World Environment Day Council Budget and Councillors’ The World Environment Day Festival Promises will be held at Springwood Civic Centre, This month Councillors will decide on their on Saturday, 16 June, 10 am to 4 pm budget for the next financial year. There will be storytelling, music and Before the 1999 Council elections, nine of the entertainment for children and adults. elected councillors answered a questionnaire in A lively workshop about our precious which they said they would vote to significantly Blue Mountains swamps will be run by increase funding for bushcare and a weeds- Smith and Max Hatherly will Jim Wallace (12.30 to 1.30 pm). If you eradication program. (The three councillors who talk about the sacking of live near a swamp then this is a terrific did not respond to the Society's questionnaire Hawkesbury-Nepean opportunity to learn about its complex were: Van der Kley, Kime and Myles.) Catchment Management ecosystem. Will the Councillors vote to implement their Trust by the Carr If you want to learn about greening promises this year? Ask them! Government, the ramific- your home, renovating, native gardens Unfortunately, it does not look likely. The draft ations of this action and the and World Heritage then do come along budget, which is prepared by council staff, latest developments. and join in the festival. proposes a reduction from the 2000/2001 budget On June 27, Dr. Ted for an item called "bushland/catchments Trainer from the University Shopping Bags protection/weed control". Details are not given. of NSW will talk about his Did you know that 14 million Another expenditure item that we were hoping vision of a sustainable plastic bags go into landfill in would appear in the draft budget but has not, is a community, and a fortnight Australia every day? Just imagine how new Environmental Scientist position. This later local artists will take many more blow into bushland on a position is needed to ensure all new develop- centre stage. windy day or end up in our rivers and ments get vetted by someone with environmental The producers of the oceans. knowledge, hopefully to put an end to the sort of program encourage Well, the Society is taking action and environmental destruction we have seen with the community participation, so will now sell its own calico reusable hanging swamp at North Katoomba. if anyone is interested to shopping bags. There will be the above contribute anything from message and our lovely bird logo printed ideas to wanting his or her own program, on the bags. Every bag sold and used the impact of globalism, to giving local contact Paul on 4754.4451. will contribute to sustainable living and artists a stage to perform their works. will also raise $1.50 for the Society. Presenting interviews with people HawkesburyHawkesbury----NepeanNepean Trust They will sell for $5 at our Friday highly respected by the community, CHANGE (Coalition of Hawkesbury monthly meetings and at street stalls. having discussions involving academics, and Nepean Groups for the Environment) or opening the radio waves to poetry is calling on the State Government to 2BLU Promotes Conservation recitals and performances by local solo restore the Hawkesbury-Nepean Manage- Blue Mountains Community Radio artists and bands will reflect the richness ment Trust. Help keep up the pressure! 2BLU is broadcasting a series on and breadth of conservation and its many Write to the politicians in the catchment. conservation. The program started on links to our lives at this point of history, CHANGE rejects the notion that any May 30 and will be on air every second and hopefully also offer a program that Government agency can do the same job Wednesday from 2.30 to 3.30pm. Its caters for many tastes. as the trust; demands that the two producers, Rosie Newling and Paul The series opened with an interview Government give back to the community Mannings will work with the support of with Dulcie and Reg Toseland, two the voice it has lost; demands adequate the Blue Mountains Conservation revered elders of the Blue Mountains funding for the restored Trust. Society and its members. Conservation movement, reflecting on The Hawkesbury-Nepean needs an Issues being covered will range from the beginnings of the Society and its effective Trust with the resources to do local activities such as bush regeneration, history up to today. On June 13, Jenny the job well. to reflections on sustainable living and Taylor Lockwood is a photographer Treasures from the specialising in promoting the beauty of Kingdom of Fungi mushrooms and other fungi. He is at “The Russians call it razh, or present travelling in Australia, with his mushroom passion . During a slide slide show, which he will present at our presentation by mushroom photographer general meeting on Friday, 29 June. Taylor F. Lockwood, I am witness to Since “discovering” mushrooms and fungi as vivid and resplendent as realising how little our culture knows anything found in the sea or sky -- about them, he has spent much of his time mushrooms that resemble milky-white photographing them and presenting his icicles, bright orange coral, green slide show to audiences in North America trumpets of blown glass, tiny bluebells, and all around the world. With a and smoky umbrellas made of lace. I am background and education in music, art not surprised that Lockwood travels now to other countries during their mushroom and the sciences, he became a naturally seasons. He has an eye. More important, inspired promoter of a kingdom of species 29 June, at the Conservation Hut, end of he has the razh.” (S.F. Weekly, "The which deserves more attention than it has Fletcher Street, Wentworth Falls, starts at Nightcrawler", Dec. 14, 1999) usually received in the past. 7.30 pm. Visitors are very welcome. The June general meeting, on Friday Hut News , No. 167, June 2001 — Page 1. “Hut News ”, the newsletter of Our Home & the Environment Mountains. Similarly Blue Mountains Conservation Society Inc. we were not happy P.O. Box 29, Wentworth Falls, 2782 Embodied Energy with western red Phone 4757 1872 Fax 4757 1753 So far we have explained how we will use cedar (transported Email: [email protected] less energy for heating and cooling our house. Web page: http//www.pnc.com.au/~bmcs from the USA), or We wanted to go further than this and reduce hardiplanks (made President: Robin Mosman 4757.1354 the amount of energy used in constructing the (fax) from New Zealand house. To do this we examined the embodied pulp). 4757.4503 energy of all the materials we could use in the First Vice President: Bob Seaborne 4751.6100 Some years ago (e-mail) [email protected] building process. Embodied energy is the Jessica had a few Second Vice President: Jim Wallace 4784.3305 energy consumed in producing and pine trees removed Correspondence Secretary: Frances Love transporting a product to its place of use. For from her block. A 4757.2585 (e-mail) [email protected] example we discovered that the embodied Meetings Secretary: Heather Hull 4739.1493 friend had come in energy of a concrete slab on the ground has with Michael (e-mail) [email protected] almost three times the embodied energy of a Membership Secretary: Elizabeth van Reyswoud Trickett, a Katoomba man who has a mobile Phone/Fax 4759.2508 timber floor; and that a timber framed, brick Lucas mill. He had milled these trees into q (e-mail) [email protected] veneer wall has more than three times the structural timber for a house frame. Once the Treasurer: Bart Beech 4739.9947 embodied energy of a timber framed wood is milled it is stacked in your backyard (e-mail) [email protected] weatherboard wall. The production of and dried by the wind and sun (no polluting Publicity: Margaret Sleath 4759.3350 aluminium is extremely energy intensive, its (e-mail) [email protected] energy). Suddenly, it came to pass that our embodied energy being 170 times that of air- neighbours were about to have 7 pines Land Use: Lyndal Sullivan 4782.1635 dried hardwood ("Building Materials, Energy (e-mail) [email protected] removed. We had no time to think. Our Walks Convener: Bill Graham 4759.1692 and the Environment" by Bill Lawson). To neighbours were happy for us to mill their (e-mail) [email protected] highlight this issue we will go through our trees (less tipping fees for them). We were on Plant Nursery Manager: David Coleby thinking on choosing the product that is at the a roll and put an add in the Gazette and some Phone/Fax 4784.1395 core of the construction of the house — wood. fliers in local shops. Soon we were offered National Parks: David Patfield 4757.3949 Other options for construction could have (e-mail) [email protected] around 70 trees, though we only needed half. been straw bales or mud bricks, which They were mostly radiatas and European Education: Meredith Brownhill 4782.4823 possibly have lower embodied energies but (e-mail) [email protected] cypresses, which were being removed from Bushfire Rep: Hugh Paterson 4751-2303 we chose wood because we are renovating an local gardens. With Michael we milled them (e-mail) [email protected] existing timber framed, fibro house, which sits on the site then drove the wood home on the Bushcare: Clive Heywood-Barker on a narrow terrace. Thick straw bales or mud back of a trailer to be stacked in the yard. 4782.9209 walls wouldn't fit on the site as easily or blend So that was it, we had found a product (e-mail) [email protected] in with the original part of the house being that was a waste product, only a small petrol Projects: Helga Esamie 4787.7690 retained.