2021 wrap up!
Another busy and productive year with over 4000 new plants in the ground, a bumper crop of weeds removed, mountains of mulch laid and buckets of beautiful local seed collected and cleaned. This could only happen with our dedicated bunch of volunteers who gave us 1,700 hours of their time this year and had a good time too! Volunteer hours are valued at the princely sum of $30 an hour so that equates to a $51,000 boost for our natural areas. On top of that we received grants to the value of $37,000. One was a special grant from the WA Government to build an osprey platform, others from Coastwest grant for revegetation of the dunes and assistance with the Cottesloe coastal monitoring project.
2021 started on a high note when we were awarded an Active Citizenship award by the Town of Cottesloe. More good news came soon after when we received the grant for the osprey platform at Vlamingh. Our resident pair of ospreys have been trying to raise a family in the Norfolk pine tree at the bottom of Deane Street for years, but every year the nest is damaged in winter storms. After much careful research the “O team” have developed a great design and we hope it will be up for this year’s nesting season.
Spring was the wettest on record for 20 years and just the right time for our new plants. Also good for weeds of course so there was never a shortage of work to do. Our regular volunteers were helped by community volunteers at our National Tree Day planting, corporate volunteers from Stantec, Calibre and Woodside and energetic help from schools including CBC , John XXIII, Christchurch and Aquinas.
Our Coastwest funded site for this year was at the bottom of Deane Street and Pearse Street. Clearing the site for planting proved a challenge. The site was weedy and overgrown and covered in layers of brush which had to be hauled up the slope before planting could start. Fortunately once the plants were in the rains came and the plants flourished. Our community planting day for National Tree Day was sponsored by The Seedling Bank.
Once planting was finished it was on to lots of weeding and mulching. Watering will start again in 2022!
