4. Using This Information
Using this InformationWithin this report I have tried to bring together as much relevant information as I could while keeping the end result as succinct and useable as possible. I have hoped to be able to provide resources that can help fill in our picture as to the nature of this environment and the changes we have brought to it. We also have tools from this to use for collecting data, communication, implementing programs and engaging others and ourselves with what we do. The Landcare movement was formed to allow people at the grass roots level to gain this knowledge and act on it. Attaining the clearest idea of what we are working with that we can is a huge asset to us as is the development of our own skills.
We have at our disposal, high quality historical texts, primary historical sources, Government reports and resources, GCG material (we have a lot still to go through), software and GIS platforms. We also have a considerable skills base with members drawn from many backgrounds. GCG members include people with years of experience in working in this environment and observing the results of their efforts. We definitely get more benefit out of this than anything else.
So, my suggestions about how we can use the resources that have been brought together here are,
• We should use historical texts to engage the interest of members and others in our group while also informing people about this environment. I have a strong feeling that doing this can help us add colour to our presentation of the Ginninderra Catchment Group to others and to GCG member’s own Landcare experience.
• This report illustrates in no uncertain terms the dramatic change that has been brought to the waterways of our catchment. We should apply what we know to understanding water flow issues and characteristics. As a group we can use this to prioritise our efforts and direct them to where we can do most good. This of coarse requires funding. Again we can use some of this material and material like it to re-enforce our abilities and attract funding through support of funding applications.
• The ideas behind gathering this information together have been running amongst GCG members for quite some time. As we do Landcare we constantly inform members about the natural vegetation of our area. The material within this report can be used to assist with this if it is put in a form that can be kept on hand and distributed easily. It could also be used in future media exposure. For instance in an interview with Lateline Canberra, Lenore Hodgkinson explained about the way native grassland was the original vegetation of the NBLG Landcare area. We should put together some good graphic maps to illustrate this over the catchment. We can use data from the current distribution maps from the ACT Government and on new maps that give more colour and interest directed at this target audience.. Graham Hirth could do this easily, it just takes using a different base image and using colour and labels in the shape files. The ones in the strategies were designed for them. Black and white and simple often works better for some purposes. I could do this job also but would need access to current ACT government data that was used for the maps or have the permission to copy the areas illustrated. We could also use this same map in the GCG office. It is not hard to generate.
• A whole of catchment approach to environmental management has become more and more recognised as the best approach in the past few years. Recently this was reinforced by Lenore and Ken Hodgkinson’s experience at the Landcare awards in Melbourne. The scale and breadth of this approach was obvious to them. However none of what they saw is beyond us and I have tried to re-enforce the ideas necessary to achieve such scale in this report. NBLG being seen as an entity within itself was nominated for the ACT Landcare Community Groups award for 2005/2006. Perhaps it is time that the Ginninderra Catchment Group should be seen more strongly as the one entity. We should present more of our achievements and understanding as a whole group. There is some impression out there that we work mostly on prepared Landcare patches. This is the most visible part of what we do and has improved environmental values in many places. But we have to also make sure we allow others to see that we understand and do much more. Presentation of ourselves as a larger organised body would assist with this. It would also provide a basis to remove focus from limited action within the ACT to a whole of catchment approach. Having a body of information that re-enforces that we are interested in the entire catchment and the nature of the environment within it would assist this process.
• Within this report I have used GIS platforms to generate maps and provided GIS programs themselves. Access to this technology is not as hard as people believe. Programs and data are often free and easily accessible. GPS equipment also has become both cheaper and more powerful. Google Earth is available to everyone that has computers able to run it. It can run on all the GCG computers. We also have access to Commonwealth, ACT government and satellite data of very high quality. GCG should use facilities of this nature to record data easily, get an overview of problems and to assist it in communicating these to both members and others. GCG has a copy of Arview 3.2 and I will add other programs as well to the office computers. Good graphics for presentations can be generated quickly and easily when you are set up for it. One thing that we have also noticed is how much material has been generated over the years in paper form including maps. These platforms can help us to make future material more accessible and consolidated. We can also use GIS to generate a large overview map that can be put on the wall of the office and which can illustrate varying areas of interest. It would be highly visible to anyone visiting the office and would help us plan and get an overview. I would offer ongoing support for this. I also have provided material to assist other members who become in interested in using this technology. One thing you learn as an educator is to never assume too much about the abilities and capacities of others. Rather you should provide for the possibilities of learning as much as you can.
• Typing “Ginninderra Catchment Group” into the Google search engine brings up Envirotalk as the first hit. Even though I administer this forum I would prefer to see something from GCG. There are other listings as well but some contact details are out of date. I have been contacted on Landcare issues through the Internet including new members with one using an email address only found on an obscure NBLG website. Envirotalk has thousands of people visit it every month with 200,000 to 300,000 individual page views. Websites make it eaier for people to find out about you at their convenience and for you to spread the word about yourself. A website that works well does not sit there passively waiting for people who happen to find it. Rather they provide a conduit to the ready spread of information and promotion. That is why Envirotalk has nearly 2000 members registered because it was easy to inform people it was there. Many of these people on forums are with government bodies, NGOs, councils and so on. I know this because I see who they are when they join and talk with them as you do on forums. The Internet is a tool we can better use to present our achievements. We can provide people with the facility to have easy reference to us. The type of material I am presenting here in this report is very useable for this purpose. This was something commented on by Ken Hodgkinson on several occasions.
• Understanding the plants we use and what we can do with them. We have a lot of experience within GCG both voluntary and professional. We have access also to good science through members and texts. Not understanding the plants we use in a challenging environment can mean wasted effort and disheartenment as plantings fail. We should avail ourselves of the best material we can find which relates to the practical use of the species we work with and generate our own. This should range from trees to riparian species and everything else. We do currently have some information like this in the GCG office. It should be brought together and organised in an area for easy reference. During compiling this report also I talked to Paul Hodgkinson about a guide to local plants he has worked on. The information in this report should be used as a basis to re-enforce to members the nature of this area and why the types of plants that grew here did so. They were adapted to the conditions in which they grew and conditions vary even within a small area and vary again over time.
• We always have to ask ourselves the question. How has landscape change happened and what can we do to reduce its undesirable affects? This question has two parts that belong together. To understand this environment and what is possible, we must understand how it was shaped. I hope these resources can add to people’s knowledge that they can use to envisage these problems and therefore make them more able to find solutions. Confidence in what you know has a vast role to play in this so presenting information in the way I have is intended to promote confidence. There is no reason why we should not be confident. Our Landcare efforts date back to over a decade of experience. We do have the skills to take us foreword and we must make sure that we present ourselves as being as skilful and knowledgeable as we are.
Go back to the Catchment History Contents Page.