The North Coast Environment Council is having a general meeting followed by a picnic, guest speakers and a walk through The Bog Conservation area.

Agenda for the Day

10am - morning tea/social for early arrivals

11am - Meeting starts, Member groups invited to contribute with an update about their organisation.

12:30 - 1:30 - Picnic Lunch, BYOB.  Coffee, tea provided

1:30 - Guest Presentations

1. Jim Morrison - Acknowledgement of Country and NCEC introduction, past, present and introduce committee members present 

2. Pete Knock - Nature Conservation Council

3. Iain Stych - Wildlife Photographer who does work for ENvite and the Big Scrub Conservancy

2:30 - 4pm - Guided tour of The Bog Conservation Area

The Bog Conservation Area

The Bog Conservation Area is situated in the beautiful Bungawalbyn catchment.  The property has an agreement with the Biodiversity Conservation Trust protecting 96.5 of the 100acre property located next to the Bundjalung State Conservation Area.  The property has many threatened species including active members of the endangered population of coastal emu.  Pete Knock has done quite a bit of worked in the area based from The Bog.  

You can learn more about the Nature Conservation Council's Safe Havens, Bobcat and Large Forest Owl project on their website: https://www.nature.org.au/owls_project

About the Speakers

Jim Morrison

Jim Morrison is the President of the North Coast Environment Council.  He is also on many working groups including;

• 15 years Chairman of the Bell Miner Associated Dieback Working Group
• Served 20 years on the NCC exectutive committee and convened the Forest Working Group 10 years.
• 10 years as President of the Northern Rivers Fire and Biodiversity Consortium.

Pete Knock 

Pete Knock is the Large Forest Owls Coordinator for the Nature Conservation Council (NCC):

• Barking Owls of the Bungawalbin (BoBCat) commenced in 2022 and is delivered across 8 properties containing key high use Barking Owl habitat within the Bungawalbin catchment. This project focuses on monitoring of Barking Owl and their habitat, as well as monitoring of nest boxes installed through the crowd funding campaign.
• Safe Havens commenced in mid-2023 and is being rolled out across a much larger area covering 260,000 hectares in the lower Richmond and Clarence valleys. This project aims to take the knowledge from the previous projects and apply them across a larger area to work with landholders to monitor and conserve all large forest owl species, their habitats and prey.

The NCC is currently implementing two projects through the Large Forest Owls Project which will assist the recovery, and improve the long-term viability of the large forest owls and arboreal mammals (gliders and possums) in the lower Richmond and Clarence Valley areas.

Iain Stych

Iain Stych’s background extends over twenty years of extensive animal husbandry experience, starting at Edinburgh Zoo in the mid eighty’s. In intervening years he has worked at Auckland Zoo, Adelaide Zoo, Monarto Zoo, Werribee’s Open Range Zoo and twice at Edinburgh, Healesville & Melbourne Zoo’s, working with all taxonomic groups. More recently working for Zoos Victoria, Iain has worked periods on all campuses, specialising in Reptiles, Open Range species and threatened species. His last Zoo Keeping position was at Healesville Sanctuary until late 2007, Iain’s role changed over the years at Healesville Sanctuary from Keeper-in-Charge of the Endangered Species section for 18 months prior to taking on a new role as Wildlife Project Supervisor for 3 years, followed by two years as Wildlife Supervisor of Threatened Species. Actively involved and responsible for all aspects of the captive management of Platypus and Recovery Programs such as Black-eared Miner , Orange–bellied Parrot, Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby, Helmeted Honeyeater, Spotted Tree Frog & Mountain Pygmy Possum. For the two and a half years Iain has been the ARAZPA Species coordinator & Studbook Keeper for Helmeted Honeyeater, adding to over ten years experience as a species coordinator and dealing with small population management with nine years experience as a Studbook Keeper coordinating captive breeding programs.

In November 2007 Iain & his wife moved to Northern New South Wales to enjoy the unique life style this part of Australia has to offer. After an extended holiday Iain volunteered with EnviTE Bush Regeneration field teams undertaking bush regeneration three days per week from early February until late April 2008. During this period Iain also started Cert III in Conservation & Land Management at Wollongbar TAFE. After a period of 3 months employed as a Bush Regenerator for Gecko Regen on the Gold Coast Iain was employed by EnviTE as Team Leader of EnviTE Green Corps Teams, Supervising two concurrent teams focusing on bush regeneration with Lismore and Ballina City Councils. Following Green Corps Supervising, Iain supervised bush regeneration field teams for EnviTE Environment for the last 15 years, where his passion for working in, observing and photographing the environment has flourished.