Greater Sydney Landcare ecological and cultural burn project to present at RESCHEDULED National Landcare Conference

A Sydney environmental group is taking it upon themselves to upskill local conservation volunteers, groups and private landholders in using ecological fire and cultural burning to ease wildfire intensity.

Focusing on the native vegetation communities of the Cumberland Plain in western Sydney – among the most threatened in New South Wales – Greater Sydney Landcare Network is developing the know-how to carry out cultural and ecological burns in a manner to restore this fire-dependent ecosystem safely.

Presenting their findings at the upcoming National Landcare Conference, now taking place on March 10 to 12, 2021, Greater Sydney Landcare hopes to build knowledge and expertise amongst public and private landholders in the area, in addition to local council.

“Hopefully, the end result is more upskilled Landcarers and more ecological and cultural burns across the Sydney landscape,” explained Xuela Sledge of Greater Sydney Landcare Network.

“We want to arrive to an evolved understanding that ecological fire can be considered as a safe restoration and climate change mitigation tool which is more accepted – and not considered with the fear and anxiety as that which was imposed on us all over the 2019/2020 extended fire season.”

In a partnership with National Parks and Wildlife Services funded by the Environmental Trust – as part of the Save our Species Program – GSLN is bringing together Landcarers and stakeholders to develop skills and share knowledge about cultural burning. This network can also facilitate the development of communication channels and implement education, public events and volunteer activities for the project.

The GSLN program recently submitted an abstract for the National Landcare Conference this year. However, due to COVID-19, the National Landcare Conference Steering Committee have announced the conference will now take place on March 10 to 12, 2021.

If you would like to make a submission to present at the event, deadline for Call for Abstracts has been extended to July 1. Landcare Australia is calling for submission in the below four conference streams:

Sustainable Agriculture: Innovation and technology, soil health, adaptation to climate change, integrating productivity and conservation.

Environment & Climate Change: Encouraging positive action to mitigate climate change with Landcare.

Community Partnerships in Action: Building community capacity and resilience, communication and storytelling, volunteering, partnerships, building and sharing knowledge.

Landcare Impact: Landscape, biodiversity, community resilience, mental and physical health of individuals, community wellbeing, agriculture productivity, economy.

For more info, visit landcareaustralia.org.au/call-for-abstracts/