Mount Ainslie means more to Margaret Clough than it does to most Canberrans, and that's saying something.
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Over the past 20 years, she's been a member of the Mount Ainslie Weeders ParkCare group, protecting special sites and helping the bush to regenerate.
"I think my care of the mountain would be more out of respect for Indigenous people than anything else," she said.
"I feel very close to the Indigenous people who have walked the mountain with us and shown us some very special sites that are very precious to them. We began to understand by talking to them about just how significant the land is to them."
Mrs Clough loves the Australian bush, and that passion was a driving force behind her decision to join ParkCare when she retired.
"I had a professional life and I wanted to do something very different in retirement so making a contribution to a beautiful bushland seemed a very sensible thing," she said.
"It's great exercise and you meet some wonderful people. You're out in the fresh air, it's a wonderful environment."
She said there were things the Parks rangers didn't have time to do, so the volunteers helped fill those gaps.
"We work very closely with the rangers because they're the experts," she said.
Before she retired she would run up Mount Ainslie before work, following the trails up before sprinting "helter skelter" down through the bush. She said the mountain was much healthier in those days.
"Sadly it has deteriorated over those 20 years," Mrs Clough said.
"There was lots of undergrowth then, now I think if I did the same thing I would probably be able to look right down the mountain.
"There is very little understorey and sadly there are no grasses because there is a massive overgrazing problem with 10 times as many kangaroos as the area can take, and thousands or rabbits."
She said any seedling that poked its head above ground was quickly eaten, and erosion meant the mountain was losing layers of topsoil.
But the ParkCare group continues its hard work to help combat the problems. Mrs Clough said the group was one of the bigger ones in the ParkCare program.
"We've got a lot of people on our list, maybe 40 to 50. These days we average about eight to 10 on a work party. The last part we hit a record of 14 people and that was very special," she said.
ParkCare programs across the territory are celebrating 30 years of operation this weekend.
ACT environment minister Mick Gentlemen said the groups played a critical role in protecting, rehabilitating and helping the community appreciate parks, nature reserves and cultural sites.
"Their commitment has made a huge difference to the ACT landscape, with over 800 passionate volunteers clocking up more 32,000 hours in the last year alone," Mr Gentlemen said.