Once again it's been a very good and busy year for the USN. Our membership has increased considerably in no small measure due to the excellent field-days and workshops that Ruth has organised. Along with that our grower numbers have increased too, we have 64 growers just in the South this year, obviously with lots in the North as well. We will be growing more than 20,000 plants for revegetation projects, large and small. This shows a considerable degree of commitment from nearly 1 in 3 of our members. Obviously growing plants is something from which lots of people get a lot of satisfaction! We did have some failures and very slow growers last season, we think partly due to the dry and hot summer and also that the potting mix was not quite up to scratch. So if you were one of those growers who had some troubles you were not alone, don't be disheartened. For those of you who haven't yet been a "grower", give it a go. It's easy if you follow a few simple rules, and obviously very satisfying, particularly when you hand them over!

Financially we are going well, and I'll leave the details of that to our Treasurer. Receiving funding in only 12 month blocks still makes long term planning risky but we are now in the fortunate position of being able to survive the period between being promised the funding and having the dollars in the bank. Thank you so much to those members who generously round-up their subscription payments; so far just in the 3 months since subs became due we have received nearly $500 in donations from members. At the risk of sounding morbid too...think of us when you are making out your will! The only trouble then I believe, is that it is not tax-deductible!

We have also received grants of over $100,000. As the bulk of this funding comes from NRM South it is difficult to provide services evenly across the three regions of the state, which is a continual worry to us as we feel that members particularly in the North-West must at times feel neglected. Funding from the NRM north and Cradle Coast would help us to address this imbalance!

If you visit the Forestry facilities at Tahune and Dismal Swamp in the near future you may notice our posters and brochures on display there. This has come about as some months ago when we were at Tahune we noticed some copies of our poster legend, complete with all acknowledgment of the USN wiped out, amongst the Forestry information sheets. I went into Forestry with the evidence and talked to some of their officers who were extremely apologetic, and I think a bit embarrassed, and we came to the arrangement of displaying our posters (for sale) and our brochures, with all reference to the USN replaced, at the two sites. I appreciate that some of you may have some misgivings about this apparent collaboration with Forestry, but we felt that it was pointless to fight them - they're a lot bigger than we are - and this provided us with an opportunity for wonderful publicity and exposure for the USN. I hope you agree.

I would like to thank the committee for all the help and support they have given me over the last 12 months. I could not ask for a better group to work with. Mary, our secretary who misses nothing and keeps us all in line, Joan the Vice-President who has a superb business head, Rupert, the Treasurer from heaven, and Brian , Warner and Peter who pick up all the odd bits and pieces that get slung at them from time to time. Angela has been our northern contact. We were sorry during the year to lose Liz due to mothering responsibilities and Kris who could not work for us and be on the committee at the same time, but there is a definite understanding that election to the committee of the USN is not a life sentence! So...we could use a couple of new faces on the committee if any of you would like to volunteer.

I particularly would like to thank also those members who have given so freely of their time during the year to help Ruth. Martin Luther has spent almost every Wednesday afternoon sorting and cataloguing seeds; Amanda Cole has spent many long days helping Ruth and Steve set up the nursery at Glenorchy; De Deegan worked in the office while I was overseas, and Matthew Bartlett and Louise Jerrim have been stalwarts at the Depot days. Matt has also been very involved with the monitoring our penguin habitat site at Boronia Beach. Anna Povey runs the depot day up north and keeps in touch via email with what is happening down here. There are also many members who volunteered to help at the Australian Plant Society flower show and the Home Expo last year.

Without all the extra help Ruth would not be able to do as much as she does. And thank you too to all our members who continue to support us in what we are trying to achieve with our and others' revegetation projects and their faith that we can make a difference to this beautiful island of ours.

Above all I'd like to thank Ruth, whose professional attitude and dedication have allowed us to continue to grow, along with our reputation for being a necessary adjunct to so many other projects around the state.

Anne Griffiths, President

Photo: Ptunarra Butterfly