Young people - Landcare for the Future
Engaging in nature and participating in Landcare activities allows young people to learn, develop skills, share experiences, and cultivate connections with nature and communities. Youth Landcare supports young people to have continuous participation with their local environments from childhood to adulthood so that today's children become the Landcarers of the future.
Landcare ACT and members are committed to providing young people of all ages, including littlies, school-aged youth and young adult with the opportunity to learn about, understand, and improve our urban, park and rural landscapes. Many activities are for the whole family.
Junior Landcare
Many Landcare Groups engage with schools and young people and some have a specific focus on families. For example, the award-winning North Belconnen Junior Landcare Group welcomes people of all ages from babes in arms to seniors and regularly has scout and school groups participate in looking after country.
Wildlife Management
Landcare ACT has been awarded a grant from the Australiasian Wildlife Management Society – Braysher Management Fund to support young people to have a greater understanding of the values of urban wildlife and be more actively engaged in improving wildlife habitat in the ACT Region.
This project develops a Junior Landcare program to educate and engage young people aged 5-25 in wildlife management. It will involve developing and implementing pilot Junior Landcare activities to enable young people to learn about wildlife and conserve local wildlife habitats. It will also create a structured program for schools to increase engagement in restoring wildlife habitats beyond the life of the project.
Linking Landcare with schools
Landcare ACT is developing a structured Landcare for schools program. Watch this space. More information will be available in early 2022. Currently, the community Landcare movement includes two structured citizen science-based schools education programs.
ACT and Region FrogWatch Program runs a Frogwatch Education – Tadpole kits program, enabling students to learn more about frogs, care for tadpoles, and watch them turn into frogs.
Waterwatch
Waterwatch Coordinators, within each of the three Catchment Groups, are available to provide field-based education sessions with schools and youth groups as part of the Upper Murrumbidgee Waterwatch Program. These Waterwatch Coordinators provide hands-on, locally-based waterway education, from fishing for water bugs with the junior kids to water quality and habitat assessment with older students, helping to make linkages between our behaviours and river health.
Young Adults
Landcare ACT is keen to build on and expand the “Landcare for our Future” program run for young people to support young people aged 18-25 being involved in Landcare activities, such as planting, pest control, erosion control, track maintenance, litter removal and ecosystem monitoring.
Pending funding, initially coordinated by Southern ACT Catchment Group, will work to re-energise Landcare in Canberra and make sure that this generation has the knowledge and connection to our local parks and reserves to continue Landcare into the future; after all, it’s our future.
Young Farmers Network
Landcare ACT is responding to an identified gap in support for the younger generation of farmers in the ACT. Working with the Rural Landholders Association and Catchment Groups, we are establishing a network to enable easier information sharing and connections between young farmers in the ACT.
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