Friends of Grampians Gariwerd

As most people will be aware with the government cutbacks which occurred in this budget many biodiversity programs have been effected. The orchid work Noushka Rieter had been doing with DSE is now happening under the CMA, some of the orchid work involved monitoring of sites, some having been monitored for many years now. Through the Threatened Species Group there was also surveying to look for new populations or verifying old records of populations. Noushka was keen for this work to continue and through a Community Engagement Grant, there is money to pay someone to continue this work using volunteers to assist with this work. The Grant needs to go through a community group and FOGGs have been asked to be the Group to enable the work in the Grampians Deep Lead, Ararat and Barrabool areas to continue. This will also mean that the threatened species activities which many FOGGs members took part in, will be able to continue. Gail Pollard is the person who will be taking on this role and monitoring and surveys will begin from the beginning of September. Many of these survey activity dates are listed in the calendar at the end of this newsletter. Some will be activities calling on volunteers from FOGGs and others will be surveys calling on FOGGs and ANOS members, (Australasian Native Orchid Society). Species to be monitored this season are the Candy Spider, Tawny Spider, Yellow Lip Spider, Grampians Duck and Flood Plain Rusty Hood, volunteers will be needed to help with some of these species please contact Wendy if you are interested. Phone 53825830 or 0429932065 or email wbedggood2@gmail.com