Our Annual General Meeting will be held by Zoom on Wednesday 28th July at 7:30pm.
Email us at info@castlecragconservationsociety.org for the link.
Your membership needs to be up to date to receive the link.
Category: News
CORRECT ANSWERS TO BIRD IDENTIFICATION COMPETITION:
- Sulphur Crested Cockatoo (white & yellow feathers)
Well done everyone, this was the teaser to make the game look easy.
- Rainbow Lorikeet adult and juvenile plumage (small coloured feathers)
Another well answered result.
- Tawny Frogmouth a member of the Kingfisher family (grey-brown mottled feathers)
This was the trick question, as the Frogmouth, although thought of as an owl because of its nocturnal behaviour, is in fact a Kingfisher
- Bush, Scrub or Brush Turkey (large black feathers)
- Kookaburra (beak & skull bones)
- Willie Wagtail (small nest)
- Plover or Lapwing (preserved in jar)
- Crow (large nest)
Further information about results will be posted in the next few days.
Thank you for participating!
You are invited to our AGM on Wednesday 24th July at 8:00pm at the Glenaeon School Hall, 121 Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag, opposite The Parapet.
The business will be the presentation of the President’s Report and the Treasurer’s Report, and the election of office bearers.
Then we will have a presentation by an ex Castlecrag resident Jacob Sife who is Natural Areas Program Leader at Ku-ring-gai Council and host of EnviroTube. Jacob will be talking about ‘Collaborating for Conservation’. His particular area of interest is the powerful owl and the preservation of the newly discovered and endangered Hibbertia spanantha.
Ku-ring-gai is known as a biodiversity hotspot and a refuge for many species of flora and fauna struggling to survive in the highly urbanised Sydney basin. Ku-ring-gai Council manages numerous native and threatened species, populations and ecological communities in an effort to protect, conserve and enhance our biodiversity. Critical to the success of conservation programs are the collaborations formed with community and Government bodies. In this talk, Jacob will look at the conservation programs in Ku-ring-gai, particularly those which have received funding through the State Government’s Saving our Species or Ku-ring-gai Council’s Environment Levy; he will share data on outcomes and the most up to date monitoring on some of our most endangered species, including the critically endangered Hibbertia spanantha.
Please come along and enjoy the evening. Supper will be served.
WEPA invites you to a viewing of the documentary Accelerate.
Accelerate follows world-renowned author and environmentalist Bill McKibben, the co-founder of 350.org, during his 2018 tour in Australia as he calls on us, our government, business and communities to accelerate action on climate change.
To explain how ordinary people can take action, Bill McKibben leads the Accelerate film – with additional voices provided by Australians Mia Wasikowska, Rachel Ward, Jack Thompson, Sean Keenan, and Simon Baker.
When: Tuesday 16th July at 7pm
Where: School Hall, Glenaeon Primary School, 121 Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag
Cost: gold coin donation welcome
Join us for refreshments after the film.
Further information www.wepa.org.au or WEPA Facebook page
“The last weekend of November will see the biggest climate march the world has ever seen. In towns and cities across the globe, citizens will gather on the eve of the world leaders meeting in Paris for the United Nations climate summit, to demand real action on climate change.”
Join the Castlecrag Conservation Society in The Domain from 12.30pm – look out for our banner.
The 10/50 rule was passed in State Parliament in August last year. the most recent review of the legislation took into account more than 3,500 submissions from individuals and interested parties. After 10 months of consideration the thirty recommendations to come out of the review do little to wrest back control to council authorities. – THE CRAG Newsletter Sept 2015
The Castlecrag Conservation Society will continue its campaign for tighter control of all mature tree felling.
During the campaign for changes to this environmentally damaging rule – Ally Selby produced a short film about the effects of the rule in Castlecrag which contains interviews of Mayor Gail Giles Gidney and the CCS President Mark Crew. It can be viewed by clicking on the link below;
To Clear or Not To Clear – Are people abusing the 10/50 rule?
CCS Talk on Wednesday 23rd July 2014
At 8pm Marion Mahony Griffin Hall, Glenaeon School, Edinburgh Rd, Castlecrag
Supper will follow Mark’s talk
Restoring Natural Areas – Soil Translocation and Native Vegetation Community Regeneration
Mark Walters is a Teacher-Ecologist at Ryde TAFE. He teaches CertIII, CertIV and Diploma of Conservation & Land Management.
Topsoil is an undervalued resource for conserving biodiversity. Often this valuable resource is wasted, treated as a contaminated waste or composted for landscaping soils. In this talk Mark will cover some aspects of topsoil translocation as a tool for rehabilitating degraded sites. Mark has carried out, or been a consultant to more than a dozen topsoil translocation projects over the last decade within the Sydney region and has undertaken university research into the topic.
At our next meeting, Hayley Bates, a PhD candidate from the University of New South Wales will be presenting a talk on one of Australia’s most iconic climate change species, the Mountain Pygmy-possum (Burramys parvus).
When: Wednesday 22 May 2013, 8 pm
Where: Glenaeon School Hall, 121 Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag
Hayley has spent the last three years researching and monitoring Burramys populations across New South Wales. Her talk will cover topics including: a history of Burramys, current population status and threats, present research, recent field discoveries and an exciting new approach to conservation.
Have a read of her recent article in The Conversation
Everyone welcome – friends and neighbours included. Please join us for supper after Hayley’s presentation.
Comments are being sought by Willoughby City Council for their proposed actions at Castlehaven Reserve. Castlehaven Reserve is a long and narrow foreshore Reserve that includes the heritage Haven Ampitheatre.
View the draft action plan Castlehaven Reserve Draft Reserve Action Plan
To comment go to Have your say at Willoughby City Council
Or you can navigate to it from Councils’ homepage by clicking on the ‘Have Your Say’ tab.
Comments are required by April 28, 2013
All welcome at our next meeting: Wednesday 27 March 2013
Glenaeon School Hall, 121 Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag at 8 pm
AGM & Election of Office Bearers
followed by
Trees: the ultimate green investment?
Lorraine Cairnes and Prof. Carrick Chambers
Lorraine and Carrick will lead a discussion on the environmental value of trees. How do you view trees? Trees line many of our streets; we also have bushland reserves bordering residences and streets. But are we losing the battle to save our trees ? With more and more big housing developments are we losing our tree cover? Do you agree that trees along with other native flora are essential not only for us but also all the other creatures that make up the ecosystem? Come along and add your voice to the discussion.
“Trees are nature’s air conditioners,” Dr Coutts said. “It does cost money to maintain the urban forest, but the benefits provided by trees like urban cooling, energy savings, and stormwater runoff help justify the investment in urban greening programs,” Julie Power, SMH March 9-10 3013
Everyone is welcome. Supper and further talk will follow.
“First humans, Last Megafauna? A brief look at the question of
megafaunal extinction and the human overkill model.”
Dr Judith Field
Senior Research Fellow
Thursday 26 July 2012, 8 pm
Glenaeon School Hall, 121 Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag
The extinction of a suite of giant animals, including the Diprotodon, the giant flightless bird Genyornis and a goanna the size of a Komodo dragon sometime during the last 100,000 years has been the subject of heated and sometimes acrimonious debate. That the extinctions appeared to coincide with the last ice age and the arrival of humans has led to entrenched and polarised views on the topic that continue to attract media attention. In this talk I hope to present some of the facts of the case and canvass the most explanations that may account for these events.
Judith Field is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of New South Wales, having moved from the University of Sydney where she had been a research fellow since 1996. She majored in Archaeology and Botany in her undergraduate studies and was awarded a PhD from the School of Geography at UNSW in 1996. Judith’s research focus is on Pleistocene archaeology, principally archaeological approaches to the timing and causes of megafaunal extinctions in Australia. She has directed excavations at the Pleistocene archaeological site of Cuddie Springs in western New South Wales since 1991, led survey and excavation at Riversleigh in north west Queensland and investigated the antiquity of rainforest occupation in tropical Australia. She is currently working in the highlands of Papua New Guinea investigating plant use through time at the Kosipe Mission site, which has the earliest radiocarbon- dated sequences from PNG/Australia. Judith has been awarded over $1.5 million for these projects through the competitive Australian Research Council project grant schemes.
In addition to the field-based research programs she has a keen interest in areas of archaeological science that have stemmed from the field programs. These include functional studies of flaked and ground stone tools, which include identification and characterisation of organic residues on stone tools, studies of fossil pollen and microscopic charcoal.
Supper will follow Judith’s talk.