friends of TIN are welcome to come along for an evening of nattering over nibbles, partaking of pizza, having a bash at bowls and sharing a smile as the Annual Awards are distributed.
RSVP to TIN to assist in the catering. enquiries@treesinnewcastle.org.au, or phone 4969 1500
TIN’s Annual General Meeting
Friday 9th December 2011, 6-7pm, Croatia-Wickham Sports Club Boardroom
This year the AGM will be held in the Boardroom of the Croatia Wickham Sports Club. It will happen on Friday 9th December from 6-7pm and all financial members are welcome to come along. You can even renew your membership prior to the meeting.
Details of the agenda and the nomination process can be found here
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Surveying Satisfaction
TIN has been around since 1989 and from volunteer-based beginnings has grown to a credible small business providing plants, bush regeneration services and volunteer opportunities for people of the Lower Hunter.
We’d like to know about what do you think about us? The technology to effortlessly gather your thoughts is at hand with this short online survey. Your input will help us to keep relevant to our members, provide food for thought as the restructure progresses and help to make sure we are delivering a great community service.
Restructuring TIN
TIN’s Committee has been working through a restructuring of the organisation to ensure TIN’s sustainable survival into the future. The process has been long and involved and included workshop sessions, the development of a comprehensive budget and many discussions about available scenarios.
A restructure document outlining the possible options has been developed. The staff and volunteers have been briefed on the implications. Unfortunately some redundancies of long term TIN employees are highly likely.
The TIN Committee has been very careful to ensure that guidelines provided under the Modern Awards have been followed and open communication flows encouraged between all people connected to TIN.
The restructuring process will commence in 2012.
We would like to thank you in advance for your understanding and patience over the next few months whilst the operational changes are implemented.
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Education
Farewell Jenny
Jenny Robinson will be packing up her trowel and mini mattock and saying farewell to her time at TIN on Tuesday 13th December.
Jenny has been instrumental in establishing and supporting landcaring in schools across the Lower Hunter, working extensively with schools in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie over the past decade. Jenny’s knowledge about what it takes to get lasting on ground outcomes within a school environment has made her a valuable and accessible resource. Jenny will be greatly missed.
The final L4Y meeting at the Landcare Resource on 13/12/11, 3.45-5pm will be an opportunity to share some time with Jenny, acknowledge her expertise and commitment to enhancing biodiversity in schools.
RSVP’s to the L4Y meeting can be sent to education@treesinnewcastle.org.au
L4Y Update
Environmental Trust Funding for the L4Y program in its current incarnation will finish at the end of Term 4 this year. The project has provided 89 youth-based groups with plants, advice and inspiration to undertake on ground projects.
School students from tertiary to kindergarten, preschoolers, scouts and guides, 8,500 of them, have planted over 22,000 local native plants in the past three years. The plantings have assisted in improving habitat for the local wildlife reducing the impacts of stormwater through filtering sediment and enhancing biodiversity by replacing weeds. There has been an abundance of bushtucker gardens created, a few frog ponds and many a shade tree planted enhancing the urban forest across Lake Macquarie.
A swag of resources has been developed and are available on the Tools 4 Schools page on TIN’s website and soon also on the Lake Macquarie Landcare Network’s site. We have also been able to gather two class sets of planting tools for groups to use, one set to be housed at the LRO and another in at Trees In Newcastle.
The L4Y school and youth groups that have been a part of L4Y over the past three years included 16 High Schools, 58 Primary Schools, 5 preschools, 3 K-12 Institutions and 7 other youth groups.
More news and recent events about the L4Y program are in the L4Y Forum Term 4 2011 newsletter.
The Hunter Region Waterwatch program produces a regular newsletter The Water Watcher
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In the Nursery
Summer opening hours
Trees In Newcastle will be closed for plant sales from Tuesday 27th December until Monday 2nd January inclusive.
TIN’s volunteer program will have a hiatus from 23/12/11 until 17/1/12.
I’m dreaming of a green & wet Christmas
The 28-day rainfall forecast for the Hunter has 17 of the days in December expecting some rain, 8 of which could be high rainfall days. This is great news if you would like to give some greenery as gifts.
TIN’s Community nursery is overflowing with attractively priced plants of all shapes and sizes.
There are plants that can be dressed to impress as Christmas trees, plants that can be draped for table decoration, plants that would look great in a pot and we even have native bonsais.
What is looking fantastically superb at the moment are the Cottage Garden collections, small ground covers and shrubs, great for replacing weeds and grass and the oft missed bit of biodiversity that makes all the difference in getting great bugs in your garden too. There are even some compilations of 4 plants for $5 available.
If you’re unsure of what to give, a gift voucher for plants or membership or both is available.
We also have blank cards, with beautiful pictures on the front that can easily transform into Christmas cards and for the plant enthusiast Native or Weed Pick the Difference books, Volume 1 and 2.
Why not give a gift that gives twice. All purchases at TIN go towards supporting our mission.
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Giving and Growing
TIN as a not-for- profit (profit-for-purpose) organisation has at its core a commitment to protect, promote and enhance local native vegetation and support people with a passion for plants.
Our environmental charter has enabled us to become registered for Deductible Gift Recipient status, that means we can accept donations, which are tax deductible for the donor.
The process of gift giving to TIN has recently been made as easy as possible through the secure GiveNow website. This online donations facility does not accept any money for the service, 100% of the donation will be deposited directly into TIN’s Public Fund.
If you give a gift to TIN for the greater greening glory you will receive a receipt, straight in to your inbox, within moments of making the donation.
Details about how the donated funds will be utilised are all on TIN’s GiveNow page and on our website
It’s GiveNow Week across the country and if you’re looking for ideas about giving this is a handy site to visit.
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Beneficial Bugs in the Garden
One of TIN’s frequent visitors to the Community Nursery is Maree McCarthy of Nature’s Magic Garden Designs. She describes TIN as a ‘little known about treasure’. We do our best to supply Maree with local native plants to showcase her creativity.
Maree has provided some great photos and information on the ‘good guys’ of the garden. From Maree…
I like to spread the word about insects because they are so important - and it helps people accept them and think before they use sprays.
The Dragonfly was photographed just a month ago on an Indigofera australis in my garden. Dragonflies are fascinating - there are many myths and legends associated with them! Did you know that in Burma they are introducing a local Dragonfly species to the local waterways there and have found they have made a huge difference controlling Malaria? Dragonflies are great at eating mozzies - as larvae in the ponds, as well as flying adults. In early colonial days in Australia, they were called 'Horse Flies' and it was thought they were biting horses. However, the Dragonflies were actually swarming around the horses because they were eating the insects that were biting the horses!
Dragonflies do not bite or sting people at all! But fish love eating baby Dragonflies like we love eating prawns - so fish-free ponds make great Dragonfly ponds in home gardens - and control mozzies really well!
Carabid Beetles are great for controlling Lawn Beetles and other pests. In the photo a Christmas beetle is being eaten.
Carabid Beetles look similar to pest beetles but have a larger thorax. Beetle spray kills them which is a shame because there are far fewer predators than prey!
The Fishing Net Spider was a beauty I photographed in my front garden a few years ago. I haven't seen such a pretty, velvety brown one since although I've seen other smaller, lighter coloured ones. They are very fascinating as they wait in ambush and throw their net over their prey to catch it!
The Hover Fly was on native flowers under the power lines in Glenrock a few weeks ago. They are great 
predators too (both larva and adult stages)!
Here is a fact sheet on Bugs and Biological Control I wrote listing some native plants (not all local though) that attract 'beneficials' and have other uses as well.
Trees In Newcastle also provides landscaping services to the community. Barb Nanshe will provide designs, local native plants and the people to plant them and even maintain the planting at very reasonable rates. Contact Barb at nursery@treesinnewcastle.org.au for more information
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Bush Regeneration
Prune a Pinus
Ever thought of giving the some local bushland a gift and scoring a Christmas Tree in the process ?
Pinus radiata is originally from California and grown in plantations as a softwood timber. Pinus radiata is considered a weed in local bushland, research has shown 
that Pine wildlings are invasive and they have the ability to alter the structure and species composition of native vegetation. They create a dense shade and favour the growth of weed seeds dropped by perching birds.
If you have the urge to be a rogue regenerator there are lots of Pinus that could do with a bit of pruning low to the ground.
Pine trees have been spotted creeping their way into bushland at the following locations
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Along Wangi Road, around the Eraring- Dora Creek area
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Hillsborough Rd, opposite Glendon School
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Near Finnan Oval, Grahamstown
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Back of Heatherbrae, around Masonite Rd
FeralScan
FeralScan is a project that brings best pest management and research expertise together with the support of Citizen Science. You can help map feral animals and the damage they cause. There are six projects currently on the go to map cane toads, feral pigs, rabbits, foxes, introduced myna birds and camels.
There are lots of resources and downloads available about your favourite Feral. You can record sightings, damage (or problems) and control activities for these pests and print a map of your local area. To find out more about these new websites or see the latest maps, visit www.feralscan.org.au. Other important information on pest animals is available via www.feral.org.au.
Rainfall across many regions over the past 12 months has allowed many pest populations to rise, and there is a need to map populations to help coordinate on-ground action. To date, over 8,500 sightings, damage and control records have been entered in FeralScan to help control feral pests and reduce the damage (problems) they cause. The more information added into FeralScan, the more useful it will become for anyone coordinating control of feral animals in your region.
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Have you heard about AABR?
The Australian Association of Bush Regenerators is the professional body guiding the burgeoning bush regeneration industry. TIN’s Bush Regeneration Manager Trisha Barker convenes the Hunter Sub-committee of AABR.
AABR produces a regular newsletter, which can be accessed from their website. A recent edition provided some exciting news for all of us who get awestruck by Acacias in August.
Following is a summary of the article, originally a transcript of the science show 30 July 2011
Unbeknownst to many there has been a botanical battle raging over the classification of Acacias. For a long time the Acacia genus was thought to contain 1,500 species from Australia, India, Africa and America.
Since the 1980s botanists have realised that the one huge group is actually five separate groups that are not closely related at all.
According to botanical naming protocols the group that contains the ‘type’ species after which the plants were originally identified gets to keep the name and the other groups have to change. The type species was of African and Indian origin, named Acacia nilotica.
For Australia this was a big issue with over 1000 of the 1500 known Acacias occurring in Australia. With such a large number of Australian species to be potentially renamed and implications for our national emblem and national sporting colours Australian botanists applied to have the type species moved to an Australian species Acacia penninervis. This was successful and means that Australian Acacias will remain Acacias and the African, American and other varieties of ‘acacia’ plants will have to be renamed.
TIN has some really great looking Acacias on the grow at the moment, lots of the smaller species as well as some of the larger ones. Wattles are great for fixing nitrogen and with their abundant flowers attract a plethora pollinators.
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Myrtle Rust
Have you noticed yellow blotches on your Bottlebrushes, Tea trees or Eucalyptus? You may have acquired Myrtle Rust; its spread is inevitable.
It’s a new fungus that gained local attention when it was discovered in bushland on the Central Coast late last year. It is now present on the eastern seaboard from the far South Coast to the Queensland border. It cannot be eradicated from Australia.
Here is a link to an information sheet about dealing with Myrtle Rust in your backyard. According to the Dept of Primary Industries “there are over 100 known naturally susceptible host species and this number is expected to rise”. There is a National Host list .
TIN making the missing link
Trees In Newcastle will be supporting property owners Pat and Marguerite Tierney to re-establish a Meleleuca biconvexa corridor on their properties thanks to the Raymond Borland Bequest and Landcare Australia.
The Tierneys have a genuine and ongoing commitment to regeneration of their land to enhance biodiversity and landcare outcomes. The Tierney’s property is part of a strategic corridor linking the sides of the Martinsville valley floor to the forested Watagans. Strengthening this corridor will facilitate flora and faunal movement across the valley and enhance the largest remnant area of Melaleuca biconvexa in the valley.
Project activities include seed collection, propagation and planting of local provenance species, weed control, fencing for stock exclusion, monitoring and reporting.
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