Friends Groups

Have you ever thought about helping to care for our local bushland areas?
The Shire of Kalamunda has more than 300 volunteers who are regularly involved in actively caring for the bushland areas in our Shire. With as little as a few hours a year you can make a real difference to the health of the plants and animals around you.

The Shire supports our volunteers in a number of ways:

• Free Training and Advice from qualified officers;
• Monthly Newsletters;
• Insurance cover for registered groups working on Shire reserves;
• Tools and equipment for volunteers to borrow;
• Plants for revegetation projects on Shire land;
• Support from the Bush Regeneration Team for on-ground works;
• Hiring of environmental contractors to help with weed control;
• Writing grant applications for larger projects.

Don’t know where to start?
The majority of Friends Group members work on land which is near and dear to them, and we are lucky in the Shire of Kalamunda to have pieces of bushland scattered all throughout the Shire, as well as being close to some very significant reserves and drinking water sources. The Shire can help assess whether the piece of bushland near you is managed by the Shire and whether it already has an active Friends Group present on the reserve.

Friends Groups within the Shire vary from one or two members up to very large and well co-ordinated groups of 40 or 50 volunteers. All of these groups have a contribution to make and we welcome them all.

FRIENDS OF RESERVES FORM 1.doc
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Don’t know the first thing about native plants?
The Shire’s Bushcare Co-ordinator and Environmental Reserves Officers, as well as officers from the Eastern Hills Catchment Management Project are available to meet you on site and help you identify the species on your reserve. We also make every effort to provide training opportunities for our volunteers through the free workshops in the Bush Skills for the Hills Workshops and the Shire’s Environmental Walks Series.

Not sure that you are up to hours of hard labour?

Many important tasks that improve the health of the bushland areas are easy to carry out in alone or in a small group. For example, collecting rubbish as you walk the dog around a reserve; picking the flower heads off Gladioli, Watsonia, Freesia and Babiana to stop them setting seed; noticing vandalism of reserves when it occurs and calling the Shire to report it. All of these tasks reduce the impact of threats to our remnant vegetation and will help us to maintain and improve its condition in the long term.

I can do that!

If you are interested in joining a Friends Group and starting to make a difference in your local area, contact the Shire’s Environmental Reserves Officer on 9257 9806 to talk about the possibilities or to arrange a site visit.