Trust launches new Strategic Plan …Towards 2030
The Trust recently launched its new Strategic Plan …Towards 2030. Trust Chair, Jon Hutchins, advises that this Plan is framed around four core pillars that position the Trust for increased scale, influence, and impact, being:
- Impact through Innovation;
- Partnering;
- Granting Excellence; and
- Enabling Resources.
Together, these pillars support an ambitious vision to demonstrate large-scale biodiversity, carbon, and productivity benefits across more than 10,000 hectares of privately managed land.
Grant awarded to the Conservation Ecology Centre
The Trust is pleased to congratulate its most recent grant recipient. The Conservation Ecology Centre (CEC) will receive $109,250 over two years, to undertake the Carlisle Landscape Recovery Initiative.
This project is in response to the January 2026 bushfires, which burned more than 11,000 hectares across the western Otways. Among the area impacted were the Carlisle Heathlands – a landscape of exceptional ecological and cultural significance. Known as Ground Parrot Country to the Eastern Maar people, the Carlisle heathlands are a critical refuge for threatened species and hold deep cultural meaning. The fires caused major ecological change across this landscape, affecting habitats that support some of the highest recorded densities of small mammals in south-west Victoria.
The initiative, led by the CEC, seeks to translate more than a decade of baseline data into immediate post-fire action. The initiative is built around two projects, being: Next Generation Conservation Science and Biological Restoration of Ground Parrot Country.
GROUNDED festival sponsor
The Trust is proud to be sponsoring GROUNDED in 2026 – a cross between a world class conference, an informative field day and a food festival. It will be held at Yan Yan Gurt West Farm in the Otway Ranges, on 22 and 23 April, 2026.
GROUNDED brings together those who want to support, learn, and expand systems that produce food and fibre that ultimately improve ecological, financial, mental, and physical health – and in doing so, community health. GROUNDED is for farmers, eaters, and anyone interested in healthier landscapes, food and community
Over the two days, attendees can expect bold conversations, standout speakers, hands-on workshops and paddock demonstrations across multiple stages. Add local food and drink, live music, on-site camping and starry skies – this is the gathering you’ll be talking about all year.
For more information, or to get your tickets, visit the GROUNDED website.
VicBioCon 2026 research grants awarded
The 10th VicBioCon, held in February, welcomed over 500 people each day of the conference, including students, researchers, community leaders, industry professionals, and more. These were record breaking numbers for an event that continues to get bigger every year. The Trust was pleased to support and attend the event again this year, and proud to sponsor two research grants awarded at the conference.
The Bushland Conservation Grant was awarded to Lauren Haylen, a PhD student at La Trobe University. Lauren’s research is titled ‘Investigating Methods to Generate Recruitment and Restore Greater Ecosystem Functioning to Revegetation Sites’. Her project aims to enhance the ecological outcomes of revegetation sites and will investigate the use of soil and litter transplants to rapidly assist the recovery and transition of revegetation sites from simple tree plantings to complex habitat. The main hypothesis is that the conducted soil and litter transplant will cause an increase in both invertebrate and floral species diversity in treatment sites.
The VicBioCon Research Grant was awarded to Rhys Healy, a PhD student at Federation University. Rhys’s project is titled ‘Holes to Recovery: Investigating Hollow Resources and Occupancy at the Limit of their Species Range’. His project aims to evaluate whether chainsaw-carved artificial hollows can provide a viable, short-term conservation action for hollow-dependent fauna, including Southern Greater Gliders (Petauroides volans), in Wombat State Forest, near the species’ range edge. The project will deliver practical evidence to guide hollow-creation programs and forest habitat management in Victoria.
Congratulations Lauren and Rhys, we look forward to hearing the outcomes of your research at VicBioCon 2027!
NRCL seeking new Board Directors
The Natural Resources Conservation League (NRCL) is seeking expressions of interest from well-credentialled professionals to join its Board of Directors.
For over 75 years, the Natural Resources Conservation League (NRCL) has been actively promoting the sustainable management of Victoria’s natural resources. It has always had a practical focus, seeking to promote change through education, partnering and promoting community engagement in revegetation.
This is an excellent opportunity to join a skills-based board with a clear commitment to the organisation’s purpose, values and long-term objectives. Incoming directors are expected to share this same passion and interest of natural resource management, environmental conservation and sustainable development.
For more information, or to apply, visit the Future Leadership website.
The closing date for applications is 28 April 2026.
BushBank Seed Sector Grants
Congratulations to the Euroa Arboretum and Seeding Victoria on receiving BushBank Seed Sector Grants recently.
The Euroa Arboretum was funded $900,000, which will enable them to expand native woody seed orchards in the Goulburn Broken Catchment by around 32Ha, and deliver a purpose-built seedbank facility that will double their current processing and storage capacity. The funding will also allow the Arboretum to continue to support Taungurung and Yorta Yorta Traditional Owners as they connect to Country – assisting through hands-on training and advice in harvesting, processing and storage of seed for their own cultural purposes. The Arb will also use the funding to invest in mechanical harvesting equipment to quickly and efficiently collect seed.
Seeding Victoria have been funded $1.099m to enable them to expand their wild harvest programs, establish approx. 29Ha of Seed Production Areas, develop their workforce, increaase the training programs to grow the pool of skilled seed collectors, create new employment pathways, and support meaningful partnerships with Traditional Owner groups. The funding will also allow for the purchase of more equipment, deliver critical improvements to their seed data infrastructure and enhance the Creswick seed storage facility to increase capacity and long-term storage efficiency.
New Futures Landscape Action Plan Handbook launch
Landcare Victoria is proud to present the Landscape Action Plan Handbook, a culmination of the three-year New Futures for Victoria Landcare Project, funded by the Trust and The Ian Potter Foundation. Landcare Victoria was joined online by project partners, pilot landscapes and funders to launch the Handbook earlier this month.
The Landscape Action Plan Handbook presents the key principles and steps that landcare organisations can undertake to develop a Landscape Action Plan for their area. It draws on international and national frameworks, expert knowledge and learnings from the pilot project, to present a best practice approach to support leadership, partnership development and tailor local landscape outputs.
The handbook is intended as a guide and complemented with resourcing to deliver the program. For more information and resources to assist you on your Landscape Action Plan journey, visit the Landcare Victoria website.
To request a hard copy of the Handbook, please contact Landcare Victoria at [email protected].
You can also watch the Landscape Action Plan launch webinar now on the Landcare Victoria YouTube channel.
Looking Back – State Library digitisation project
The NRCL has a long history of publishing materials related to conservation. Throughout the 20th century, the League produced an array of resources, including books, pamphlets, conference proceedings and a quarterly magazine. The State Library of Victoria has preserved over 30 of the NRCL’s publications, with the collection serving as an important record of the state’s environmental heritage and conservation efforts.
In 2025, the NRCL and the State Library Victoria entered into a partnership to enhance access to these important publications. Under this partnership, the Library committed to digitising 24 of the NRCL’s publications, totalling approximately 5,200 pages. These newly digitised works are now available through the Library’s online catalogue.
In the collection you will find more than 100 digitised books, annual reports, magazines and forum papers. For example, there are many editions of the NRCL’s magazine Trees and Natural Resources, as well as several editions of Arbor Week, an annual publication, which aimed to “encourage every child in the state, to participate in arresting the decline of trees throughout Victoria”.
The book, Man, the Earth and Tomorrow, from 1969, by DC White and CS Elliot is the first book produced by the Natural Resources Conservation League (according to the book’s foreword). For a publication nearly 60-years old, its content remains remarkably relevant today. For example, in the first chapter, The Meaning of Conservation, it states that “Conservation is the art of living properly within one’s environment. It is the use of modern technology to provide for man’s needs in such a way that the environment will not deteriorate but continue to fulfil those needs for generation after generation”.
