The Hawkesbury Landcare Source to Sea paddle was first run in September 2009. The event was funded by the Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment Managements and was run to showcase the work done by landcare and bushcare volunteers, private landowners and public landmangers with funding received from funding bodies like the Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment Management Authority and the NSW Environamntal Trust, Envirofund or the new Caring for Our Country program or Department of Lands or the Sydney Catchment Authority.

A group of paddlers kayaked from the Warragamba river junction on the Nepean to Pittwater over five days stopping of at sites restored by  landowners contractors and landcare amd bushcare volunteers.

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Maintaining Our Hawkesbury River Restoration is a project where Willow Warriors in partnership with the Hawkesbury Youth Landcare Group and the Hawkesbury Rainforest Network visit sites to monitor and maintain the sites that have been restored by landcare and buchcare groups and private landwoners along the Hawkesbury River and its tributaries. The project will start in February 2010.

  The Willows out of Our Rivers (WOR) project does not have the goal of removing all willows from Australia. The project has two linked overriding objectives. The first is to map willows by taxa and also look for galleries of seedlings, to determine where the varieties of willows that spread by seed are located, and then work with the community to treat the seedlings and the taxa or trees producing the seed. The reason we have selected whitewater rivers is not just because we enjoy whitewater paddling, but it is because these rivers flow through or adjacent to land managed not for agricultural production but for it's conserrvation values. Our second over riding objective is to assist public and private landowners, who manage their land for it's conservation values, to control willows on their land. The link betwen the two arises because managing the spread of willows vegetatively along a river from agricultural land is not all that difficult it just requires a biannual monitoring program at the upstreaam end of a property where willows have been removed. But monitoring the spread of willows by wind blown seed across or between catchments is very difficlut and requires planning and broad scale managment.

There is more detail on the Project and it's proposed outcomes and objectives below.

Be Natural Hawkesbury—Nepean Conservation Kayaking to control Black Willow 

Conservation Objective:

To protect rivers, creeks & swamps in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area (GBMWHA)  and wetlands in the Hawkesbury floodplains by removing the remaining black willow trees from along the Hawkesbury Nepean River.

Black willows are a Weed of National Significance www.weeds.org.au/WONS/Willows  They spread by windblown seed up to 60km & a single large tree can produce tens of thousands of seed that spread along rivers & creeks & into wetlands, Black Willows form monocultures, shading out Casuarinas, Bottle Brush, Tea Trees, Sandpaper figs, Lilly Pilli, Phragmities reeds and other native, seed bearing, plants that are the food source of many native birds.

What we do:

Willow Warriors organise a kayak paddles along the Nepean River to poison Black Willows using bioactive glyphosate which is approved for use along waterways by  volunteers . Volunteers & parks staff have already removed Black Willows from the Colo & Grose River sub-catchments that flow through the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area . Hawkesbury River County Council, Willow Warriors, Wetlandcare Australia and Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment Management Authority  are partners in a two year program to remove Black willows from the catchment.

The Bega River willow mapping and monitoring project is part of the Willows out of Our Rivers project that is mapping willows by taxa across South East NSW to update the data available of willow distribution. At the same time where resources are available Black Willows and Grey Sallow Willows are being treated where we have landowner consent. If we find evidence that other willows are seeding we will also be helping landowners with managing these willows where resources are available.

Work has not commenced on this catchment

The Clyde River willow mapping and monitoring project is part of the Willows out of Our Rivers project that is mapping willows by taxa across South East NSW to update the data available on willow distribution.