Speaker

Fire, Floods and Facilitation in the Derwent Catchment: the new era of local Landcare 

Eve Lazarus has thirteen years of experience as a professional in the field of natural resource management and biodiversity conservation. Eve is passionate about working with land managers to deliver on ground projects that increase landscape resilience. The projects she currently manages cover agricultural best practice; coordinated weed management, fire and flood recovery, revegetation and conservation projects, for example working to conserve Miena Cider gum stands in the Central Highlands.

Some of Eve's initial projects working for State Government included the development of the Threatened Flora of Tasmania online resource and the establishment of effective data management systems which evolved into the Natural Values Atlas of Tasmania. Eve has extensive remote area field experience, working on both private & protected areas in both Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

Eve joins Dr. Josie Kelman and Dr. Magali Wright to speak about Fire, Floods and Facilitation in the Derwent Catchment: the new era of local Landcare.

The aim of our grassroots community group, The Derwent Catchment Project, is to help improve agricultural productivity whilst restoring landscapes. Our work is increasingly focused on resilience in the face of environmental and social impacts of extreme events such as fire and flood. As these extreme events are predicted to intensify with climate change, we see this as the new normal for local Landcare in our region. We represent over 90 members including most large commercial producers in the region and while some do not ‘believe’ in human induced climate change, improving landscape and community resilience to fire and flood are tangible shared goals. Facilitation is key to successful fire management and flood recovery, as both require a cross tenure approach and often work with people that have experienced recent loss. Our grass-roots facilitation model, partnerships, creative approach to attracting resources and how we are growing Landcare in our region will be discussed.