Lismore council’s rural field days filling up fast

PLACES in Lismore City Council's Rural Landholder field days are filling up fast and people are encouraged to book soon to secure a spot.

The next Lismore City Council landholder field day will be held on Ernie and Janice Taylor's Tregeagle macadamia farm. Photo: contributed. Picture: contributed

PLACES in Lismore City Council’s Rural Landholder Initiative field days are filling up fast and locals are encouraged to book soon if they want to be involved.

Throughout 2016, council is hosting 11 landholder field days for local farmers, producers and rural lifestyle landholders, and the first three field days were booked out well in advance.

Field days provide practical information on best practice land management, the benefits of having biodiversity in an agricultural landscape, and biological farming techniques.

Council has worked with rural landholders to undertake projects on 11 rural properties within the Lismore Local Government Area, and these are now being used as examples during the field days to illustrate practical methods for land and water restoration.

A range of educational materials have also been produced which provide landholders with a way of self-assessing whether their practices are dated, common practice, best practice or innovative.

“So far the response from landholders has been fantastic,” council’s Rural Extension Officer Kate Steel said.

“This isn’t about creating overnight change, but about providing landholders with the opportunity to talk to other landholders who live and work on the land about how they can progressively change outdated practices.

This is good for the environment and good for their bottom line.”

“It’s great to see landholders learning from one another and putting their heads together to create better outcomes for their own properties and farms, and our natural environment as a whole.”

The Rural Landholder Initiative is an integral part of Council’s Biodiversity Management Strategy and is designed to conserve biodiversity hotspots on private land through education and incentives.

The project has been funded by a $100,000 grant from the NSW Environment Trust and $50,000 from Council.

The next Rural Landholder Initiative field day is coming up on Thursday, June 2.

The Tregeagle Field Day – Macadamia Orcharding and Biodiversity will look at the staged removal of woody weeds including the ‘camphor conversion’ methodology and techniques, and revegetation with local native species.

“This workshop is designed for all orchardists and rural landholders with Big Scrub remnants on their property interested in gaining the benefits of managing biodiversity on a productive farm, creek line restoration, camphor laurel control and active revegetation,” Ms Steel said.

Landholders in the Tregeagle, Marom Creek, Chilcotts Grass and Lindendale areas are encouraged to attend.

The free field day will be hosted by Ernie, Janice and Steven Taylor on their macadamia orchard at Tregeagle.

The farming family are working towards a larger plan to restore the Boggy Creek catchment with the Tregeagle Landcare Group.

Morning tea and lunch is provided but bookings are essential.

To RSVP contact Kate Steel on 1300 87 83 87, or for a complete list of Rural Landholder Initiative field days in 2016, visit www.lismore.nsw.gov.au.