Willow Warriors is an Adventure Conservation Group. Our volunteers seek to combine the excitement of white-water rafting, flat water kayaking and having fun in the outdoors with Landcare conservation activities.
Whilst the groups Organisational goal is very broad our current activities fall into two categories:
The first is the Willows Out of our Rivers (WOR) project where we map willows along rivers and in wetlands in south east New South Wales to find where seeding willows have spread and then poison these seeding willows to prevent them spreading into our World Heritage Areas, National Parks and other areas of high conservation values. Seeding willow taxa are mainly Black willows and Grey Sallow (Sal. Cinerea) Willows but there are also some seed producing hybrids. We have been involved in two crack willow control programs but they were very specific programs. One was to protect the habitat of two endangered species and the other was to help a local community reclaim their river so they could enjoy it again.
The second is the Maintaining the Hawkesbury Restoration project where we assist landcare groups in the Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment with their landcare projects and engage young volunteers in adventure conservation activities. We visit Landcare sites along rivers in the catchment with active landcare/ bushcare groups or landowners or sites where riparian restoration projects have occured in the past and some maintenance work is required and assist the group site with weeding, tree planting, rubbish removal and in some cases collecting data on the changes to the site. Whilst this project is specifically in the Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment we are also working with the Illawarra young Landcare Group where they ask for our assistance to do something similar in their catchment and have a member living in Canberra who is interested in doing something similar along the Murrumbidgee.
Our activities
.Include Kayaking on flat water sections of rivers, lakes and wetlands and whitewater rafting on higher grade rivers. We specialise in volunteering in difficult to access river reaches in national parks and wilderness areas although we also paddle on rivers flowing through privately owned property. This allows us to map and treat willows without inconveniencing landowners and land managers.
Include one day activities, car camping weekends, and remote area over-night and multi-day trips.
Help young people interested in conservation get involved though helping other groups with their landcare projects
These activities combine outdoor activities with river restoration:
Map the location and numbers of willows along the river.
Treat the invasive willows where we have permission.
Assist with re-vegetation of willow sites.
Follow up and monitor sections of rivers where willow control has taken place.
arranging paddles with young landcarers to sites where they can help other landcare groups or landowners with their projects.
Our volunteers currently come from across south east NSW and the ACT to attend activities on whitewater rivers across the Hawkesbury Nepean, Southern rivers Murrumbidgee and Murray Catchment Regions
Here are some placestories (slideshows with a narration) about the Willows Out of our rivers Program and the rivers we paddle to protect.
We also have a twitter account willow_warrior but we are can not fit the amount of fun we have into 140characters
Willow Warriors projects to protect the environment and specifically our water ways are funded in the main by the NSW Environmental Trust. But we also have several other corporate and government agencies supporting our projects.
PRIVACY STATEMENT: We are committed to protecting your privacy and will hold your contact details on our database to periodically send you newsletters regarding our activities. Please be assured that the information you provide will not be distributed and you will not receive any unsolicited mail. Your details will be kept confidential. If, in the future, you do not wish to receive information from Willow Warriors Inc. please advise us and we will remove your contact details from our database
