There's talk of slow food, and living a slower life, but what about landscape change? It's slow. It's a matter of decades, not the nano-seconds of the digital era, and that might be one of the difficulties Landcare struggles with when telling its story.
However, when you pull back and look at the changes from a landscape perspective, then a lot is being achieved. Ron Barnacle from Gippsland reflects here on the changes he has seen in his property in just a decade, and on the way Landcare has supported him.
This video came out of the (former) VLC's review of the benefits of Landcare, that used the Most Significant Change method, called MSC for short. Six people from Landcare, from four regions, attended the two days of training in MSC, then went out collecting stories of significant change from Landcare members. One story collector was Bronwyn Bant:
"MSC is a qualitative form of monitoring and evaluation that uses a set methodology. It does not replace quantitative monitoring or evaluation (M & E); instead MSC is best used in conjunction with other qualitative and quantitative measures. MSC is perfect for a program like Landcare due to our complexities. MSC can provide powerful and rich learning experiences from which all levels of Landcare from learn from. When collecting stories, it’s important to probe, not lead!”
Bronwyn Bant, Project Platypus, Wimmera region