Member Update, Sept 2024
by Priscilla Richards
Thank you to everyone who made it to the AGM last month. The speaker for the event, Alexia Gaba-Landry from NRE Threatened Species Section, gave an insightful look into the process of listing (and de-listing) threatened species. She was pleasantly surprised by the engaging questions and enthusiasm for learning about what is quite a bureaucratic process, albeit one with important implications for Tasmania’s threatened flora. We hope to welcome her back soon!
During the obligatory part of the AGM, TPT saw the biggest turnover in the committee in several years, with a new President, Vice President, Secretary, and 5 new Committee members.
I would like to thank the departing committee members for many, many years of contributions to the Threatened Plants Tasmania committee: Geoff Curry (departing President), Magali Wright (departing Vice President), Douglas Clark, and Neale Colgrave. They are all still part of the organisation, so it’s a ‘see you later’, rather than a goodbye!
Here is your new TPT Committee:
Executive Committee:
Priscilla Richards (President)
Jill Colgrave (Vice President)
Judy Foulkes (Treasurer)
Sally Anthony (Secretary)
General Committee:
Peter Harrison
Eddie Gall
Cody Pearce
Masaki Pike
Stuart Rose
During the AGM, one member asked what TPT's official Purpose is, so I thought it would be a good time for us all to remind ourselves:
Our Purpose:
To conserve, learn and share knowledge about Tasmanian threatened plants by:
- Undertaking on ground recovery actions for priority species,
- Conducting surveys and monitoring to improve our knowledge,
- Sharing our love and passion of plants,
- Collaborating with others to achieve our conservation objectives; and
- Learning through sharing our collective knowledge.
The new committee had our first brief catchup, and everyone is keen to make the most of their roles and fill the Field Trip Program as best we can with a variety of field trips and workshops. It feels like an exciting point in time for TPT, with a lot of fresh ideas.
A Questionnaire for Landholders and Land Managers
Collaborating with Partners is an important part of our organisation. In an effort to expand TPT’s field trip locations, we are working with Landcare Tasmania to gauge interest from land holders and managers in learning about threatened plants on their land. If you are a land holder or land manager (private or public land) we invite you to complete the questionnaire.
2024 Field Season
First cab off the rank is the annual Caladenia saggicola survey at private property in Cambridge on 21st September. Registrations are open now.
We invite members to register for this field trip on the TPT website, or if this is not possible, by contacting the Field Trip Coordinator. You can check your membership status at the bottom of this email.
TPT will be holding a Native Grasses Workshop on the 8th of December in Campbell Town, led by Phil Collier. It will be an indoor workshop, and because of limited microscopes, we need to limit the workshop to 10 participants. If we can get a hold of more microscopes, we will open more places - please get in touch if you have a microscope we could borrow for the day. Registrations will be open to members first. An email will go out when registrations open.
I look forward to the field season ahead and hope to see many of you over the coming months.