The final L4Y word for 2011
As the end of the year rapidly approaches can you spend a few moments to let us know what you thought about L4Y?
L4Y Survey
If you have encouraged youth to participate in Landcare at your school or in your community we would love to hear from you. There is an online survey waiting for your input on the L4Y project.There are three prizes on offer for your feedback and thoughts on how it all went. By completing the survey your school or group will go into the draw for a Biodiversity Audit from LMCC or one of two sets of Ann Loughran’s best sellers, Native Plant or Weed –Pick the Difference.
Lake Macquarie City Council will continue to support L4Y in 2012 and this survey will help to inform what is needed to support youth based landcaring.
Click here to take the Survey
L4Y Network meeting
The final face to face L4Y networking session for the year took place on December 13th. Some of the highlights were:
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Optimism about the increase in support through Principals providing release time to implement Landcare projects
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Optimism about a change of culture within the schools as more teachers become engaged with avenues for art and construction projects being explored to support landcare indirectly.
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Optimism about the commitment of students to undertake long term projects
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Optimism about projects such as JobQuest that support disengaged youth and provide career path options with an environmental focus.
Farewell Jenny
Tuesday 13th December saw the end of an era at TIN with the departure of Jenny Robinson, TIN’s Education Manager. Jenny’s on-ground expertise and extensive knowledge has been instrumental in getting landcare firmly established in schools across the region.
TIN has been fortunate to be able to provide Jenny’s services for over a decade through the support of various funding agencies including Hunter Water, Hunter-Central Rivers CMA, LMCC, NCC and the Environmental Trust. Unfortunately the inability to secure appropriate funding has required the education program to be re-evaluated.
TIN is committed to community education and is investigating a sustainable model to ensure that TIN continues to raise awareness within the community about planting, regeneration, conservation and the protection of local native plants in the Hunter region.
L4Y & LMCC
Talks are underway at LMCC to maintain the momentum of the L4Y project and determine what support can be offered through the Sustainability Department to continue resourcing L4Y.
Discussions have included providing plants next year, making available in hardcopy the resources that have been developed, a training program for team leaders is proposed, an accreditation process to acknowledge on-ground work will be investigated, a landcare award will become part of the School Environment Awards and the L4Y Network will be supported.
Early in 2012 a L4Y Network gathering will be held to refine the goals of the group. The aim is to continue quarterly meetings and invite guest speakers and develop stronger linkages with like-minded groups and stakeholders.
L4Y signs can be collected from the Landcare Resource Centre.
Green Grands
Grandmothers and Grandfathers could be the secret to success of your next on-ground project.
St Marys-Gateshead have Gran Gwen on their team of Landcarers who cares for the schools vegetable garden with the students.
The vegetable garden at St Mary’s grows vegetables and herbs, which the Commerce class sell, with funds raised being donated to the charity of choice.
The joys of having a community elder on site are many. The students respond differently, there is a genuine respect which flows through to more restrained language and courtesy. Elders also have knowledge which they are more than happy to share and cultivate interest with those keen to learn.
Grants
Funding opportunities are open for Coles Junior Landcare Grants. Closing date is the 17th February
Since 2008 Coles has been providing School Garden Grants of up to $1,000 to schools and youth groups to help create gardens in their grounds or community, such as bush tucker gardens, water wise gardens or veggie gardens.
These programs encourage students to learn about the environment through “outdoor learning” and interaction in developing their own school gardens.
Resources
A free reputable Conservation Biology Textbook is available online.
Conservation Biology For All
Oxford University Press makes conservation biology textbook by some of the world's most prominent ecologists and conservation biologists available as free download
Conservation Biology for All provides cutting-edge but basic conservation science to a global readership. A series of authoritative chapters have been written by the top names in conservation biology with the principal aim of disseminating cutting-edge conservation knowledge as widely as possible. Important topics such as balancing conversion and human needs, climate change, conservation planning, designing and analyzing conservation research, ecosystem services, endangered species management, extinctions, fire, habitat loss, and invasive species are covered. Numerous text boxes describing additional relevant material or case studies are also included.
Features
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Provides an invaluable toolkit for a large and under-resourced audience of students in developing nations
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Includes contributions from the top names in conservation biology who have contributed specific "hot topics" including tropical deforestation, invasive species, climate change, and ecosystem functioning
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Addresses the key issues in conservation biology, clearly stating the challenges but also offering solutions