Introduction
The Blue Mountains Wildplant
Rescue Service (BMWRS) - the first of its
kind in Australia - was formed to help protect and promote the natural
values of the Blue Mountains. It has been hailed as a model for
communities around Australia working in a practical way to conserve and
extend local biodiversity and to save remnant bushland from sprawling
development.
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The inception of BMWRS
Wildplant Rescue Service was
formally established in
1994 as a community driven, not-for-profit organisation, based in the
Blue Mountains of New South Wales.
It was a new and innovative
concept for saving the
natural plant heritage in urban areas of the Blue Mountains.
The concept evolved in
January 1993 when Mikla Lewis,
founder
of the organisation, was working alone to rescue plants from a block of
land destined for imminent development. It occurred to Mikla that if a
group of people were working together, so many more plants could be
saved.
Mikla had been instrumental
in the establishment and
management of the NSW Wildlife Information and Rescue Service (WIRES)
nearly a decade earlier. She reasoned that the idea of a network of
volunteers working to save native plants could be just as effective.
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What
is a wildplant?
Another founder member of the
group, Wyn Jones, a naturalist then
working for the National Parks and Wildlife Service, coined the word
wildplant. Wyn - who was later to be involved with the discovery and
scientific description of the ancient Wollemi Pine - created wildplant
from the botanical equivalent of wildlife. Wyn and Mikla hoped the
concept would encourage people to think about plants in much the same
way they had come to care about animals.
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Preserving a World
Heritage area
The City of Blue Mountains,
dubbed 'The city within a
National Park', was uniquely positioned to benefit from the formation
of a pilot Wildplant Rescue Service.
This recently listed World
Heritage area, then home to
more than 75,000 people, was under continuing pressure from more than
500 building permits issued every year, with most of the development
affecting unspoiled native vegetation.
Block by block, the bushland
nature of the Blue
Mountains urban area was being slowly but steadily lost, replaced by
exotic gardens which deprive native wildlife of food and habit and
create huge weed problems in surrounding bushland and National Park.
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Turning an idea into action
With their broad objective
established, Mikla, as
Project Manager, supported by a core group of volunteers began working
to transform the dream into a reality. The Hon. Pam Allan, MP, who soon
after became the NSW Minister for the Environment, officially launched
the organisation on the 19th of February, 1995.
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From rescue to propagation
As the group evolved, the
original idea of rescuing
native plants developed into a bigger plan. The group became aware of
the importance of protecting wildplant and wildlife communities in the
Blue Mountains on a broader scale than solely rescuing condemned
wildplants.
The collection of seeds and
cuttings for propagation and
on-selling to the local community was added to the concept. The
facilities at Mount Tomah Botanic Garden were used for propagation of
rescued seeds and cuttings, which were then cared for by group members
in their own gardens.
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Establishment of the Nursery
In 1998 BMWRS opened its own nursery at the Clairvaux Community Centre and employed a part-time Nursery Coordinator. This has enabled BMWRS to take on contract native plant propagation and
supply for a number of
organisations, including local authorities, landscape contractors and
bush regeneration groups.
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The Nursery Today
Development on bushland, in the Blue Mountains, has slowed down. Although regular rescues are still carried out there are less than in the early days of the service. As a consequence a much larger proportion of BMWRS's activities are centred on plant propogation from seeds and cuttings at the nursery. It has been decided therefore to give the nursery its own distinctive name - "Katoomba Native Plant Nursery".
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In Conclusion
The success of BMWRS has
proved
that the concept is a good one
that could be adapted and effectively used throughout New South Wales
and beyond. In the same way that
movements such as Landcare and Greening
Australia have caught-on, it is hoped that Wildplant Rescue will also
help to change
the way Australians think about and treat their landscape
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