Scottsdale

From the 2014 AGM reports:

We enjoyed another fine day of monitoring on the Bush Heritage flagship property of Scottsdale, near Bredbo, on 16 October 2013.  This project was started in 2008, and FOG has continued to conduct yearly grassland monitoring to assess the impact of differing regimes on the growth and abundance of African Lovegrass (ALG) and native species.

This year we had 10 enthusiastic volunteers to assist with running out lines, taking photos, and filling out the monitoring sheets.  We broke up into 3 groups, one to monitor the original sites where cattle are grazed at various intensities, and two groups to monitor the newer sites where we are assessing the change in relative dominance of native grasses and ALG where there is no domestic stock grazing pressure.

During our lunch break we enjoyed a spontaneous inspection of Sue’s wonderful nursery, and marvelled at the way she casually says that she puts in the seeds and “up they come”!  That certainly doesn’t happen in my garden!

There may be a change in the monitoring next year because there are no longer any cattle being grazed on Scottsdale, partially because it is not convenient to the farmer any more, but also because the ALG is very poor fodder, especially during winter.  However, I presume that there is still value in the results even after the grazing has ceased.  I will leave this up to Sarah and other FOG members to decide whether we continue to monitor these sites for the full 10 years.

My thanks to everyone who contributed to the day, especially Sarah who takes home all the monitoring sheets and photographs, and makes sense of our measurements. Hope to see you again next year.