Hundreds of AABR members rose to the challenge of supporting post-fire regeneration only to have their intent somewhat stifled by a pandemic. In spite of this five NSW site coordinators managed to navigate the COVID constraints and deliver on-ground outcomes.

We will be sharing the process and the achievements from 12 months of post-fire regeneration activities in a diversity of ecosystems.

The meeting of the minds with the site coordinators will illustrate the progress made on their sites and draw out the following themes.

  • Tom Clarke – Crowdy Head littoral rainforest- prioritising actions post fire
  • Wollombi – Deb Holloman – what help have fire-affected landholders needed most.
  • Yatte Yattah – Gerard Proust – riparian restoration – follow up needs over time since fire
  • Scottsdale – Tein McDonald – importance of plant recognition and follow up

The outline of the webinar

0:00 – 01:10 Acknowledgement of Country.
01:10 – 02:05 Agenda outline and attendance poll
02:05 – 04:35 Overview of AABR’s post-fire program and the presenters 
04:35 – 18:00 Tom Clarke – Crowdy Head littoral rainforest- prioritising actions post fire
18:00 – 27:25 Deb Holloman – Wollombi – What help have fire-affected landholders needed most?
27:25 – 43:45 Gerard Proust -Yatte Yattah  NR –  Riparian restoration – follow up needs over time since fire.
43:45 – 56:40 Tein McDonald – Scottsdale –  Importance of plant recognition and follow up in a fire-affected recovering grassland
57:20 – 01:01:43 Panel discussion facilitated by Tein.   
Questions to Tom Clarke; 
– One of the slides looked like Myrtle Rust on a Native Guava (now listed a Critically Endangered NSW and C’wealth). Have you seen any evidence of it? (JBE)
– Over what time scale do you think this project will take?
1:01:43 – 01:03:08 Questions to Deb Holloman 
–  Was the issue of planting vs bush regen a hard one to get across?(Jane)
– How good was the bush regeneration knowledge of the group?
– Would the regeneration have occurred anyway without your help? 
01:03:08 – 01:05:20 To Gerard Proust. What was the actual technique for weed treatment?
01:05:20 – 01:07:30 Question to Tein McDonald. Are AARB and BHA advocating for more small scale burns led by our First Nations people working with the Firies?
01:07:30 – 01:09:50 Question to Gerard Proust. Because of the dense cover of tobacco, was spraying considered  (if you can assume that most natives underneath might be protected)?
01:09:50  – 01:15:20 Panel -Tom/Deb/Gerard. Did any of the projects use natural restoration improvement techniques such as transposition of soil seed bank, artificial shelters, perches etc? (Gabriela)
01:15:20 – 01:18:12 Future directions of AABR’s program 
– More post-fire resources are on AABR’s website https://www.aabr.org.au/do/post-fire-bush-regeneration-map-and-resources/
– Keep an eye out on the facebook group ‘Post-fire bush regeneration’ 
–  final video FABB video on ‘Recognising seedlings post fire’ has just been released on Regentv’s Youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/c/regenTV
– In Victoria, AABR’s partner is Trust for Nature and  we are collaborating with them on a Webinar to be held in late May. 
– more volunteers welcome at  Crowdy Bay, Scottsdale, Barrington Tops. https://www.aabr.org.au/post-fire-regen-volunteering/
    – Scottsdale NSW 
        – Tuesday 27 to Thursday 29 April, 2021.
    – Crowdy Bay National Park
        – Bush regen Camp May 17th to 23rd
    – Barrington Tops
        – Activity 5: 29/30th April 2021
        – Activity 6: 1/2nd May 2021