UWG Members at Native Pruning workshop.

Catchment Management is about best practice Land Management within the Catchment, and that is what NICA is all about.  Of course, the management measures applied will depend on land use and size.

The Urban Wildlife Gardens (UWG) program is primarily designed to operate on small parcels of land in areas designated for residential purposes, so it provides urban dwellers with an opportunity to be good land managers on their own bit of land.

The program has been running for over 2 years and is now in its 3rd year.  Significantly this year sees the program funded outside of Councils Grants Program under an MOU with funding likely ensured for 3 years.  Membership continues to grow, and now stands at 106.

At the Monday with NICA event this week, our guest was the member for Noosa, Sandy Bolton, and Sandy offered to include the UWG brochure in her mailouts to new constituents.

As a key UWG driver has been the desire to attract and engage with those who are not the converted, and people who may be newcomers to our area this is fantastic news and we are very appreciative of Sandy’s support.

We will continue to use a variety of devices to prick the interest of those people such as using arts and crafts as Stephanie does, and the welcome kit Desire Gralton put together for Real Estate Agents to purchase as a present to their clients who are new arrivals to Noosa.

We will also continue efforts to engage with residents through Citizen Science, and help meet some of Council’s environment strategies through recruitment efforts in specific areas to improve biodiverse linkages.

Apart from the property visits Michelle Newall makes to give new members a few native plants, advice on their particular ecosystem and suggestions, we also offer participants through their UWG membership the ability to attend free workshops arranged by the UWG Working Group who run the NICA UWG Program.

So far (in spite of Covid) workshops have covered

  • Native Bees
  • Horticulture and Propagation
  • Insects in your garden – and the Pandanus leafhopper pest
  • Landscaping with Native Plants
  • Birds in your Garden
  • Miniature Lives – Insects and their amazing lifecycle’s
  • Biodiversity resilience
  • Pruning native plants