Newsletter #2

(May 2014)

DRAGONFLY ‘CARING’ FOR OUR NATIVE WILDLIFE

Dragonfly has an exciting new job in Warringah Council:  Vertebrate Pest Control in Wildlife Protection Areas.

Predation  by cats  is listed as a key threatening  process  under  State  and  Federal  legislation.  Warringah Council  has  19  reserves  which  are  currently  declared  as  Wildlife  Protection  Areas  (WPA)  under  the Companion Animals Act 1998. These WPA declarations facilitate controls including the management of cats (feral and domestic) that are required to reduce the impacts of predation on native animals. Dragonfly Environmental cat trapping works aim to facilitate these controls in selected high conservation areas. Works were undertaken in Allenby Reserve, Red Hill, Manly Dam and Jamieson Reserve, Narrabeen. During the trapping an abundance of fauna was seen and heard in the reserves, including Bandicoots, Goshawks, Microbats, Swamp Wallaby, Crakes and Red Crowned Toadlets.

According to WIRES, the average cat brings home 16 mammals, 8 birds and 8 reptiles each year. That is a staggering amount of wildlife for our cute kitties. So we suggest that: cats stay indoors during the night, put a bell on your kitty to let our wildlife know that the cat is about and if possible create an enclosed cat run for kittens to use outside.

For more information visit http://www.wires.org.au

By Mia Dalby Ball & Andre Olson – Director & General Manager – Division 7

(Picture of Mia and a cat taken to Collaroy Vet after it had been trapped and returned safely to its owner :))

CONGRATULATIONS and THANKS!!
Over the past couple of months, after returning from the summer holidays, we have jumped straight back in and have won a bunch of new contracts and have been receiving great feedback from our clients. So a congratulations and thank you are in order. I would also like to mention that this time of year, being close to the end of the financial year, is super super busy and everyone has been doing a great job in stepping up to help things get done. Special mention to Jen, James, Julian and Polly for getting their reports done and for Jen and Julian for getting great feedback from council for Timbertop and the Hornsby APZ contracts and James for getting our depot in order!

By Liz Graham – Project Manager – Division 4

STAYING SAFE AND GETTING EDUCATED!
We have had a busy start to the year with Training and a number of the team members have been getting White cards, Yellow cards and Chainsawing tickets….all which is helping us achieve our Valuable Final Product!

Once you have attended a training session if I could kindly ask you to email through a copy of your new qualification so we can keep it on file to sally@dfe.net.au.

Also a big thank you to Deb and Josh who have been helping me out with checking first aid certificates. I really appreciate your help 🙂 only the white van and the little blue truck to go!

Finally Dragonfly Environmental will be going ONLINE with the safety Work Method Statments and Material Safety Data Sheets. These will all be available in May from our DROPBOX account! This will help to make us not only super safe but super efficient and helps us “Care” for the environment with less paper!

By Sally Guthrie – Human Resources and Quality Control Manager – Division 1 & 5

THE LATEST ENVIRO NEWS UPDATES…
Click on the latest environmental news items to see what is being discovered!

1. How wetlands can help us adapt to rising seas
2. A new way to target cane toads
3. Cane toad survival secret revealed
4. Reintroducing locally extinct mammals
5. Urban Jungle
6. ‘Nanobionics’ aims to give super powers
7. Sydney’s Raingarden Revolution
8. Lyssavirus warning in NSW
9. Habitat Stepping Stones

MAKING THE FISH HAPPY IN LANE COVE NATIONAL PARK
We’ve picked up some exciting new projects for us to all work on over the next couple of months.  As well, we’ve just won a NEW contract to restore Saltmarsh and riparian vegetation in Lane Cove National Park – some of the sites are important fish breeding grounds and the project aims to improve commercial fish stocks, which goes to show that the work we do can have impacts far beyond the immediate area we work in. (See pic below)

To coincide and celebrate this exciting new initiative on World Fish Day Mia will be presenting at Lane Cove National Park on:

“The Importance of Saltmarsh to Fish”

When: Saturday 24th May
Where: Lane Cove Weir. Lane Cove National Park
Time: 9:30am-12:00pm
Organisers: Department of Fisheries with Lane Cove National Park
Cost: FREE

Enjoy a FREE BBQ after!!

We’re also waiting to hear back shortly on a whole slew of big bush regeneration projects as the financial year ends – projects where we can make a big noticeable difference very quickly!

Great to be onboard and driving DIV 2 Sales!!

By Robert McDougall – Sales Manager – Division 2

UNWELCOMED INVADERS
The sun in the East and the moon in the West
This time of year is the one I like best
Though you tend to get a bit grubby from it being so muddy
And hope for a day that turns out to be sunny
Well we plod through the bush looking out for unwelcome invaders
We ask them to move along and spread the word to their neighbours
To make room for the seeds that would like to come up
Because until their gone we just won’t give up!

By James Dalby Ball Site Supervisor + Crew!! Keeping the Emotional Tone Scale High 🙂 even when faced with “unwelcome invaders”

CALLING BUSH REGENERATORS + 1 ECOLOGIST
With the Dragonfly Team coming across all types of wonderful and friendly creatures (pictured below) we are also on the look out for wonderful and friendly Bush Regenerators to support our projects in the North and West + an excellent Ecologist to help Mia out in DIV 4.

If you know of anyone that will slot perfectly into the Dragonfly Family then please ask them to contact sally at sally@dfe.net.au. Thank you!!

TEAM UPDATE
We have some exciting new changes to our Organisation Board with the following updatees:

1) Robert McDougall – Has Stepped up to be Sales Manager – Head of Division 2. Robert is working Mon-Thurs, and one of these days he is still keeping his hand in working out in the field and where needed supporting Mia in Div 4B Monitoring & Reporting. Congrats Robert!!

2) Sam Keanan-Brown – Sam will be commencing on the 5th May as a new Site Supervisor for Western Sydney. Sam comes to us with 8+ years experience working at Toolijooa. Sam has managed large teams and more recently has been working in the Special Projects Division. Sam is energetic and passionate about what he does and is a tools and maintenance expert. No doubt James and the team will love having this extra support!

3) Rachael Buzio – Already making herself a much loved and popular member of the Dragonfly Team she will shortly be transitioning into overseeing Division 6. So watch this space…

WHAT OUR CLIENTS ARE SAYING…
Dear Liz and Julian,

“Thanks for the reports – just wanted to say that I think they are perfect for the job,  giving really clear information.  Have looked at most of the sites lately and they are looking good.

Thanks a lot for your work, it is appreciated.”

Regards,
Michelle Brown – Hornsby Council

A GREAT ACHIEVEMENT AT TIMBERTOP RESERVE!
The team have done fantastic work out at Timbertop Reserve at Blacktown. All that hard work in the hot, dry Blacktown sun, crowning out and deseeding Eragrostis curvula amongst spiky Bursaria has paid off!

Brendan from Blacktown council was excited to find Hybanthus stellarioides Spade flower.

He said that this species has not been found in any of Blacktown councils reserves before and it is a “credit to our teams great work” (photo below).

All that hand weeding paid off! I’m hoping now with all this extra rain we are going to get some awesome regeneration. Below is a before and after of where the spade flower was found. You can also see the lovely Microlaena that is going to spread all the way to the road and will hopefully and eventually be a beautiful green lush Grassland.

By Jen Coleman – Site Supervisor – Division 4

NEWS FROM THE WEST!
It’s been a rainy couple of weeks and with that, lots of growth! We’ve become a Bidens extermination crew, allowing some natives to go nuts! Exciting regen is happening on sites like James Greenwood Reserve and Richard Webb Reserve, with great patches of native groundcover emerging from the soil. Other fascinating things to grow from the soil are the awesome array of mushrooms. We’ve found mushrooms of all shapes and sizes, making our time playing around in the soil that bit more interesting! Check them out below!

By Julian Reyes – Site Supervisor + Crew – Division 4

IMMERSE AGRIFORM FLOATING HERBICIDE
Dragonfly has a new herbicide that they will be shortly introducing called Immerse

What is Immerse? Immerse is a heavy duty sufactant initially developed for mixing with various herbicides to improve their effectiveness when applied for control of water weeds. It is now one of the most effective products for floating water weed control.

Used to control: Salvinia, Water Lettuce and Red Azolla in waterways and dams

Key Points:

• It is only effects floating weeds, other plants like reeds, water lilies, and even water hyacinth are not effected
• As it is combined with kerosene it is not considered ‘frog friendly” but has had no significant long term impact
• As weed matter decays it could deplete the oxygen levels in the water which may be harmful to fish
• Do  not use in human drinking water

The supervisors have the latest information on this new product and all the vehicles have the Material Safety Data Sheet. If all teams can review both of these for WHS that will be great! We look forward to hearing how it goes!

EXCITING UPCOMING MAY EVENTS
Here are a selection of interesting and insightful events coming up this month. Check them out:

1. Beautiful Whale – life-size photography by Bryant Austin Fri 11 April 2014 – Sun 1 February 2015
2. National Trust  – Bushcare Groups – various days available
3. International Permaculture Day – 30th April – 4th May 2014
4. World Migratory Bird Day  – 10th May 2014
5. Landcare for Singles Saturday  – 10th May 2014
6. Sleepers Awake – Bungarribee Western Sydney Parklands – 17-26 May 2014

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