Wildcare Friends of Woodvine
What have Wildcare’s Friends of Woodvine been up to over the last year?
By David Reynolds
Woodvine is a 377 hectare Nature Reserve near Forcett. The Friends of Woodvine work closely with Parks & Wildlife staff to carry on the vision of Ernie Shaw, who donated the property to the people of Tasmania to protect Woodvine’s natural environment, flora and fauna forever. We also help care for the heritage-listed farm buildings and weed outbreaks of Spanish heath.
The volunteers of Wildcare Friends of Woodvine Reserve (FoWR) have monthly weeding activities in the Reserve which have involved up to 12 volunteers. Our main focus is on the weed areas containing Spanish heath and a small area of Californian thistle near the Barn site. The main paddocks around the buildings are mostly weed free with ongoing monitoring. We have started a new area near a sandstone outcrop above the road access to the Reserve. We continue monitoring of the track heading east through the Reserve starting from the gate and along the track for several hundred metres and about 10 metres on either side. Since the 2013 bush fires, weeds have been prolific in certain areas but a good outcome has been the recovery of many native species. Methods used for weed control are pulling, cut/paste method and, where suitable, spraying using 10 litre sprayers. Several of our members have recently upgraded our Chem Certificates.
Rangers and staff from PWS Seven Mile Beach Office have undertaken stabilising works on the Shearing shed (original homestead) installing top plates on the walls, hopefully for work to start on the timber walls and reinstalling and repairing the shingle roof. Other works were fixing new spouting and downpipes to Ernie’s house, repairing the roof on the Barn and a general clean up inside of the 1920’s house. PWS have installed a water tank on site to help when we are spraying the Spanish heath outliers and they have continued slashing/cutting the paddocks around the buildings and a new slashed track to a new weed area. A Partnership Agreement between Wildcare Friends of Woodvine Reserve and PWS has been signed and we have worked co-operatively on issues arising in the Reserve.