Landcare Shines at 2009 Tidy Towns Awards for Blair Reserve Bushland Restoration

Monday, 2 November 2009

Port Macquarie Landcare volunteers and Port Macquarie-Hastings Council are celebrating this week after earning two highly commended accolades at the 2009 Keep Australia Beautiful Tidy Towns (Sustainable Communities) Awards in Tamworth on the weekend.

The project, Blair Reserve Bushland Restoration, was lauded in the Department of Environment and Climate Change NSW Wildlife Corridors and Habitats Conservation Award.

The restoration of Blair Reserve, a 3.1 hectare pocket of urban littoral rainforest near Lighthouse Beach, has been a successful partnership project between Landcare and Council's natural resources division.

Council has invested more than $20,000 into the management of the site while Landcare volunteers have contributed over 4000 hours of time. The local Landcare Nursery, which has over 80 species of native plants on its Propagation Species List for local environmental restoration projects, provided 30,000+ plants for the reserve's rehabilitation.

As a result, significant improvements to the natural biodiversity of the reserve have been achieved. With a tenacious program of weed removal, native replanting, reduction and management of urban impacts, Blair Reserve has once again become a vibrant natural environment.

Council was also highly commended in the Grundfos Water Conservation Award for the Port Macquarie Water Reclamation Scheme. The scheme has the potential to convert up to 2 million litres of treated effluent into reclaimed water every day.

Reclaimed water is available for use at commercial carwashes, on bowling greens, sporting fields, parks and gardens, for toilet flushing and for dust suppression. Council plans to incorporate dual reticulation into all new major residential developments.