Hi
everyone,
I’ve heard local beekeepers are
looking forward to the Yellow-Box trees flowering over
the next few weeks. The trees need warm nights to
blossom and conditions are now about right. It’s
interesting that while all honey will candy (unless it’s
been heat-treated - cooked - to change its structure)
yellow-box honey will take about two years!
And
yes, things have been buzzing here as we get ready for
the Spring Mingle, which is both our end-of-year
gathering and also a way to network and, well, mingle,
with others who care about the environment.
Please register here. We will be
celebrating the end of a big year and hope to see you
there. This time we are confident the Nature
Conservation Bill will be debated by the Assembly on
Thursday 27 November and seems with tri-partisan support
— which is what we wanted. Big cheers on this
one.
![Clare Henderson]()
Cats have been a focus over
the last month and we hope some of you have received our
letterbox cards — it would be great if you could let us
know and your feedback.
m("conservationcouncil.org.au","campaign");"
target=_blank>Email Bri who is our main contact on
all things on cats, their impacts on wildlife and the
animal welfare benefits of cat containment. Plus please
sign our petition to Minister
Rattenbury for all of Canberra to be cat containment by
2025.
Cheers,
and the team: Briony, Larry and
Suzanne
Love
your cat and protect wildlife too
If you support
protection of Canberra’s pet cats and native wildlife,
then please
sign
our petition for the declaration of
Canberra-wide cat containment by 2025.
Join us in
calling on Minister Rattenbury to:
- declare, in a timely manner, all new suburbs and
urban developments within one kilometre of nature
reserves as cat containment
- make a forward declaration to make all of Canberra
cat containment by 2025
- support and fund ongoing community public
education on cat containment in the ACT.
![]()
Read our
letter
to Minister Rattenbury (PDF 155KB) about the
need for Canberra-wide cat containment, which outlines
the detrimental impact roaming cats are having on our
local biodiversity.
Cat containment not
only protects our local wildlife but also benefits the
welfare of our pet cats:
- Contained cats live much longer
- Contained cats suffer less injury and therefore
less expensive vet bills
- Contained cats reduce nuisance to neighbours
- Contained cats don’t create a "feeder" population
for potential future feral cats, and
- Contained cats can be very content.
Sign
our petition to show Minister Rattenbury that
you support Canberra-wide cat containment for its
benefits to our environment, our cats and our community
at large.
We use several ways to have
discussions with our member groups and the community and
we need to do this to effectively campaign on
environmental issues. It helps us greatly if more
people would
. We
have interesting posts and you can make comments on what
we post. If you have any comments or questions on the
Conservation Council’s communications contact Larry on
![]()
Ngunnawal
Plant Use – field guide
The ACT Government, in
partnership with Greening Australia, the Ngunnawal
community and Aboriginal staff working in natural
resource management have published
Ngunnawal Plant
Use – a field guide on how Ngunnawal people used
and continue to use the plant resources of the ACT and
broader region.
The ACT’s Traditional Owners, the
Ngunnawal people used and continue to use the plant
resources of this region for food, medicine, tools and
weapons, fire, ceremonial purposes, water, fibre, dye
and paint.
Ngunnawal Plant Use provides
information on the native plants of the ACT region and
their many Ngunnawal uses.
We expect member
groups and supporters to be interested in the book and
we have a copy in the Spring Mingle silent auction
Friday 28 November.
Proceeds from salesk will
support Aboriginal natural resource management in the
ACT so if you miss out at the Spring Mingle, the book is
$22 (including postage, handling and GST) from:
Divestment
from Fossil Fuels
Over the last month the divestment
campaign has really gained momentum. It was great news
that the Australian National University decided to
divest from seven fossil fuel resource companies —
congratulations to them.
And special
congratulations go to our member groups — ANU
Environment Collective and 350.org — for all their work
on this. We continue to take an active role in
supporting their divestment campaign. From Thursday 27
November till 1 December a bunch of Canberrans will be
travelling to the Leard blockade to stop the Maules
Creek coal mine from being constructed. Please contact
350.org if you want to be part of
Canberrans
adopt a week at the Leard Blockade. We will be
posting
reports on our blog.
![]()
World Parks Congress
We have
been fortunate to have reports from Ishbel Cullen, an
ANU student and volunteer with
350.org,
who attended the IUCN World Parks Congress (WPC) in
Sydney. The WPC is a landmark global forum on protected
areas held every ten years with over 5,000 people
participating this year. It is the world’s most
influential gathering of people involved in protected
area governance, and sets a global agenda for the
following decade.
Ishbel attended as a
volunteer and as part of the Young People's Media
Coalition which aims to create and distribute media
pieces that provide a youth perspective on the
conference.
The Conservation Council
published Ishbel’s work on the
Conservation
Council blog.
EVENTS
Imagining
Gang-gangs
What:
Imagining Gang-gangs exhibition of student
artworks
Where: M16 Artspace
Gallery, Griffith
When:
Opening 4pm Wednesday 26 November until Sunday 30
November
Visitors can vote for their
favourite artwork by a primary and a senior year student
and the most popular two works will win $250 from Bank
Mecu. Contact: Kathy Eyles 0407 899 698
Spring
Mingle
What:
Conservation Council Spring
Mingle
Where: Lena Karmel
Lodge roof top garden – 26 Barry Drive
Canberra
When: Friday 28
November 2014 6:30 – 9:00pm
A roof top
evening for the environment. Please register here to join us to celebrate our
environment achievements at our 2014 Spring Mingle.
Connect with other Canberrans who are passionate about
the environment. There will be a cash bar, a beautiful
view, music, entertainment, a silent auction and we will
provide a feast of canapés and a gourmet grill. Plus we
will welcome our Board for 2015.
Surviving
Earth
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What:
'Surviving Earth' movie followed by
excellent panel
Where: Finkel
Theatre, John Curtin School of Medical Research,
ANU
When: Monday 8 December,
7pm
Frank Fenner Foundation, in association with
Sustainable Population Australia ACT branch and the
producers from United Natures Media, will screen '
Surviving Earth' followed by a panel
discussion with Prof. Ian Lowe, Julian Cribb, Dr Peter
Tait, Dr Stephen Bygrave, the producer Peter Downey and
David Holmgren. MC Jenny Goldie. Questions from
audience welcome.
Tickets available at door
$12/$10 or ensure your space by
booking on Facebook
or with
Trybooking
Being
an effective voice for the environment
— 28 March 2015
Building on the
successful 2014 Conservation Council Symposium we will
hold another ‘
Being an effective voice for the
environment’ Saturday 28 March 2015. Register your
interest at
www.conservationcouncil.org.au
or email
m("conservationcouncil.org.au","info");"> We
are a non-profit, non-government organisation. Help
safeguard the ACT's environment by becoming a regular
monthly contributor with a regular monthly
donation. One-off donations are also appreciated. All
are tax deductible.
How you can help:
