Pesticide use notification:

We have noticed an increase in the number of bush rats in and around some of our picnic areas.

Aside from being a pest, these bush rats hunt and displace native fauna and feed on native bird's eggs.

We are currently establishing a program at Plough and Harrow East and West to control their numbers. This includes trialing a chemical free method, alongside a low dose chemical solution, which aims to avoid secondary poisoning of other animals. This bait is called Racumin.
We anticipated that if the chemical free method (called Ekorodent) is successful, we will phase out the low dose chemical bait in the near future.

The program will begin on Friday 22 March 2012 and will continue until otherwise notified.

Biorestoration

Biorestoration activities within the Parklands have been conducted under the Greening Western Sydney program since 1992. The Western Sydney Parklands Trust is committed to protect biodiversity and environmental quality within the Parklands by:

Identifying and tackling threats to biodiversity
Improving knowledge of the biodiversity
Involving landowners and communities in biodiversity conservation
Managing natural resources better, for ecologically sustainable development
Protecting native species and ecosystems

The Trust has committed a further $2.7 million over the next three years for ongoing biorestoration activities across the Parklands.

These biorestoration activities include:

The Environmental Monitoring component which will establish much needed base line information to provide a record of what flora and fauna are currently in the Parklands and monitor changes over time. They will also assist the Trust to target future restoration programs and measure the effect of the Trust's work to improve the sustainability and ecological productivity of the Parklands.
The Priority Sites component will reduce the impact of targeted weed species and other threatening processes to identified Endangered Ecological Communities within the Parklands. The viability of these endangered flaura communities will be enhanced through planting and restorative works.
The Threat Abatement component concentrates on larger scale weed management and impact mitigation. The first stage will be in the Eastern Creek Catchment area of the Parklands.

The Western Sydney Parklands Trust has rolled out waste bins across the Parklands at Pimelea, Plough and Harrow, The Diary, Bungarribee, Moonrise Lookout and Sugarloaf Ridge.

All waste placed in the bins is collected by SITA Environmental Solutions and transported to the nearby Kemps Creek SITA facility for sorting and processing into a valuable resource. Aluminium cans, paper, newspapers and magazines, cardboard, plastics, glass, and packaging are recycled to be used to manufacture other products. Food waste is returned into an organic resource to the land in the form of compost.

Visit the SITA Environmental Solutions website for more information.

It is expected that about 85% of the waste collected in the Parklands will diverted from landfill and used as a valuable resource to be used again. By recovering and recycling our waste this will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and is environmentally responsible and sustainable.

During 2011 Environmental Officers will be visiting the parks to encourage people to use the bins and provide more information on this important environmental initiative. Also in the coming year we will be providing information on alternative picnic products that will assist in further reducing waste and ensuring that the products used can be recycled.

2013 Western Sydney Environment Calendar

Western Sydney Environment This program is now administered by the Western Sydney Parklands Trust and aims to encourage school-aged children to think about what they can do to lessen their impact on the planet and explore current issues affecting their environment.

The program consists of an art competition with an environmental theme, open to all NSW Government primary school children from the Greater Western Sydney region. Winning artworks are selected from over the 14 Local Government Areas and these winning artworks will appear in the 2013 Calendar.

The original artworks are framed and exhibited in an art exhibition before being returned to the winning schools. 6000 calendars are distributed across Western and South Western Sydney.

Each year a new environmental theme is selected and the theme for 2013 is 'Kids R Green'. The Calendar is produced in partnership with DET, Office of Strategic Lands, Landcom, Westlink/M7, NSW Dept of Education and Communities and Calmsley Hill City Farm, all generous sponsors of the program.

Closing date for entries is Friday 31 August 2012. For Competition details and entry form, click here.