Davies celebrates volunteering at Lake Nambling near Dowerin
Author: Mia Davies
Published on: 20-September-2011
Member for the Agricultural Region, Mia Davies visited the Nambling Lakes near Dowerin on Sunday 18 September for an event organized as part of the John Curtin Weekend volunteering series.
Ms Davies joined Adrian Price and volunteers in mulching saplings and trees planted as part of the rehabilitation work being undertaken by the local ‘Men of the Trees’ group on the salt affected lake and surrounds.
“I was very pleased to plant a new tree, the ‘Dowerin Rose’, to add to those that are already established,” Ms Davies said.
“Volunteer groups like Dowerin’s ‘The Men of the Trees’ group play a major role in land protection and conservation in regional areas.
“It was great to see the young volunteers from Curtin Volunteers! and the Rotary Club’s Roteract youth group getting involved with the local landcare representative and learning more about conservation and land management.”
The John Curtin Weekend series involves about 500 volunteers, who break into small groups to visit rural towns and metropolitan sites during September and October and work with local volunteers on their community projects.
Ms Davies said the Lake Nambling project highlighted the vital work done by local environmental groups.
“Salinity is still a major problem in the Wheatbelt, so it is important that we have groups continuing to take action to fight against it,” Ms Davies said.
“Many of these local environmental groups have missed out on Federal funding under the Caring for Our Country program in recent years.”
She said Federal NRM policy settings had been skewed towards Eastern States issues, meaning salinity and soil erosion projects in WA had found it much harder to access funding under the scheme.
