Friends clean up Scenic Estate
The first working bee for FOSER was held recently.
A pleasant sea breeze provided better than expected conditions for the first working bee for the Friends of Scenic Estate Reserve (FOSER) for the year.
Seven volunteers, John and Karen Eddy, Carmen Bush, Jan Fleming, Ineke Humphries, Phil Wright and Meg Anderson tackled major infestations of weeds from several persistent patches across the reserve.
This included north of the wetland, south of the power lines, on both sides of the main boardwalk and at the northern end of the reserve.
Volunteers removed hundreds of thistles, both young rosettes and mature plants in flower and seeding, carefully removing and bagging the flower and seed heads to fill five large bags.
Because many plants had already released seeds, FOSER will have to watch and revisit those locations for new infestations over the coming months and years.
Carmen and Karen also cleared the infestation of ox-tongue thistles at the car park entrance and removed hundreds of stinkwort plants from 'stinkwort flats'.
The team also picked up litter found along the way.
"After two hours of labour, we met at the northernmost picnic shelter for a welcome sit in the shade while chatting over morning tea," said Meg Anderson.
"Many thanks once again to John Eddy for organising the tools and disposing of the bags of weeds."
The next working bee is on Sunday March 3 – FOSER's annual Clean Up Australia Day litter collection.
