For the May general meeting, guest speaker Natasha Bowden delivered a presentation on the activities and capabilities of SERCUL, the Southeast Regional Centre for Urban Landcare. Natasha is the Education and Promotions Manager for SERCUL. SERCUL has been operating for 20 years and works with State and Federal government agencies, businesses, schools, community groups and volunteers to care for the environment. It derives its funding from government grants, donations and fees for services delivered. It operates in four key areas: Environmental Education; Monitoring and Research; Community Capacity; and Landcare and Restoration.
Natasha then discussed how SERCUL has delivered services in those key areas. Environmental Education projects have included the Phosphorus Awareness Project, funded by DBCA, to educate the community about the Impacts of nutrients entering waterways, especially the Swan and Canning systems, plus wetlands. A subset was the Fertilise Wise program, working with councils on understanding their nutrient use and how to reduce the levels reaching waterways.
Another program was the Mozzie Wise Program, funded by SERCUL, Local Government Authorities and contiguous local authority groups. This program provided advice on Mosquito control. They also provide Aquatic Weed Management Training, funded by the Swan Canning Recovery Project.
In the area of Community Capacity, they provide assistance to unincorporated landcare groups. In 2021/2022, they sponsored grant applications for 20 groups, including the Friends of Paganoni Swamp group in KRMB’s home area. Grants obtained included a Noongar Workshop, Macro-invertebrate Monitoring, Community Workshops and Planting Programs.
SERCUL can also provide volunteer support through a group of regular volunteers. In Landcare and Restoration, SERCUL has delivered several projects. An example is the Nurdi Park Living Stream (Riverton), a Swan Canning Recovery Project where they were involved in weed control, litter removal and infill planting of 15,540 plants over a 1ha area with a 97% success rate.
In the area of Empowering Communities, they completed the Horley Road Basin 3 project, which involved installing a constructed wetland to remove nutrients. The site was approximately 1.4ha and involved earthworks, re-vegetation and erosion control. They have also been involved in ongoing water quality monitoring for this project.
Other projects include the removal of the couch from a constructed wetland at the Yule Brook Palusplain and Sumpland, the Adenia Research Projects, and rehabilitating Temperate Saltmarsh TEC in Canning River Regional parks.
SERCUL also has a talented artist/graphic designer with 15 years of experience working with landcare groups who can assist with the design of posters, brochures, leaflets and newsletters etc. They also have some publications available for sale on their website (www.sercul.org.au). For further details on their activities and projects, refer to the 2022 Annual Report at: SERCUL-Annual-Report2022-complete.pdf.
It was a very informative talk and gave us a good insight into the services and activities that SERCUL provides. The audience thanked Natasha for coming down to talk to us.
Colin Prickett