The Valley

The Valley Wilderness Retreat is a private forest reserve in Lower Wilmot. High priority forest communities descend down through steep valley walls onto open meadows, wetlands and river flat forest communities where they are nourished by the meandering Wilmot River. The Valley group is committed to caring for this country and the custodians are committed to the protection of native flora and fauna in The Valley as well as the surrounding areas. Our main focus for weed management is the removal of Foxglove, Scotch Thistle and California Thistle. The area of weed management is approximately 80 acres. After major flooding of all the river flats in 2016, we have been trying to manage removal of mentioned species with a small group, hand pulling and mowing areas. For the past 20 months 3 of our group have been living on country and creating zones to manage and seeing good results, however the amount of Foxglove growth is such that we need more hands on the ground. The group is working on a 5 year plan and will hold regular working bees. We are also looking at holding a BioBlitz in 2023 and are collecting seed from trees to be able to propagate and re-vegetate some of the river flats and riparian zones to help with river bank erosion. Our group is interested in doing training to learn more about growing and planting trees. We are also happy to provide The Valley as a location for biodiversity workshops etc.