Coastal rainforest and dunes at Brunswick Heads, New South Wales
Every second Saturday from 9 am to 1 pm
Please email us for details of how to get there.
More information on our working bee here. We hope to see you there.
July 2012 The Byron Shire Chemical Free Landcare Group takes the Mullumbimby Shearwater School students to learn how to manage weeds and restore littoral rainforest without toxic chemicals:
Published with kind permission of the Byron Shire “Echo”
Great news today!
The report on 3 years of chemical-free landcare at Brunswick is now available for you to download for free. Click here.
With a vision of making peace with the weeds and spraying love, Byron Shire Chemical Free Landcare, a project of the Mullumbimby Centre of Sustainable Living and Environment Education Inc., is overwhelmed with community support. The organization has received a generous donation from local resident Angela Bambach and also was chosen to be one of the organizations sponsored by Santos Organics staff charity fund. The funding will be used to purchase for the volunteers good quality loppers, saws, gloves, safety glasses plus a sign for the Brunswick site and a banner.
Angela Bambach was recently gifted some money and is very excited to share it with Byron Shire Chemical Free Landcare.
“Each time I see bush regenerator Nadia de Souza Pietramale I am so inspired by her passion for creating alternatives to toxic chemical use – this directly benefits me and my family as residents of this beautiful part of the planet”, declared Angela. She also stated that more and more frequently health experts all over the world are linking serious chronic illnesses -such as autism and cancer – to
long-term exposure to a toxic world. Angela Bambach added that “I am so grateful and full of admiration for BSCFL volunteers efforts, not only with doing what they are doing on the ground, but also for creating a community of like-minded and educated individuals – including children and young adults – who work together. I particularly appreciate their work as it goes the extra step of actually demonstrating a successful alternative to chemical use rather than just criticising it. Imagine the impact on the health of the planet and it’s inhabitants if this technique was rolled out around the country and the world…reason to be very hopeful!”
Olivia Laws, Santos Organic ethics coordinator, added to the excitement by stating that this year the staff have chosen to support the invaluable work and commitment of Byron Shire Chemical Free Landcare as one of its local organisations.
“Each year, the staff at Santos Organics donate a percentage of their salary to a staff charity fund which is then matched dollar for dollar by Santos and distributed to a number of International, National and Local organisations”, explained Olivia Law. She added that at Santos Organics, “we know that the choices we make as consumers can have an enormous impact on our planet and its delicate ecosystems. We value environmentally sustainable practices and are passionate about supporting farmers who grow organic fruit and vegetables that are free from synthetic chemicals, fertilisers or genetically modified organisms. We also love to support other organisations that share this vision. We have chosen to support Byron Shire Chemical Free Landcare because their work is very much in line with our philosophy and commitment to the health and wellbeing of individuals and our local community. For us, caring for our land in natural, chemical free ways is integral to the long term sustainability of our Earth and its resources and we are proud to be able to contribute to such an important organisation.”
The chemical free dune care site in Brunswick Heads is located on 4.75 hectares of Crown Land Reserve, between the Surf Club and Tyagarah Nature Reserve. This site has being used as a pilot project implementing and documenting chemical free management on dune ecosystems. The “Brunswick Heads Crown Land Byron Shire Chemical-Free Land Management Plan and Monitoring Report 2012/2013” is available at www.byronshirechemicalfreelandcare.org for free.
The 40-page document is a gift to the community that explains BSCFL approach and show cass 3 years of data collection on chemical free coast management removing Bitou bush, using the crowning method developed by botanist Ellen White.
All donations to Byron Shire Chemical Free Landcare are tax
deductable, for more information please contact
byronshirechemicalfreelandcare@gmail.com.
Nadia de Souza Pietramale
0478 272 300
What a sweet surprise we – Terry Hamill, Stephanie Stone and myself – had on our last working bee, Saturday the 29th of June. While resting at morning tea after some serious Bitou Bush chopping and crowning on a sunny/cloudy winter day, Terry spotted a seedling where we did primary work last winter. For our delight it is the first Eucalyptus signata, Scribbly Gum baby. On a 4.5 hectare site we have 1 mature and 2 juvenile trees of this particular species. So perhaps, one day we will have much more as we head to the climax of our site’s resilience.
