Vegetation Management Plan Andrew Creek, Wesley Vale Primary School October 2010
the teachers and students would follow up with sawing off stems and digging out root crowns (Kim O’Brien pers. com 1/9/10). During this time a large resource kit was collected for the school consisting of books and reference material, tools and equipment suitable for the student to use for on ground works, audio recorders, microscopes and a lot of data recorded and stored on CD (Kim O’Brien pers. com 1/9/10). These projects were successful and recognised with awards. The school was the national and state winners of the Weedbusters Award, and won the Readers Digest Local Hero Award. The school gained the Tasmanian Landcare Educational Award in 2001 and was runner up for the National Landcare Educational Award in 2002. As a result of this effort the Andrew Creek bush was rehabilitated from a very degraded stream to the healthy riparian bushland providing habitat for threatened species that it is today. A walking circuit with interpretation signs has been constructed through the regenerated bushland with wooden bridges crossing the stream at both ends and a small outdoor education centre is situated on the edge of the bush giving students a delightful area for learning activities in natural surroundings. Shelters have been constructed as additional habitat for the threatened Eastern Barred Bandicoot (known to be on site) and to give the students a monitoring opportunity with this nocturnal animal (Peter Tonelli pers. com. 24/08/10). Sandbags have been strategically placed in the stream to create pools for more diverse aquatic habitat and sand trays placed in the bush for monitoring animal tracks. Recently, weed control has been carried out with some removal and slashing of blackberries in the riparian area and some further tree planting has been done near the education centre. The bushland on Andrew Creek was registered with Land for Wildlife in November 2009. There are other Land for Wildlife properties in the vicinity and as a network of reserved bushland they contribute to the overall ecological health of the area and are important havens for biodiversity in the agricultural landscape.
3. Site Description Andrew Creek and Wesley Vale Primary School is located at Wesley Vale, on the Devonport 1:25,000 mapsheet 4444, at approximately E: 454793, N: 5440196. The site is within the Northern Slopes bioregion. The area addressed within this plan is 2ha of mostly native riparian vegetation with a blackberry infestation on Andrew Creek. The study site adjoins the school property and is called a “school reserve”. Wesley Vale Primary School has an education centre in the bush near the creek and an interpretation trail through the bush. Agricultural land adjoins the study site immediately downstream and approximately 2ha of native vegetation on private land adjoins the site upstream. Cattle graze the adjacent land but are excluded from the creek and native bush. Wesley Vale Primary School is situated on land classed as school reserve, which is crown land managed under the Crown Lands Act 1998. “Crown land is “public land” owned and managed on behalf of all Tasmanians by the State Government. It includes public reserves, school and hospital sites and the verges of most roads in Tasmania.
5 Bushways Environmental Services - Tasmania