fotpin News 2024
26 Dec 2024: Total number of native species found on the reserve now exceeds 1050
For a full breakdown of species numbers by categories see Pinnacle native species totals, and for a complete list of species, sorted by categories, go to the flora and fauna pages
03 Oct 2024: Weeding effort for the 2024-35 season to date has been updated
Our effort has got off to a good start with 156 hours spent on weed control, between for July to September, 30% more than the average for the previous 14 seasons of monitoring.
Many of the weeds that haven't troubled us during the last few wet years are keeping us busy. Those weeds that relish the dry conditions (second driest July to September in our 15 years of monitored weed control) and the resulting reduced competition from other species, including Saffron thistles and Paterson's curse.
09 Sep 2024: 2024 PCS Annual Planning Briefing for ParkCare has been added to the Annual Briefings web page.
Two of the presentations can be downloaded along with "Minutes" containing detailed descriptions of all presentations.
06 Sep 2024: Website upgraded and updated
Some major changes have been uploaded to the fotpin website today to:
- upgrade it to the current html standards
- make it responsive to different screen sizes
- add improved navigation features
- update the content of some pages and relocate older, rarely used ones to an archive section
- add new content
What's new?
- vastly expanded flora and fauna section with improved navigation between species groupings and a large increase in the number of photos to nearly 300 (all taken on The Pinnacle Nature Reserve)
- a new history section, summarising what we know about the European occupation of the land that is now The Pinnacle Nature Reserve from
- coming soon, a collection of suggested walks that will be linked to QR codes on our new signs
- replacement of our old site search function with Google site search, ad-free thanks to Google for non-profits
- "news headlines" now pop up in the middle of any page upon clicking the news icon and allow both a succinct list of headlines as well as being able to view more details without opening a new page
- other changes to the "look and feel"
Of the over 450 html pages on the site, just over 100 have been fully upgraded. All of the others have been integrated into the site but with the old, non-responsive html standards.
The upgraded and non-upgraded pages share a common menu and are fully interoperable.
The 290 pages that comprise our weed control effort records for the last 15 seasons represent the bulk of the pages that have not been upgraded because (a) the sheer amount of effort involved, (b) their design is not readily adaptable to be response to page size and (c) most users of these pages do so on a large screen. Many of the other pages will be gradually upgraded, depending on their frequency of use, as time permits .
This major update is not likely to be without problems so please report anything that doesn't seem to be working properly, broken links, etc to me at webmaster@fotpin.org.au.
07 Aug 2024: Weeding Effort summary for the 2023-24 season
The weeding effort for the 2023-24 season 869 hours, 98% within the Reserve. The small amount of effort outside the Reserve was aimed at creating buffer zones around the boundaries. This was 13% less than last season and 2% less than the average for the previous 13 seasons of monitoring. If Weetangera paddock is excluded from calculations(because it has received a disproportionate amount effort compared with the rest of the Reserve for the past 5 years) effort for the rest of the Reserve was 24% less than the average for the previous 13 seasons.
Most effort (303 h; 36% of total) was spent in this period on the group of uncategorised low to medium risk broadleaf weeds largely in Weetangera paddock. This was followed at a distance by St. John's Wort (166 h, 19%), miscellaneous Woody weeds excluding Briars and Blackberries (91 h, 11%), Paterson's curse (78 h, 9%) largely in Kama Link paddock, and Thistles other than Saffron thistles (58 h, 7%). All other weeds combined accounted for 20% of effort.
See the weeding effort page and associated links to maps and charts for more statistics and comparisons with previous seasons and across the different management regions of the Reserve.
13 Apr 2024: Weeding Effort summary for the 2023-24 season, to March 31
The weeding effort for the 2023-24 season to the end of March was 657 hours, 98% within the Reserve. The small amount of effort outside the Reserve was aimed at creating buffer zones around the boundaries. This was 16% less than last season and 2% less than the average for the previous 13 seasons of monitoring. If Weetangera paddock is excluded from calculations effort for the rest of the Reserve was 32% less than the average for the previous 13 seasons.
Most effort (243 h; 37% of total) was spent in this period on the group of uncategorised low to medium risk broadleaf weeds* largely in Weetangera paddock.This was followed at a distance by St. John's Wort (142 h, 22%), Paterson's curse (65 h, 10%) largely in Kama Link paddock, miscellaneous Woody weeds excluding Briars and Blackberries (50 h, 8%) and Thistles other than Saffron thistles (48 h, 7%). All other weeds combined accounted for 16% of effort.
See the weeding effort page and associated links to maps and charts for more statistics and comparisons with previous seasons and across the different management regions of the Reserve.
26 Jan 2024: 1000th native species confirmed on the Pinnacle Nature Reserve
The 1000th native species was confirmed today. Although this was a plant (our 269th) a rush of new insect species (at 450 the largest grouping of species we have) in the last couple of months was responsible for bringing the tally close to this milestone total.
See the one page Pinnacle Native Species Numbers for a breakdown of these 1000 species and/or go to our flora & fauna pages to explore what all those species are and see photographs taken on the reserve of some of them.
04 Jan 2024: Weeding Effort summary for the 2023-24 season, to December 31
The weeding effort for the 2023-24 season to the end of December was 392 hours, 97% within the Reserve. The small amount of effort outside the Reserve was aimed at creating buffer zones around the boundaries. This was 17% less than last season and 6% less than the average for the previous 13 seasons of monitoring. If Weetangera paddock is excluded from calculations effort for the rest of the Reserve was 37% less than the average for the previous 13 seasons.
Most effort (185 h; 47%) was spent in this period on the group of uncategorised low to medium risk broadleaf weeds largely in Weetangera paddock. This was followed at a distance by Paterson's curse (61 h, 16%) largely in Kama Link paddock and St. John's Wort (57 h, 15%). All other weeds combined accounted for <20% of effort.
See the weeding effort page and associated links to maps and charts for more statistics and comparisons with previous seasons and across the different management regions of the Reserve.
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