The upcoming Science Forum to be held at Winton Wetlands on 1-2 March will feature not just three information-packed panel sessions, but also a stimulating dinner with keynote speaker.
The Dinner will be at Zeus Cafe in the main street of Benalla at 6.30pm on Tuesday 1 March. Along with great food it will feature keynote speaker Paul Foreman, former chair of Biolinks Alliance, who will share valuable insider knowledge of The Spring Plains Restoration Project – https://biolinksalliance.org.au/spring-plains
The Spring Plains Restoration Project aims to apply a range of innovative ecological restoration techniques to a 138 hectare watershed in the Heathcote region to ‘reset’ the altered forest. These new measures are designed to help make watersheds more absorbent and productive – or less ‘leaky’, to put it another way.
To halt species extinctions and ecological breakdown, and to build resilience to climate change, cooperative approaches and appropriate technologies are seen as critical. As a pilot project in the Heathcote Local to Landscape program, the Spring Plains project is part of a longer-term and landscape-wide plan for ecological restoration of the region.
If successful the Spring Plains project offers potential as a model that might be adapted, repeated and extended into watersheds across the region.
The dinner will also include a short update on the Winton Wetlands Project and a brief overview of the Science Forum sessions happening either side of this event.
The overall theme for the 2022 Winton Wetlands Wetland Restoration Science Forum is “Managing wetlands in times of uncertainty”, with individual panel sessions on “Rewilding of Iconic Species” and “Communities of Practice for Restoration” on Day 1, and “Grassland Management” on Day 2. Attendees will also be offered an optional walk through the wetlands which make up Australia’s largest wetland conservation and restoration project.
For anyone unable to attend the conference itself – as well as those who will be there – the dinner provides a further important opportunity to mix and share with leaders in the field.
