Photo: Catherine Watson
Tree clearing on Phillip Island has reached epidemic proportions, writes Bernie McComb, as new research shows the profound effect of trees on keeping our planet habitable.
 By Susan Davies
THE current electricity market punishes loyal electricity customers who stick with their same retail company year after year. Those are the customers who tend to be paying the highest electricity rates. The Energy Innovation Co-operative (EICO) is encouraging Bass Coast residents to check and compare their energy costs at the government website Victorian Energy Compare.  Gippsland Intrepid landcarers at a previous event controlling sea spurge at Sandy Point. BASS Coast’s young conservationists have an opportunity to meet like-minded people in a beach clean-up and overnight camp on Phillip Island in early December.
The event is run by Gippsland Intrepid Landcare, a volunteer organisation that aims to connect young people aged 18-35 to the Gippsland environment and Landcare through adventure and meaningful activities.  Cartoon by Natasha Williams-Novak By Catherine Watson
PHILLIP Island wildlife carers Kaylene Mendola and Colleen Gilbee found plenty of support when the council confiscated their warning signs late last month. The signs warned motorists to go slow to avoid injuring or killing the island’s native wildlife.  The walls of Cait and Peter Ghys’s strawbale house are half a metre thick and it has just received a 10-star energy rating. By Catherine Watson
AS CAIT and Peter Ghys approached retirement, they decided to fulfil a long-held dream and build a strawbale house.  A tree goanna in The Gurdies, 2018. Photo: Bruce Preston, digitally enhanced by George Papas If you’re lucky enough to encounter a goanna in The Gurdies, don’t stand staring at it for too long, advises Dick Wettenhall
 Ben Stephens at the Phillip Island Early Learning Centre Cowes, proposed for the island’s first community solar project. Totally Renewable Phillip Island is seeking support for its first community energy project.
 Peter Wonfor and Moragh Mackay go through some of the options at the Totally Renewable Phillip Island workshop. While the politicians are still arguing about renewable energy, Phillip Islanders are getting on with it.
 Revegetation of a coastal woodland near Rhyll has special meaning for John Eddy. Photo: Gabrielle Mahony  A MEETING on energy justice in Wonthaggi last weekend attracted a full house of people wanting to hear more about local energy projects.
 Bimbadeen farm at Ventrnor A pioneer in carbon-neutral farming, Ventnor beef farmer Bob Davie will share his hard-won knowledge at Outtrim next weekend.
 By Susan Davies
WHEREVER I go across Bass Coast and South Gippsland and beyond I see solar panels, not just a lonely single string on a house as in the old days when I put solar on my place, but large roof-covering accumulations of solar panels on workshops, factories, shops, houses and rural sheds. To some it's a stinking cesspit, but to local artist and printmaker Susan Hall, the ephemeral Inverloch lagoon is a place of environmental richness and artistic inspiration.
 Anitra Nelson Activist-scholar Anitra Nelson discusses options for small and shared living at the eighth South Gippsland Sustainability Festival on Sunday.
 Florence ('Zing') Oswin-Roberts cares for a koala at her home, ‘Broadwater’, Cowes Many a Phillip Island farmer about to cut down a tree looked both ways to make sure ‘Zing’ Oswin-Roberts wasn’t watching. Zing’s story is told in a new book profiling 23 women who have fought to protect the island’s natural environment over the past century.
 Jarrod Ruche explains the use and construction of contour swales on sloping sites, such as the Bass river garden. By Anne Heath Mennell
WHAT better way to spend a late spring Saturday morning than at the community launch of the river garden at Bass? Around 80 people, from a babe in arms to grey tops, came from all parts of the shire, from coastal flats to the hills and beyond, to celebrate this initiative of Bass Coast Landcare Network (BCLN).  Phillip Island’s new fox-free status gives hope for one of Victoria’s most endangered species, the eastern barred bandicoot.
 By Joel Geoghegan
DRIVING on the highway past Bass over the past few weeks, you may have noticed something interesting happening between the river, the highway and the Bass Coast Landcare Network office.  Friends of the State Coal Mine president Steve Harrop. Visitors to the mine will be able to compare the performance of different panels and batteries. Wonthaggi’s state coal mine has long been a magnet for history buffs. Soon it will also be drawing visitors interested in new technology.
 Researchers estimate there are less than a dozen foxes left on the island but finding them will be difficult. By the 1970s, foxes had wiped out nine of the 10 little penguin colonies on Phillip Island and the world-famous Penguin Parade appeared doomed. Then researchers started doing the sums.
 Red Rocks' three hoodie chicks, aged almost five weeks. At last count, Victoria had about 500 hooded plovers left, of which Phillip Island had 44. Photo: Kim Wormald Dog-owners have joined the ranks of those keeping vigil over Red Rocks' precious hooded plover chicks. Sue Saliba reports.
 The protected blue groper, Shack Bay, December, 2013 By Rod Webster
IF YOU go down to Shack Bay, between Cape Paterson and Inverloch, tomorrow, you might see the bobbing heads of more than a dozen snorkellers. They’re taking part in the Great Victoria Fish Count, part of the Victorian National Parks Association’s Reefwatch program.  Graeme Henry meets the sole surviving chick. After watching a pair of Cape Paterson hooded plovers fail to raise a single chick from four clutches of eggs last summer, Graeme Henry was delighted when two chicks hatched out in early December. He continues the story.
 Hooded plover. Photo Birdlife Australia After watching a pair of hoodies fail to raise a single chick from four clutches of eggs last summer, the Cape Paterson hoodies have their fingers crossed.
A version of Rod Stewart’s Maggie May has been playing out in a Wonthaggi street. Just as things were going well, a human blundered onto the scene.
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