Between the 24th and 27th November 2008 Willow Warriors with Duke of Edinburgh candidates from Pacific Christian School and Macmasters Beach SLSC, carried out a monitoring activity along the MacDonald River with the objective to monitor the MacDonald River between the Upper Macdonald bridge and the St Albans Cemetery treating the small black willows that we found .

Results:

• Mapped 874 black willows and treated 803.
• Mapped the location of 6 Chilean Pencil willows along the river and could see no indication they were spreading from the two locations where they have been planted.
• Monitored 23 kilometres of river but had to leave 71 willows untreated between 0308643 - 6317406 and the Mogo Creek junction as we ran out of time and so stopped treating and just mapped the willows down to the camp site
• We found only two or three trees that would have survived the original treatment program although some of the 6 or 7 meter high trees were probably seedlings that were not seen during the primary treatment program and have grown into view since

Comments:

• The total person hours was calculated based on – the PCS group met up with Jeff at St Albans at 9:30 Monday morning; Jake from PCS had to leave us at lunch time on Wednesday for a sports event back at school; the Macmasters beach group joined us on Tuesday evening and we finished up at 15:00 on Thursday. So the Following hours were contributed 5 people x((7hrs x 3 days) + 6hrs)+ 1 person x((7hrs x 2 days) + 4hrs) plus 5 people x (7hrs + 6hrs) = 135hrs + 18hrs + 65hrs = 218hrs
• With rain in the Macdonald catchment on the Thursday and Saturday prior to the trip we changed the activity from the Murrumbidgee or Wingecarribee to the Macdonald so we could paddle this normally dry river bed. Unfortunately the river level dropped by Monday morning and so we had to occasionally walk the boats over the end of sand bars over the 4 days. This did not make the trip as much fun and it did slow down our progress but it allowed us to treat most of the willows when they were out of the water. Treatment during the lower flows may be required for at least two years to allow us to successfully treat the willows growing amongst the reeds. To take advantage of a rain event to do a quicker trip you would need to paddle the river within one or two days of 25ml falling in a day across the catchment. The rain in the upper catchment (Howe’s Valley) appears to take 2 days to peak at St Albans. Given this it you would need a longer rain event to be able to paddle the river from higher up in the catchment.
• We mainly mapped the willows individually or in small clusters. Although there were 6 locations where we mapped them in 100 meter transacts as there would have been too many waypoints close together to record. The willows ranged in height up to 6 or 7 meters but were mainly 3 or 4 meters. Many female plants were seen and the catkins were drying out and the seed being dispersed while we were there. There seedlings were a rage of ages and when treating many of the taller seedlings amongst the reed we found smaller seedlings so we know future visits will find seedlings growing into view.
• The riparian zone vegetation ranged between grazed and so little native vegetation to full native vegetation. There were a large number of electric fences running across the river and you could see the contrast between land management and vegetation as you went under the fences. Reeds are present on all properties where livestock was excluded from the riparian zone and many of the willows were found in these reeds. In some locations the reed banks narrowed the channel making the water deeper and in 4 or 5 locations the reeds grew across the river and so you had to force a path through them, which was a task Scott and Tom excelled at. We also noted many re-vegetation sites.
• Over the 4 days we only had one or two light showers on one day. Otherwise the weather was fine and warm to hot with plenty of opportunities for a swim and the occasional deep pool particularly on the Wednesday and Thursday. Nights were also fine although cloudy on Tuesday and Wednesday and we were able to have a cooking fire on all nights
• The D of E Award candidates worked well in this environment although a couple looked like they would have enjoyed a little more white water than was on offer. Whilst the number of black willows found was disappointing as it will mean more work is required that we originally thought. With the number of black willows found the results were fantastic. In chatting to Kate she said the members of the community had been watching the seedlings re-appearing and as a group they were not sure how they would summons the energy to start a follow-up program and then along came this d of E group and they have gone along way to solving the problem for the community who have worked so hard in the past to control the original black willows.
• The group camped on the sand bank near the Mogo Creek junction where there is a public access ford. This was opposite Kate’s place and was a great camp site and should be kept in mind for future multi day monitoring activities. He hung the Willow Warriors banner where the track to the ford met the Upper Macdonald Road so landowners could see we were in the valley.
• Despite all the work in the reeds no snakes were seen on the trip. There is probably an element of luck in this but it also reflects the responsible way the participants went about the task