20 August 2024
In 2022, Northern Grampians Landcare began a process of identifying opportunities to improve farm dams and associated wetland management. Now we have just completed our first two farm dam plantouts, to improve dam health and create wetland habitat, and we are feeling thrilled!
We had our first plantout on August 4th at Kevin and Michelle Jess' farm. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had 21 volunteers lending a hand. After a welcome by Northern Grampians Landcare President, Leanne Jackman, we assembling our plant guards around a morning camp fire, and readied our dozens of tays of plants.
Then is was time for our resident Project Platypus wetlands expert, Huib Ottow, to introduce the species we would be planting, and give us a demonstration. We would be planting 30 different species, each sorted into their preferred 'wetness zone' (probably not the scientific term!). Our species ranged from truly aquatic, to semi aquatic, to terrestrial preferring moist flats to those preferring drier hilltops.
After our demonstration, we all got straight to work. By the end of the day, we had put 1482 plants into the ground!
We held our second farm dam plantout last Sunday August 18th at Stuart Chapman's farm. We were treated to another beautiful sunny day, but bookended by rainy days - you couldn't ask for more perfect conditions! This time we had nearly twice as many plants to put in the ground, so we had a formidable task ahead of us! But lucky for us, we were joined by the Stawell Timorese and Ni-Vanuatu group, who were excited to contribute to local conservation work.
Our 14 volunteers worked in pairs to put 2037 plants into the ground - that's 291 plants per pair, planting at a rate of one plant every 37 seconds!! Amazing effort! Huge thanks to the Timorese and Ni-Vanuatu crew, you guys can really plant!
So what's next for the sites? We will be giving each dam a check in another few weeks, to see how water levels have changed and how the aquatic plants are faring. We expect to see the most noticeable changes after year 2, as many of these species won't do much active growing in their first year (its all about getting those root structures built first!). We can't wait to invite all our volunteers back to celebrate with us and survey for frogs and birds and bugs in the subsequent years, as we watch the sites transform!
Elia Pirtle
Landcare Facilitator and Communications Officer