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The Friends of Sherbrooke Forest Inc. was formed in 1980 primarily to help the
then Forests Commission restore and maintain an urban forest threatened by a
suburban setting which inevitably generates pest plants and animals. A
major part of our work involves "inactivating weeds".
This FOSF member is
"inactivating" a weed.
Roots of weedy trees like Holly & Sycamore Maple must first be
uncovered before drilling them and filling the holes with herbicide. This lot
will need about 10 or 12 holes! The Velpar pack on ground at right holds herbicide
and is fitted with a gun-like injector that delivers a predetermined dose.
We presently have about 50 members, and our main activities are:
Weeding Parties
Eradication of weeds happens up to six times per month. We usually have 5 - 15
members at our weeding "parties" and non-members are encouraged to
join us as well! Everyone is welcome. We usually have spare tools with us for people who
don't have tools of their own.
- at 09:30 on the second Wednesday
each month
- at 13:30 on the fourth Saturday
each month
- at 09:00 on Tuesday mornings -- except the second Tuesday
each month
The venues for Saturday "parties" are listed in
our Newsletter
and on our Current
Event Schedule page.
| The venues for the Tuesday
and Wednesday sessions vary from week to week.
To obtain details, please feel free to email us (see our
Contact Us page). |
Lyrebird Surveys
Our group has strong ties with the
Sherbrooke Lyrebird Survey Group and many
of our members belong to that group as well as FOSF. As a
result, we include their "Dawn Surveys" on our events
schedule and encourage everyone to take part in the important work
of monitoring the population of lyrebirds.
Vegetation Surveys
The first survey programme was concluded in 2001 after some 16 years. The
data, which includes both indigenous plants and weeds , has been entered into
a database and can be used to pinpoint weeding sites or to describe locations
of specified plants .
Newsletter
"Forest Focus" is produced about three times a
year. It helps us keep members informed of upcoming events and pass on
important notes. The most current edition is available on this website
(see the "Newsletter" link).
Newsletters have been produced since 1980 so that now (February 2013 ) we are up to
No 133. Previous editions have been digitised and requests can be emailed to
our Webmaster.
Publication of Forest Information
A booklet entitled "Weeds of Forests, Roadsides and Gardens" was
researched and brought to publication stage by our members. It was
published by the then Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands in 1985
and reprinted in 1989. Unfortunately, this publication is now out of print
but is available on CD on application to the Webmaster.
A second publication about the indigenous flora and history of Sherbrooke
Forest has been printed recently. See Newsletter page on this site .
Committee Meetings
A committee of 9 meets bimonthly to discuss matters of interest e.g mail to
and from interested parties [students, friends groups, government officials
etc] progress of work, future weeding and survey sites.
Water Watch
In 2003 we undertook Water Watch, an activity organised by Melbourne Water
which monitors the condition of waterways in Victoria. Since then we
have been checking Monbulk Creek near the Trestle Bridge in Selby and Hardy
Creek near its junction with Monbulk Creek at intervals of
about six weeks. We measure a number of physical and chemical
properties and also record a variety of waterbugs (more properly "Macroinvertebrates")
e.g. amphipods. These observations are a good indication of the health
of the creeks.
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