2023 President's Report
by Geoff Curry
The last year has been another successful year for TPT. Over 800 volunteer hours were contributed by TPT members and we thank everyone for their participation. This year's report is a quick look back on some of the trip highlights and the potential for nationally significant projects going forward.
The long term monitoring and extension surveys at Forico’s Surrey Hills Estate continue to add valuable information about the threatened grasslands species and their management.
The annual surveys of the 2 EPBC listed orchids at Milford continues, this long term monitoring, conducted by TPT since 2009 is providing data that has contributed to the ongoing management of that site and is being used to find trends between temperature, rainfall and flowering abundance.
TPT members assisted NRM North with their annual monitoring of Shy Susan at Dans Hill near Beaconsfield.
A number of members assisted in Extension Surveys of likely habitat for Midlands rare orchids and were successful in confirming new sites for some of the orchids.
A couple of TPT members with specific skills assisted NRM South and The Tasmanian Seed Bank to collect seed from the critically endangered Epacris stuartii (Southport heath).
Looking forward, the Federal Government is offering grants to support the long term protection of species on the ‘100 Priority Threatened Species List’. The 100 Priority Species have been selected to help focus the efforts of the Australian Government and its partners on threatened species recovery actions. In Tasmania the Davies’ Waxflower (Phebalium daviesii) and Graveside Leek-orchid (Prasophyllum taphanyx) are on the list and TPT has been asked to Partner with NRE to work on the Davies’ Waxflower and Landscape Recovery Foundation to work on the Graveside Leek-orchid project. Funding applications have been submitted for these 2 projects and if successful will give TPT members the opportunity to work on nationally significant projects over several years. Magali and Joe will talk briefly about these 2 projects after the AGM formalities have been completed.
As usual none of this happens by accident and the TPT Committee has been working hard to provide a variety of exciting and worthwhile Field Trips. There are some Field Trips planned with Partners new to TPT including Hobart International Airport and Clarence Council and we continue to work with our traditional Partners such as the Tasmanian Parks and the regional NRM’s. All of this work will be wasted if TPT cannot provide Field Trip Leaders so one of my priorities this year is to see more people trained and able to lead Field Trips.
The first training session will be held next Sunday for 3 people who have put their hand up to take on a larger role within TPT, I’m hopeful that more training will be offered throughout the Field Trip Season.
I encourage every member to consider taking on a role on the Committee or as a Field Trip Leader as without these roles being filled, TPT cannot offer the opportunities to its members.
I will be stepping down as President at next years AGM (at the latest) so now would be the ideal time for somebody to put their hand up for the role and get 12 months training and assistance ready to step into the role next year.
Geoff Curry