Work

This page provides a general overview of the work that the group does on the ridge.

Activities

The group performs a wide variety of work activities including:

• Weeding
• Planting
• Studying wildlife
• Reporting sightings of wildlife
• Hosting interest walks
• Surveying wildlife
• Monitoring wildlife
• Reducing fire fuel
• Compiling a herbarium of our plants
• Recording the ridge with photos

Group Areas

The Cooleman Ridge Parkcare Group has defined several special "group areas" on the ridge. These are:

• Group Area Kathner
• Group Area Chauvel
• Group Area Monkman
• Group Area Darrell
• Group Area Lincoln
• Group Area Namatjira

They are simply named after the street from which they are accessed.

The main purpose of these Group Areas is to be the venue for one of our regular monthly group meetings. The group generally rotates through each of these group areas, progressing from west to east, over a period of approximately six months. Each group area is therefore visited approximately 2 or 3 times a year.

The location for these groups areas have been selected based on a variety of criteria. These include:

• Ease of access
• Ecological value
• Work value
• Community visibility
• Fuel reduction potential
• Even distribution across the ridge

The Group Areas are an important part of the groups strategy to rehabilitate the ridge. The main functions of the Group Work Areas include the following:

• Serve as the foundation and focus of the long term goal to restore the health of the ridge.
• Act as a reservoir of high quality biological diversity that forms the nucleus of future regeneration expansion on the ridge.
• Act as showpieces of the what the ridge has to offer for both educational and inspirational purposes.
• Allow the group to focus on the areas that are most valuable and thus help in maximising the effectiveness the groups work.
• Demonstrate the effectiveness of the groups strategy at rehabilitating the ridge to its natural state.
• Promote the work of the group and thereby encourage other people to join the group in achieving its objectives.

The Group Areas were established shortly after the 2003 bushfires. The areas have each now been worked on multiple times over the years and have shown major improvements, with some of the areas now being very close to their original state.

The long term goal for the Group Areas areas is to progressively expand them and then ultimately link them with one another to form a single large continuous area of high quality native vegetation.

The following map displays the Group Areas. You can click on a coloured area for more specific information about each of the group areas.

Achievements

The group has undertaken various activities over they years in support of its goal.

The group now claims to have made significant improvements to the the ridge over the past 30 years, including the following:

• Reduced or eliminated many weeds.
• Planted thousands of trees, shurbs, forbs and grasses.
• Surveyed the ridges plants, animals, trees, dams and blackberries.
• Developed various nature trails for educational purposes.
• Documented the history of the ridge.
• Petitioned for better infrastructure on the ridge (eg. signage, fencing, roads, track improvements, foot bridges, etc).
• Liaised with various government and non government agencies to assist in the ongoing management of the ridge.

Contribute

The Cooleman Ridge Parkcare Group needs your help!

The group is always looking for people to contribute to its work.

We believe everybody can help the work the group does, no matter what their age, health, interest, skill-level or experience is.

To contribute, you do not have to be a member or attend meetings. Nor do your contributions have to be regular, large or involve physical work. In fact, you don't even have to be on the ridge to help!

Here are many other suggested ways for you to contribute the work of the group:

• Weeding when you are simply out enjoying the ridge
• Propagating plants for future planting on the ridge
• Writing an article for our monthly newsletter
• Reporting interesting sightings of plants and animals found on the ridge to Canberra Nature Map
• Taking photos and sharing them with the group
• Collecting rubbish from the ridge
• Sharing your specialist knowledge about the ridge
• Improving the web site content, structure or graphics
• Donating money to help fund the groups activities
• Anything else you can think of!

Your contribution will help no matter what size, frequency or form it takes. Every little bit helps!

If you would like to contribute to the group in some way, please contact us.

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