Newport Community Garden: Working Bee Second Sunday Of The Month
Newport Community Gardens Inc. is a not for profit incorporated association. The garden is in Woolcott Reserve.Objectives
Local Northern Beaches residents creating sustainable gardens in public spaces
Strengthening the local community, improving health and reconnecting with nature
To establish ecologically sustainable gardens for the production of vegetables, herbs, fruit and companion plants within Pittwater area
To enjoy and forge friendships through shared gardening.
Membership is open to all Community members willing to participate in establishing gardens and growing sustainable food.
Subscription based paid membership.
We meet at the garden between 9am – 12 noon
New members welcome
For enquiries contact newportcommunitygardenau@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/newportcg
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/newportcgnsw
Greening Your Home - Eco Retrofitting The Suburbs - Special Event
There’s no need for a ‘tree-change’ or ‘sea-change’ - Permaculture has made a shift to the suburbs
An extraordinary evening is planned for up to 400 people at Dee Why RSL on Tuesday 9th October at 7pm.
‘Our aim is to better equip residents of the Northern Beaches and beyond to live sustainably in the suburbs.’ said Michelle Sheather, Permaculture Northern Beaches Green Home team leader. ‘Over the last 18 months, PNB’s Green Home project has run dozens of workshops, meetings and courses on organic living, sustainable building, clean energy and wise use of resources.’
The culmination of the project, made possible by a community grant from Northern Beaches Council, is the October 9 special event on Eco Retrofitting the Suburbs. The panel of speakers for one night only, is David Holmgren, Jo Gillies and Costa Georgiadis. The talks will show how ordinary Australians can downshift and retrofit their houses, gardens, and lifestyles to be more sustainable and resilient.
David Holmgren, is one of the founders of permaculture, a leading ecological thinker, teacher, respected writer and speaker. He promotes permaculture as a realistic pathway to sustainability and a powerful way of life. David’s talk will introduce his best-selling new book RetroSuburbia - the downshifter’s guide to a resilient future (2018) that empowers us to make positive changes to everyday actions extending from the household out into neighbourhood and wider community activity.
Jo Gillies is founder and director of Archisoul Architects in Manly. She has worked with clients across the Northern Beaches to design sustainable houses that suit our climate, region and lifestyle. Jo will speak on aspects of sustainable house design including passive solar, energy options and which materials can be used to lessen our environmental footprint. Design efficiencies for existing buildings and how do an eco-friendly retrofit will be discussed. Jo will show that good design principals can create a sense of community and soul for the household.
Costa Georgiadis has been the host of Gardening Australia, the ABC's iconic gardening show, since 2012. He is a landscape architect who has a passion for plants and people. For Costa, soil and water are central to absolutely everything. Costa has written the forward for the book ‘Don’t be afraid to throw open RetroSuburbia on any page at any time and dive into the possible …’ says Costa.
Come along to be part of this great evening.
Bookings are essential www.permaculturenorthernbeaches.org.au
A donation of $5 is recommended as entry fee.
The talk night will be during the school holidays, older children and teenagers are most welcome with an adult. A raffle with prizes of eco products and a copy of David’s book will be held on the night.
Permaculture is a design system for sustainable living in your home, garden and lifestyle. It originated in Tasmania in the 1970s with co-founders Bill Mollison and David Holmgren and is now practiced worldwide. The word is the merging of permanent/sustainable and culture.
New Rules To Help Mulloway Recovery
August 6, 2018: NSW DPI
The NSW Government is working with fishers to ensure the future of one of NSW’s most prized fish species.
Minister for Primary Industries, Niall Blair, said Mulloway is a highly regarded sportfish and an important commercial species.
“In 2013, the NSW Government introduced a recovery plan with a number of new rules to halt the decline of Mulloway stock and help the recovery of the species,” Mr Blair said.
“Despite efforts by fishers, a recent scientific review showed Mulloway are still overfished.
“In order for stocks to recover, the review recommended that more action needed to be taken.
“Given the seriousness of the issue, I asked both the commercial and recreational advisory councils to come up with actions for their sectors, with each council establishing expert working groups to investigate the best options.”
The advisory councils provided advice on this important issue, which included:
The removal of the possession limit of 10 Mulloway between 45 and 70 cm that currently applies to Estuary General meshing net fishers. This will mean that a 70 cm Mulloway minimum size limit will apply to all fishers.
A reduction in the recreational bag limit from two to one.
The changes come into effect on 1 September 2018 and will be closely monitored by NSW DPI. An advisory campaign will also ensure all fishers are aware of the new rules.
“I know this has been a tough call but it’s needed to ensure Mulloway stocks grow,” Mr Blair said.
“The reduction in the recreational bag limit from two to one still provides opportunities for fishers to catch these magnificent fish and if they wish, keep a fish for the table.
“It will also ensure that consumers can still access wild caught Mulloway now and into the future.”
Both councils will continue to look at other measures, including investigating options where commercially-caught Mulloway can be differentiated to reduce black market opportunities, further monitoring to ensure the effectiveness of these actions, as well as more research on fishing gear technologies to reduce bycatch of Mulloway.
Katandra Season 2018
Open Days at Katandra Bushland Sanctuary are suspended for a few weeks as there was a hazard reduction burn around the yurt on Saturday July 28th. The last fire here was in January 1994, so it is overdue for a burn, which will really bring on the wildflowers in a couple of years.
Visit Katandra's Profile for more details and pop up and visit from August 12th.
Bee Keeping Talk At Warriewood
Thursday, September 27, 20187:15pm – 9:00pm
Nelson Heather Centre
4 Jacksons Rd.
Warriewood
At tonight's meeting hear about native and European honey bees and what PNB is doing as part of our bee program on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. Native bees are an important part of our biodiversity chain as well as a great source of nutritious honey.
Sydney has over 200 species of native bees many of which are solitary bees that require habitat in our gardens. You can also promote bees by providing a chemical free garden for them to pollinate. PNB has a program for selling native bees hives to supporters or program hives for free to community organisations.
More information on this and a lot more will be available on the night.
Paul Hoskinson is the bee team leader for PNB and also was a key driver in the setting up of the Northern Beaches Beekeepers Association.
‘If bees were to disappear for the globe, humankind would have only four years left to live’ Albert Einstein. Bees help us with pollination and are a vital part of our ecosystem. This will be a night not to be missed!
Doors open 7:15 pm at the Banksia Room, Nelson Heather Centre, 4 Jacksons Rd. Warriewood. All welcome, entry by donation. No need to book. There will also be a swap table - enjoy honey tasting + bring along plants, books, pots to swap.
Organic teas and coffee available, bring a plate of food to share also.
PNHA Newsletter 76
Read about wild life in the 'Burbs - How to identify local owl calls, the Wing Tag project and PNHA's latest campaign news.
Friends Of Narrabeen Lagoon Catchment August 2018 Forum
Next forum: Creeks in the Catchment7pm Monday August 27, 2018
Coastal Environment Centre, Pelican Path,
Lake Park Road, Narrabeen
Presenters: Staff members from Northern Beaches Council will outline the works needed to control erosion and protect against flooding. Plus information about the bush regeneration projects in near creeks in the catchment.
Are you concerned about any of these issues?
* Water quality in creeks leading to Narrabeen Lagoon
* Health of aquatic wildlife
* Creek flooding
* Blockages in creeks
* Erosion of creek banks
* Rubbish in creeks
* Weeds in riparian zones?
Bring your concerns and questions to the forum on August 27 and find out more about creek care from Council staff.
Entry is free but we ask for a donation to cover expenses.
Make sure you get a ticket preferably by emailing Judith Bennett email@narrabeenlagoon.org.au
Permaculture Northern Beaches
Manly • Warringah • Pittwater | SydneyPermaculture Northern Beaches (PNB) is an active local group based on Sydney's Northern Beaches. Our parent body is Permaculture Sydney North.
PNB hold monthly permaculture related events on the 4th Thursday of each month at 7:15pm at the Nelson Heather Community Centre, Banksia Room, 5 Jacksons Rd, Warriewood
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Earth At Risk Of Heading Towards 'Hothouse Earth' State
August 7, 2018: Stockholm Resilience Centre
Keeping global warming to within 1.5-2°C may be more difficult than previously assessed, according to researchers.
An international team of scientists has published a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) showing that even if the carbon emission reductions called for in the Paris Agreement are met, there is a risk of Earth entering what the scientists call "Hothouse Earth" conditions. A "Hothouse Earth" climate will in the long-term stabilize at a global average of 4-5°C higher than pre-industrial temperatures with sea level 10-60 m higher than today, the paper says. The authors conclude it is now urgent to greatly accelerate the transition towards an emission-free world economy.
"Human emissions of greenhouse gas are not the sole determinant of temperature on Earth. Our study suggests that human-induced global warming of 2°C may trigger other Earth system processes, often called "feedbacks," that can drive further warming -- even if we stop emitting greenhouse gases," says lead author Will Steffen from the Australian National University and Stockholm Resilience Centre. "Avoiding this scenario requires a redirection of human actions from exploitation to stewardship of the Earth system."
Currently, global average temperatures are just over 1°C above pre-industrial and rising at 0.17°C per decade.
The authors of the study consider ten natural feedback processes, some of which are "tipping elements" that lead to abrupt change if a critical threshold is crossed. These feedbacks could turn from being a "friend" that stores carbon to a "foe" that emits it uncontrollably in a warmer world. These feedbacks are: permafrost thaw, loss of methane hydrates from the ocean floor, weakening land and ocean carbon sinks, increasing bacterial respiration in the oceans, Amazon rainforest dieback, boreal forest dieback, reduction of northern hemisphere snow cover, loss of Arctic summer sea ice, and reduction of Antarctic sea ice and polar ice sheets.
"These tipping elements can potentially act like a row of dominoes. Once one is pushed over, it pushes Earth towards another. It may be very difficult or impossible to stop the whole row of dominoes from tumbling over. Places on Earth will become uninhabitable if "Hothouse Earth" becomes the reality," adds co-author Johan Rockström, Executive Director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre and incoming co-Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, says, "We show how industrial-age greenhouse gas emissions force our climate, and ultimately the Earth system, out of balance. In particular, we address tipping elements in the planetary machinery that might, once a certain stress level has been passed, one by one change fundamentally, rapidly, and perhaps irreversibly. This cascade of events may tip the entire Earth system into a new mode of operation."
"What we do not know yet is whether the climate system can be safely 'parked' near 2°C above preindustrial levels, as the Paris Agreement envisages. Or if it will, once pushed so far, slip down the slope towards a hothouse planet. Research must assess this risk as soon as possible."
Cutting greenhouse gases is not enough
Maximising the chances of avoiding a "Hothouse Earth" requires not only reduction of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions but also enhancement and/or creation of new biological carbon stores, for example, through improved forest, agricultural and soil management; biodiversity conservation; and technologies that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it underground, the paper says. Critically, the study emphasizes that these measures must be underpinned by fundamental societal changes that are required to maintain a "Stabilized Earth" where temperatures are ~2°C warmer that the pre-industrial.
"Climate and other global changes show us that we humans are impacting the Earth system at the global level. This means that we as a global community can also manage our relationship with the system to influence future planetary conditions. This study identifies some of the levers that can be used to do so," concludes co-author, Katherine Richardson from the University of Copenhagen.
Will Steffen, Johan Rockström, Katherine Richardson, Timothy M. Lenton, Carl Folke, Diana Liverman, Colin P. Summerhayes, Anthony D. Barnosky, Sarah E. Cornell, Michel Crucifix, Jonathan F. Donges, Ingo Fetzer, Steven J. Lade, Marten Scheffer, Ricarda Winkelmann, and Hans Joachim Schellnhuber. Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene. PNAS, 2018 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1810141115
Iceberg floating in near Greenland. Credit: © the_lightwriter / Fotolia
Mojave Desert Birds Crashed Over The Last Century Due To Climate Change
August 7, 2018: University of California - Berkeley
Bird communities in the Mojave Desert straddling the California/Nevada border have collapsed over the past 100 years, most likely because of lower rainfall due to climate change, according to a new University of California, Berkeley, study.
A three-year survey of the area, which is larger than the state of New York, concludes that 30 percent, or 39 of the 135 bird species that were there 100 years ago, are less common and less widespread today. The 61 sites surveyed lost, on average, 43 percent of the species that were there a century ago.
"Deserts are harsh environments, and while some species might have adaptations that allow them to persist in a desert spot, they are also at their physiological limits," said Kelly Iknayan, who conducted the survey for her doctoral thesis at UC Berkeley. "California deserts have already experienced quite a bit of drying and warming because of climate change, and this might be enough to push birds over the edge. It seems like we are losing part of the desert ecosystem."
The collapse could have an impact on desert plants that rely upon birds to spread their seeds and for pollination, she said, as well as on a host of creatures that prey on the birds.
Though the decline has happened across the entire Mojave Desert, sites with available water saw less decline, suggesting that dehydration is a major factor. To halt further losses, the authors suggest, it may be necessary in the short-term to create additional water resources and limit groundwater pumping, which depletes desert springs. The best long-term solution is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reverse climate change, the authors say.
The loss of bird species has happened even though much of the Mojave Desert is protected national park or preserve, including Death Valley National Park, one of the nation's largest.
"This is a shot across the bow of our nation's national jewels, telling us that climate change is already having an adverse impact even in our largest national parks and wilderness areas, and that we have got to reduce dependence on fossil fuels by smartly employing green energy," said Steven Beissinger, senior author of the study and a UC Berkeley professor of environmental science, policy and management.
Iknayan and Beissinger will report their findings this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Raptors are down, ravens are up
The UC Berkeley team found a 42 percent drop in the number of bird species at Mojave sites. Raptors, with their meat-based diet, were one of the groups of birds that declined the most, including the American kestrel, prairie falcon, turkey vulture and sharp-shinned hawk -- all fairly common in the early 20th century.
Rarer birds, such as the Virginia's warbler, red crossbill, mountain quail and Lawrence's goldfinch, are now even rarer.
Birds that are more adapted to the desert -- the roadrunner and cactus wren, for example -- and birds that can live in a variety of habitats, such as the Bewick's wren and California towhee, fared better. Those adapted to grassland or forest did worse.
"A lot of these birds aren't exclusively limited to the desert," Iknayan said, noting declines in relatively widespread mockingbirds, killdeer and various sparrows and flycatchers. "Protecting their populations across the whole range can help a lot of these species to persist into the future."
The only birds more common today in the Mojave are the common raven and four exotics: the great-tailed grackle, which migrated northward from the U.S. Southwest and Mexico; an imported gamebird called the chukar; and the purposely introduced Eurasian collared dove and European starling.
Beissinger refers to the widespread decline as a collapse because it has occurred across the whole desert bird community, unlike changes in bird communities elsewhere, which consist of some declining and some increasing species. The 42 percent decrease in species richness across the Mojave contrasts markedly with a 2 percent decline in richness at sites in the Sierra Nevada revealed by similar surveys.
Breeding bird surveys conducted by citizen scientists dating back to the 1970s confirm the drop in abundance in the Mojave, "which is why we think we are seeing a new, lower baseline" for desert bird populations, he said.
"Studies elsewhere have found that climate change typically makes places unfavorable for some birds but opens the door for others to come in," Iknayan said. "In the desert we are not seeing increases in any of our species except for the common raven. There are a lack of climate change winners in the system."
Cactus Wren - photo by Chelsea Hofmeier photo
Taking good notes
Beissinger leads the Grinnell Resurvey Project to survey again areas of California that UC Berkeley biologists surveyed nearly 100 years ago, starting in 1908 with the arrival of Joseph Grinnell to head the campus's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. The goal of the project is to understand the changes wrought by human occupation of the state, including the impact of global warming and climate change.
Thanks to Grinnell, who introduced a now-widely used method of recording field notes, today's scientists have detailed data about bird and mammal populations and occurrence throughout the state, ranging from the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges to the Coast Ranges and Central Valley, and encompassing Southern California and, most recently, the deserts of the state's southeast. Grinnell and his students conducted and dutifully recorded their observations between 1908 and after his death in 1940.
Iknayan and her colleagues visited the 61 Mojave sites, including 9 in Nevada, that Grinnell and his colleagues visited between 1908 and 1947. She spent three consecutive days at each site walking a path as close to Grinnell's as possible, stopping at 10 places along each path and recording all the birds she saw or heard within 7 minutes.
She and Beissinger then conducted a statistical analysis to take account of the fact neither Grinnell nor Iknayan detected all the birds living at a site. The result was a chart of "occupancy" for each of the 135 birds, representing the proportion of surveyed sites the birds actually inhabited, even if undetected, in the early 1900s and now.
They subsequently correlated occupancy with other data for the sites, such as long-term change in average annual temperature, average maximum temperature and average yearly rainfall as well as similar measures for recent years. They also looked at the history of fire, grazing and other habitat changes.
The upshot was that the most significant change associated with bird declines was a long-term decrease in precipitation. Sites that had reduced rainfall suffered more loss of species than sites that remained wetter. The long-term change in maximum temperature at a site was unrelated to species loss.
"The study is clearly showing an erosion of the number of species and the diversity at these sites that is pretty striking," Beissinger said. "The Mojave Desert is now nearly half empty of birds. Is this a bellwether of changes to come in other protected areas?"
The Grinnell Resurvey Project is supported by the National Science Foundation (DEB-1457742, DEB-1501757, DGE-1106400), National Geographic Society, National Park Service and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.
Kelly J. Iknayan, Steven R. Beissinger. Collapse of a desert bird community over the past century driven by climate change. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018; 201805123 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1805123115
For The First Time, Scientists Are Putting Extinct Mammals On The Map
August 8, 2018: Aarhus University
The blue color shows the range of brown bear today. The red color shows, where you would also find brown bears today, had they not been driven away by human activity. Credit: Soeren Faurby, University of Gothenburg
Researchers from Aarhus University and University of Gothenburg have produced the most comprehensive family tree and atlas of mammals to date, connecting all living and recently extinct mammal species -- nearly 6,000 in total -- and overturning many previous ideas about global patterns of biodiversity.
While others have tried to map the ranges of all mammals or figure out their family tree, previous studies always left out one crucial group of mammals: species driven to extinction by humans.
"This is the first time we've been able to comprehensively include extinct species like the Tasmanian tiger or the woolly mammoth as well as account for human-induced regional range losses among extant species in such a large database, and it's really changing our beliefs about what is 'natural' or not," said biologist Søren Faurby of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, who co-led the assembly of the database and the study, which was resently published in the scientific magasine Ecology.
Scientist often use maps of mammal species ranges to investigate patterns of biodiversity or to predict how climate change will affect species. But these maps are incomplete because they don't show species' natural ranges, only where they occur today. Many species have had their ranges drastically reduced by humans, for instance, through overhunting and habitat destruction.
"Brown bears may be emblematic of Alaska or Russia today but their range used to stretch all the way from Mexico to Northern Africa before widespread hunting by humans. If we want to predict how a warming climate will affect these bears, we can't leave out these natural areas of their range," said Faurby.
Tasmanian tigers and mammoths back on the map
It is also important to include species that have been totally exterminated.
"If we are studying global patterns of biodiversity, we really need to start considering species like the Tasmanian tiger that was hunted to extinction less than 100 years ago, a mere eye blink in geological time," said paleontologist and co-leader Matt Davis of Aarhus University in Denmark.
We associate large mammals like elephants and lions with Africa today, but for most of the last 30 million years, big animals roamed all over the Earth. It was only relatively recently that humans drove many of these large mammals extinct, leaving a world depauperate of giants.
"Even a species like the woolly mammoth, that we think of as prehistoric, lived up to the time the Great Pyramid was being built," Davis said.
Old maps and new algorithms
Assembling a database that included every species of mammal was no easy task. It took the research team, headquartered at Aarhus University, months just to stitch together existing datasets and fill in missing holes in the data.
They then poured over old maps and checked museum records to see where species natural ranges might be without the interference of modern humans.
Adding extinct species to the mammal family tree and making modern ranges for them was even harder. The scientists combined DNA evidence and data from fossil dig sites around the world with a powerful new computer algorithm to predict where extinct species fit in with mammals that are alive today.
New baselines for restoration
"This comprehensive database has already provided much needed evidence to inform restoration baselines and to provide re-assessments of several hotly debated ideas in biology, but this is just the beginning" said Jens-Christian Svenning, professor at Aarhus University and leader of the Aarhus team.
He expects that other researchers, conservationists, and educators will also find the easy to use and publicly available database valuable.
"We are already using the database to quantify and map human-induced biodiversity deficits and assess restoration potential across the globe.
Søren Faurby, Matt Davis, Rasmus Østergaard Pedersen, Simon D. Schowanek, Alexandre Antonelli, Jens-Christian Svenning. PHYLACINE 1.2: The Phylogenetic Atlas of Mammal Macroecology. Ecology, 2018; DOI: 10.1002/ecy.2443
Powerful Owl Release
March 18, 2018: Avalon Preservation Association
PNHA's Jacqui Marlow has advised that a Powerful Owl chick has been released in Plateau Park following its recuperation in Taronga Park.
If you see it there being harassed, or even if you see it at all, can you please phone her on 0458 194 127.
Powerful owl family - photo courtesy PNHA
Free Meningococcal Vaccine For NSW Students
August 6, 2018: NSW Government
Thousands more NSW students will be offered the free meningococcal vaccine over the next year to protect them against the disease.
The NSW Government will provide an additional $3.6 million to extend the NSW Meningococcal W Response Program to students in Years 10 and 11 to protect against the rising threat of the W strain. The strain has an eight per cent mortality rate compared to four per cent for other strains.
$17 million has been invested into the program since it was introduced in 2017 for students in Years 11 and 12. The free vaccine has been provided to more than 200,000 teenagers to date.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the meningococcal vaccination program targets upper high school students as they are particularly vulnerable to the disease.
“Just one dose of this vaccine provides strong, long-term protection while building immunity in the community and helping prevent the spread of this crippling disease,” Mr Hazzard said.
“This vaccine has the added benefit of protection against the A, C and Y strains, which don’t occur as frequently but have equally devastating consequences.”
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said early treatment for meningococcal disease is vital.
“We’re heading towards early spring when people are most at risk and we tend to see a rise in case numbers,” Dr Chant said.
“If you experience symptoms including a sudden onset of fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, neck stiffness, joint pain or rash of red-purple spots, go straight to your nearest emergency department to seek help. Acting quickly can save your life.”