This week is National Volunteer Week, and there is no better time to celebrate the incredible volunteers who make Wildcare Tasmania what it is.

In 2025 alone, Wildcare volunteers contributed over 49,800 hours of their time: an
estimated $2.4 million worth of work, freely given for Tasmania's wild places, wildlife
and cultural heritage. Across more than 50 active groups, from the deep south to the
Bass Strait Islands, our members are working hard year-round on important, lasting
conservation work.

This week, we are sharing a series of volunteer spotlight posts across our Facebook
and Instagram pages, celebrating just a few of the remarkable people behind that
effort. We encourage you to visit our social media pages, read their stories, and
share them with your own networks. These are stories that deserve to be heard, and
that give an insight into the powerful impact our whole organisation is making for
Tasmania, both now and for the future.

This week's featured volunteers are:

Beth Rickwood: Chair of Wildcare's Grants Committee, Beth brings over 25
years of conservation experience to ensuring Tasmanian Nature Conservation Fund donations are allocated with fairness, rigour and integrity.
Peter Franklin: A group leader since 2002, Peter has given decades of steady,
generous leadership to Friends of Wellington Park and Friends of Mt Field,
stepping up when his community needed him most.
Jodie Epper: Founder and leader of Wildcare Get Outside, Jodie has spent
ten years connecting refugees and newly arrived Tasmanians with the state's
beautiful natural environment.
Marianne Gee: Newly elected Chair of Wildcare Tasmania, and President of
Friends of the Orange-bellied Parrot, Marianne is a recognised as a dedicated
champion for one of Australia's most critically endangered species.
Anne and Peter Booth: Leading Friends of Maria Island for over two decades,
Anne and Peter's sustained work in weed management and mapping,
monitoring and control programs has delivered significant native regeneration
across the island.

We could fill a book - in fact a whole series of books - with stories just like these.
Behind each of our Wildcare groups, there are people showing up with knowledge,
enthusiasm, and dedication, in the field, in governance roles, and doing the behind-
the-scenes work that keeps everything running.

To every single Wildcare Tasmania member: thank you. Without you, we would not
exist. The difference you make to Tasmania - its wild places, wildlife, cultural
heritage, and its future - is extraordinary.

If you’re on social media and not already following Wildcare Tasmania on Facebook
or Instagram, please visit our pages to read this week’s volunteer spotlights. And
share them with your friends.

Friends of Melaleuca Wildcare

Vale Mick Lawrence - Surfing legend, film maker, environmentalist