MANAGING your new lifestyle land is the purpose of three new free workshops created by Coffs Harbour Regional Landcare (CHRL) targeted to support and educate small landholders (2-20ha).

Many local properties have been extensively cleared resulting in prolific weed growth where land is not being managed intensively.

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Management can become even more difficult when steep land is present, a feature of many parts of Coffs Harbour.

These workshops aim to provide landholders with some tools and techniques to help them successfully manage their land to ensure good environmental outcomes such as restoring remnant bushland and providing habitat for our local wildlife.

“With an increasing number of city people moving to rural areas Landcare sees such workshops as an opportunity to provide practical information to not only identify their important bushland but very importantly improve it for the benefit of the local environment,” Barry Powells, President of CHRL, told News Of The Area.

“Overall the workshops will help small landowners identify their weeds and native plants, how to control identified weeds safely and effectively – just spraying many weeds with glyphosate is frequently not the answer to long term control – and learn how to collect seed from native plants and grow them successfully.

“This is an excellent way to improve the local environment cheaply and enjoyably by providing habitat and food for many local plants and animals.

“It is also a very important way to provide connectivity for them to move safely from one area to another.

“We hope that another outcome from these workshops will be to identify any additional information which Landcare may be able to help them improve their land management outcomes,” said Barry.

The Weed Control Techniques for Small Landholders workshop is on Saturday, 3 September, 1pm – 3pm at Diggers Beach carpark.

Professional bush regenerators Kris and Brent Hely of New Earth Regeneration will discuss the most commonly encountered weeds that are found in the Coffs area, their identifying features and appropriate control techniques including the best tools and equipment to use.

The vegetation adjoining Diggers Beach carpark has a good suite of common weeds that Kris and Brent can demonstrate control methods on.

The Rehabilitating Steep Land to Improve Environmental Outcomes workshop takes place on Sunday, 18 September.

Kris and Brent Hely will provide a tour and talk on their ex-banana-land property at Korora Basin where they have worked tirelessly over the years to transform this steep, degraded property into a biodiverse bush oasis to show their achievements and share their techniques and tips for successful weed control and revegetation.

The third workshop, Native Plant Propagation, takes place on Saturday, 8 October at the Coffs Harbour Regional Landcare Community Nursery in Woolgoolga.

Those interested in growing their own native plants can learn techniques and tips on how to grow native plants successfully.

This workshop will teach and demonstrate the basic principles of propagating a variety of native seeds.

To register for free visit https://www.coffsharbourlandcare.org.au/news/small-landholder-workshop-series/.

By Andrea FERRARI