Our guest speaker is Bertram Lobert from the Strathbogie Sustainable Forest Group. Bertram will speak about the activities and achievements of the group and has sent us a synopsis.
“The community campaign to improve both forest management and community appreciation of the Strathbogie State Forest began over four years ago. Since then we've organized 22+ forest walks and numerous community engagement activities. We've undertaken fauna and flora surveys including: spotlighting, camera trapping, fungi surveys, mothing nights and habitat assessment. The group has also put significant effort into forest advocacy and political lobbying, with mixed success so far. We've come a long way, but we're not done yet. Our biggest achievement has been to attract many hundreds of people and thousands of eyes, to take an interest in our little forest – the forest that no one in DELWP or the Government took much notice of before we all started jumping up and down and organizing. And all those people talk to friends and return-visit, or can picture the forest when they hear or read about it. The cat is out of the bag – the Strathbogie Forest is now recognized by locals, regional government departments and by government policy, as an important natural assets in NE Vic. And that awareness isn’t something that can be switched off – and that is powerful!” |
A light supper will be served after Bertram’s presentation.
Peter Maddock
Secretary
0418 135 330