The Mt Taylor Park Care group has been in existence since August 1989, and has a fluctuating membership, with many of the core members still very active. The members’ ongoing enthusiastic responses to the programs over the years have given us all much fun, guts to keep going, and keeping our long term view firmly in place. We have had many of our young members working on the mountain, and then continuing to help during their university studies; today we have a new group of youngsters with their families.

Over the years we have removed some 45500 woody weeds (mainly briars and Hawthorns) and are continuing to do so, as well as tackling some of the millions of soft weeds such as thistles, verbascums, St John’s wort, etc. We have also planted about 1000 trees and understorey species. Our members, linking to our Buddhist members, the Australian Conservation Foundation, and Greening Australia, grew most of the trees and shrubs. The plantings over one and half decades were very successful despite some erratic weather conditions and fire damage; however, with reduced seasonal rainfall, the later plantings have been slow to grow, and thrive. In fact the last two years have been very difficult, and we have reduced our plantings, mainly with Brachychiton populneus found on other hills of Canberra; we hope they may survive the climate changes that are appearing over Canberra, similar to the more arid climate of Cootamundra.

FIRES: the southwestern side has been severely burnt recently, 1997 and 2003. This has affected the old trees, destroying about 90% of them. However, one aged and thriving Kurrajongs ( Brachychiton populneus) is clearly visible at the head of one N/W gully, and its progeny are mainly on the W/N side, near the Parkway. Allocasuarina verticillata is a dominant species on the S/W side: severely affected by both fires, the regeneration has been by seed, basal regrowth and top recovery: the blackened gullies show where the A. verticillata were totally consumed by the firestorm. A recent survey shows encouraging regrowth, and young trees are now visible towards the Mannheim park entry area. The Acacia penninervis (endangered and only found in three locations in the ACT) recovered well, with seeding, but are now suffering from lack of rainfall. The endangered Swainsona recta, and the rare Acacia gunnii (30 plus plants) and Persoonia rigida (2 plants) survived the fire. In spring 2008 we saw many Acacia gunnii, but the Swainsona recta have been badly affected by poor rainfall and roo cropping in spring, and the two older Persoonia rigida have survived well, with two seedlings near Inkster Street. The northern sides of Mt Taylor, generally more open woodland, have recovered extremely well, with increases in native grasses. Cymbopogon refractus or “barbed wire grass”, found on the N side in 1991, has spread all over Taylor, a superb grass eaten young, but it is being attacked by the hordes of roos, and over grazing across the mountain is now a threat, especially to native grasses. Climate change is affecting the vegetation, with the spring flower displays being very poor over the last three years, especially with few orchids.

Over 320 roos are now present, and on the agistment between Taylor and Farrer I counted 100 roos recently. The large roo population, dry conditions and lack of water will be a severe problem in the summer months. There are probably four echidnas, but they have not been seen lately; three wallabies and one large and beautiful walleroo, were spotted last week. Bird species have returned; we had 68 species recorded before the fire, and we recorded 26 sp. breeding in the 2004 spring, quite remarkable! Bird numbers returned over the years after the fire, but now in 2008/9, it appears that bird breeding has been affected with lack of insects, drying up of the dams (affecting the choughs especially) and many flocks of small birds are appearing in the suburbs for water and garden insects.

As we enjoy our celebration of 20 years of work on Mt Taylor, we know that we have the names of 290 people who have worked on Taylor over those years, and many more from conservation groups, school students, science surveys, etc. We also know that over 60 rangers have passed through our group, and many have spread over Australia since working in the ACT! The awards, grants and other celebrations like our school plantings, the 2000 Para Olympics and other events are part of our history. The Roll of Honour with our 290 members and our diaries will go into the National Library as part of Canberra’s history. As we go into our next 20 years we will face some severe changes, with climate change, over population of animals and over use of the “Gym” in the sky with too many people using the mountain; it is in danger of being loved to death.

Anne I’Ons
02/08/2009
http://taylorparkcare.50webs.com/