Planet minders are inviting people to a picnic to celebrate eased pandemic restrictions and plan for a jam-packed 2021.
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The annual picnic organised by the Bendigo Branch of the Australian Conservation Foundation will be the first event since lockdown began nine months ago.
The ACF's Marie Bonne said the picnic signaled the start of public engagement on a range of issues including heightened concerns about the regions biodiversity and climate change action.
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Much of the focus will likely be on increasing national renewable energy targets, but there are a range of other issues that the group says Bendigo people can help address.
"At the moment there are a couple of pieces of legislation we are tracking that look like they won't get through the (federal) Senate this year," she said.
"They are around environmental and diversity ... where the environment is not at the front and centre of what is being put through."
ACF Bendigo also wants to ramp up calls on the state government to take action on the Wellsford Forest north of Bendigo after a report last year recommended it be turned into a national park.
"Meanwhile we have species decline across Bendigo," Ms Bonne said.
The ACF recently joined calls for action amid mounting evidence that forests around Bendigo are in the middle of a crisis triggering fears of local extinctions.
The Bendigo ACF branch may not have been able to do many of its usual activities in a year of COVID-19 but members have spent their time studying issues and preparing for 2021, Ms Bonne said.
The picnic will be held at Crook St Park this Sunday between 4.00pm and 6.00pm.
Ms Bonne said it would be a family event featuring music, puppets, balloon modelling, activities for children, and Ken's Creeping Craziness Automata Arcade.
The theme of this year's Picnic is "Let's build a Future!"
Each family will receive a native plant as a gift to encourage them to work towards a hopeful future.
Ms Bonne said the picnic would conform to COVID-19 requirements and attendees are asked to register for the event through the Planet Minders Facebook page.