At our recent Christmas get-together we asked Jayden to speak to the group about his work with Intrepid Landcare and before he sat down we surprised him with the following speech by Tracee Burke and a thankyou plaque.

“I believe Jayden’s first introduction to Landcare was back when the fantastic Vanessa Cain was our co-ordinator and Jayden volunteered to help her monitor Squirrel Glider nest boxes over near Crowther. How old would you have been then Jayden? (turns out he was about 14 yrs old)

And then in 2017 he contacted us and sent through some gorgeous pictures of Glossy Black Cockatoos he had taken up in Conimbla NP and asked if there was anything he could do with Mid Lachlan Landcare. We were planning some bird surveys with Kangarooby Landcare and so I asked if he wanted to come along and help us do the surveys as we weren’t very good at IDing species at that stage but had lots of fun trying.

I believe he took an annual leave day off work to come and help us and I remember everyone being blown away by his knowledge and photography skills. We enjoyed having him along very much.

After that an opportunity came along for MLL to put on a part time person to do some pest animal co-ordination and Jayden applied. He secured this role and committed to doing this along with his already full time employment. He did a great job and it was then in 2018 he got the opportunity to travel up to the Gold Coast and attend his first National Landcare Conference. I think it’s safe to say he loved the experience and the new people he met and connections he made especially with the younger Intrepid Landcare members.

Since then Jayden has gone from strength to strength and we were really so happy for him when in 2020 he secured a full time role with Birdlife Australia. It has been only 4 years since he attended his first National Landcare Conference and this year he attended again but what a difference! This year Jayden was a huge part of the conference participating in the opening and closing panel of the conference and is now on speed dial with Costa if ever he wants to speak with him 🙂

He was also integral in making the ‘2022 NextGen Landcare Youth Forum’ such a huge success with over 90 schools from across Australia registering to attend.

It has been such a pleasure to watch your achievements over this time and I want to thank you for always following your dreams and doing everything in your power to turn them into reality. You are now working in your dream job with Birdlife Australia and through your volunteer work with Intrepid Landcare you are inspiring other people both young and older (like me) to take opportunities where we can to do good things for our environment and to look after each other as well.

On that note we would like to present you with this plaque to say thank you and recognise the wonderful work you are doing.”

If you want to find out more about the Nextgen Landcare Youth Forum you can find the summary and videos here.