Environmental repair

Environmental repair activities

Bushcare is not just about weeding! Bushcare Group members engage in a wide range of environmental repair activities. Members foster natural regeneration of the local bushland, plant locally sourced indigenous plant species, remove invasive weeds and their seeds, record plant and animal data and manage erosive stormwater flows. Engagement with community stakeholders is important. Environmental advocacy is another activity that Bushcare Group members engage in.

BMCC natural area managers, bushcare officers, the BMCC bush regeneration team and bush regeneration contractors also make a big contribution to site works.

BMCC natural area manager, Bushcare officers and Bushcare Group members inspect Lawson Parklands, riparian buffer zone, Lawson Creek eroded area March 18 2023 Photo: H Coltman
BMCC natural area manager, bushcare officers and Bushcare Group members inspect Lawson Parklands, the new riparian buffer zone, and Lawson Creek erosion March 18 2023 Photo: H Coltman

Click on an image to view a selection of our bushcare activities.

Tools to clean and waste to compost December 2017 Photo: P Ardill
Cut and herbicide Privet Jan 2011
Crinia signifera, Common Eastern Froglet, North Lawson Park 2016 (Photo: P Ardill)
Soil auger session November 2020 Photo: P Ardill
Riparian planting area August 2013
Planting using local provenance native plants May 2011
Coir logging and sand bagging engineering, Lawson Creek, Jan 2010
Sampling soil profiles in the ecological restoration area November 2020 Photo: K Hising BMCC
Erosion control on Lawson Creek tributary Jan 2010. BMCC photo
Bagging and removing weeds from native forest April 2016
Regular treatment of weeds promotes indigenous plant growth Feb 2020 Photo: P Ardill
Bushcare Group installed soft coir engineering controlling road side sediment flows, Waratah Street, April 2010 BMCC photo
Bushcare group members and BMCC Natural Area managers November 2021 Source: H Coltman
Gundungurra community member David King at South Lawson Park Bushcare site January 2022 Photo: P Ardill, reproduced with permission of David King.

Fostering natural regeneration

Encouraging and nurturing natural regeneration of indigenous plant species and communities is very important. When protected from degrading impacts, naturally distributed indigenous plant seed will germinate and grow strongly. Bushcare Group members also engage in assisted natural regeneration practices, by scattering the seed of local plant species in degraded areas.

Foreground: a strip of naturally regenerating indigenous trees and shrubs near Lawson Creek. December, 2016. Photo: P Ardill
Foreground: a strip of indigenous trees and shrubs naturally regenerated once protected from mowing. Lawson Creek. December, 2016 Photo: P Ardill

Site maintenance

Bushland that is recovering from the impacts of weed infestation often requires ongoing weed managment and maintenance. This work is referred to as “follow-up”, and often has to be conducted over a long-term period. This is because large amounts of weed seed have been deposited in the soil “seed-bank” of the degraded site.

Here are before and after photographs of the west Waratah Street ecological restoration area (#1) that illustrate the importance of maintenance work.

  • Contractor work on large stand of Privet, adjacent Waratah St., July 2017
    Contractor work on large stand of privet, adjacent Waratah Street, July 2017 Photo: P Ardill
  • Same contractor work area in Feb 2020. Further maintenance needed. Photo: P Ardill
    Same contractor work area in February 2020 revealing indigenous ferns but also privet regrowth centre. Further maintenance needed. Photo: P Ardill
  • Freshly recovered indigenous flora, Waratah Street ecological restoration area March 2016 Photo: P Ardill
    Freshly recovered indigenous flora, Waratah Street ecological restoration area March 2016 Photo: P Ardill
  • Waratah Street regeneration area doing well! Feb 2020 Photo: P Ardill
    …same area maintained and flourishing. Feb 2020 Photo: P Ardill

Adjacent unformed Waratah Street. Native grasses regenerating in foreground and right, April 2018 (Photo: P Ardill)Same area, Waratah St regeneration area, almost maintenance free! Feb 2021 Photo: P Ardill
Maintenance work in ecological restoration area #1 Left: Native grasses naturally regenerating but more weed maintenance needed Waratah Street ecological restoration area April 2018 Right: same area, almost maintenance free! Feb 2021 Photos: P Ardill

Training and equipment

  • Bushcare volunteers receive introductory and ongoing training in bushcare techniques from qualified and experienced BMCC Bushcare Officers.
  • Use of herbicide by Bushcare Group members is completely optional. Single drop applicator bottles are used for dispensing of herbicide. Spraying of herbicides is rarely undertaken and is performed by a bushcare officer only.
  • All tools, gloves and other equipment are supplied by BMCC.
  • BMCC and the Blue Mountains Bushcare Network regularly offer optional bushcare training courses and environmental study field days for bushcare volunteers.

Professional support

In addition to the work undertaken by the Bushcare Group since 1995, BMCC natural area managers have obtained funding for the employment of bush regeneration contractors to tackle specific weeds and other problems on the site. BMCC’s own bush regeneration team also works in the area on a regular basis. Group members are most appreciative of the skills and dedication that successive BMCC Bushcare Officers and associated BMCC environmental and aquatic management staff have displayed when working with the Bushcare Group and managing the site.

Principles and history of bush regeneration, environmental repair and ecological restoration in Australia

The Bradley Method provides an important foundation for BMCC volunteer bushcare work in the Blue Mountains. The method was developed in Sydney by sisters, Joan and Eileen Bradley, during the 1960s and 1970s. The Method focuses on the management of bushland weeds. Here are the core principles of the Bradley Method.

  1. Work from good bush towards the weeds.
  2. Try to minimise disturbance of soil, native plants and their seedlings, as weeds thrive in disturbed areas.
  3. The rate of weed clearance is determined by the rate of indigenous plant natural regeneration. In other words, do not remove weeds too rapidly and create large areas of bare earth. Wait for signs of natural regeneration before moving on to further areas of weed infested bushland. Where capacity for natural regeneration is exhausted, assisted natural regeneration can be tried: scatter seed by hand. Planting may be necessary.

The Bradley Method has been subsequently refined by bush regeneration practitioners, botanists and ecologists.

In particular, the Society for Ecological Restoration Australasia (SERA) has developed holistic, environmental repair project management standards and principles for degraded ecosystems. The two environmental repair practices, ecological restoration, and rehabilitation, are very relevant to Blue Mountains bushcare practice. See http://www.seraustralasia.com/

Visit http://bushcarebluemountains.org.au/resources/  for more detail on bush regeneration techniques and principles. A respected bush regeneration text of theory and practice is Restoring Natural Areas in Australia, Robin A. Buchanan, 2009, NSW Industries and Investment (Pub).

See http://weedsbluemountains.org.au for specific weed treatment methods.

This interesting website, Australian Ecological Restoration History, presents the history of settler environmental repair in Australia. See https://ecologicalrestorationhistory.org/ As well as Joan and Eileen Bradley, some prominent pioneers of environmental repair practice and thought in Australia have been Donald Macdonald in Melbourne (1910s and 1920s), Ambrose Crawford at Alstonville on the NSW north coast (1935), Albert and Margaret Morris in Broken Hill (1930s and 1940s; see http://www.aabr.org.au/morris-broken-hill/), and Roger Good in the Australian Alps bioregion (1959).

The Australian Association of Bush Regenerators is the recognised industry body. Go to http://aabr.org.au for further reading and information. The Society for Ecological Restoration (SERA) promotes the practice of ecological restoration in Australia. See https://www.seraustralasia.org/

The Albert Morris Ecological Restoration Award was inaugurated in 2017. The award recognises excellence in ecological restoration, a practice which aims to restore degraded natural areas to full ecological health and functioning.

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(The South Lawson Park Bushcare Group website, including text and analysis, is managed by Peter Ardill. Australian Copyright Act 1968 applies. Text, media and all other contents of this site are subject to copyright. Many thanks to the members of South Lawson Park Bushcare Group, BMCC Bushcare Officer and Second Minutes Hours Productions for their contribution of images to this website)