- Welcome to Country: Marie Taylor
- Keynote Speaker 1: Felicity Bradshaw AM (CSIRO)
- Keynote Speaker 2: Rachel Standish, Associate Professor of Ecology
- Keynote Speaker 3: Oral McGuire, Community Leader & Cultural Burning Practitioner
- Ali Babington, Ph.D. Student (Murdoch)
- Dr Ben Miller, Principal Research Scientist (Fire Ecology)
- Dr Jane Chambers, Director & Senior Lecturer
- Julian Kruger, Founder and CEO (Emapper)
- Kate Sputore, Coast and Marine Program Manager (Perth NRM)
- Kit Prendergast, Scientist and Conservation Biologist (Bees in the burbs)
- Liz Kington, Core crew member (Activate the Wheatbelt)
- Merryn Pryor, WA Black-Cockatoo Project Officer (BirdLife Australia)
- Narelle Mewburn, Community Landcare Coordinator (Armadale Gosnells Landcare Group)
- Russell Miller, Research Scientist (DBCA)
- Stephen Beatty, Senior Research Fellow (Murdoch)
- Stephen Szydlowski, Natural Areas Team Leader (Friends of Jirdarup Bushland / Town of Victoria Park)
- Tom Mansfield, Ph.D. Student (Murdoch)
- Vicky Hartill, Environmental Education Officer (City of Cockburn)
- Wayne Walters, Program Coordinator (Perth NRM)
Welcome to Country
Marie Taylor
Connecting to Country
CSIRO
The Aboriginal custodians of lands that have been handed back to them by Australian law desire partnerships with Western methods of land management, in order to create economically sustainable employment for the well-being of their young people. Fundamental to this is the teaching of biological science in schools (particularly in these areas) that respects both Indigenous culture and Indigenous environmental knowledge.
Connecting to Country is a personal account of how Western science in Primary schools can be supported by the Indigenous understanding of Country. Language is important when communicating science and opportunity exists here to explore its use within the context of Traditional ecological knowledge.
Undergraduate research at Roe 8: a report of findings from ecological and educational perspectives
Murdoch University
Ecological restoration can be especially valuable in urban landscapes for its ability to restore nature, people, and the connections between the two. This has been the case for the rehabilitation of the Roe 8 corridor where the successes of the project reflect the complementary contributions of land managers, the local community, environmental consultants, undergraduate students, and scientists. Here, the successes in ecological restoration are due in part to agreement among stakeholders as to the immense indigenous cultural, ecological, and social values of the corridor, and the concern that a change of state government could mean losing support for its rehabilitation.
Here, I report on vegetation recovery since the clearing of banksia woodlands in February 2017. Murdoch undergraduate students collected data on regrowth of woody species in permanently marked plots in 2017, 2018 and 2019, tracking the first 2 years and 7 months of recovery. These data were compared to species richness and density of vegetation in nearby plots of reference banksia woodland to benchmark success. We found that recovery is on-track for regions of the corridor except places that were degraded at the time of clearing. I conclude with reflections on the project as an educator, a scientist, and advocate for banksia woodland conservation
Karl Ngara – A Plan to bring Budjar back….
Gundi Consulting Pty Ltd
Nyungar people maintained the landscape prior to European settlement. They had spent tens-of-thousands of years getting it to an optimal state. Today we find ourselves in a different situation, we must overcome 190 years of land management practices that have been more suited to European landscapes to try and return the land to a point where it has a natural environmental and ecological balance. Many heavily forested areas have today become overgrown and impenetrable due to the lack of regular fire activity and burning practices. Country is unwell and fire is a critical element of regenerating life back in to country.
Nyungar people believe they are a natural part of their Country (Budjar) and its natural biodiversity. Knowing Budjar is a critical part of effective land management – Nyungar way. Today we advocate for a process whereby land managers and traditional owners work together to get to know Country/Budjar again. As a part of that process a list of priorities will need to be developed, and a suitable management plan prepared, specifically for each plot of land and each burning strategy.
Activate the Wheatbelt Tree Planting and Music Festivals: many hands celebrate Wheatbelt recovery and community through land healing events
Activate the Wheatbelt
Activate the Wheatbelt is a volunteer based organisation that creates family friendly tree planting, music and community events in the Wheatbelt region of WA with a focus on repairing the widespread degradation of Wheatbelt landscapes. A youth-led initiative that started 20-years ago as a way to inspire young people to plant trees, today’s Activate events celebrate much more.It’s also a place to connect, relax, learn about culture, share healthy meals, dance, sing and play music while helping heal the land. What more could you ask for!?
Activate’s 2020 events saw 65,000 trees planted with 100,000+ planned for 2021!
Activate collaborates with farmers on projects for site specific habitat protection and sustainable farming practices. A traditional farmer from Gabbin, a largely abandoned town in the Eastern Wheatbelt, Bob Huxley was a pioneer. He encouraged neighbours to develop sandalwood plantations on their ‘gutless’ wodjil soils and protect the Gabbin Nature Reserve – home to the Malleefowl, a native ‘chook’ which hangs-on in the remaining uncleared bushland. Joining forces with Activate six years ago enabled the creation of malleefowl habitat through celebration, art and a powerful community spirit plus generation of farm income through healing the country – a win-win-win for all!
Future-proof urban greening for Perth: Balancing environmental and social considerations in urban plantings
Murdoch University
Woody meadows are naturalistic plantings of Australian shrubs that are coppiced every two to three years to create long-lasting, dense plantings that require minimal maintenance. They are intended to replace typical low priority (mostly lawn or mulch) council plantings, to increase plant diversity in urban areas. My PhD will investigate how traits (characteristics) of shrubs impact drought resistance, response to coppicing and public perception of woody meadows. This poster will focus on the human perception of woody meadows and I will address the research question: how do plant traits influence the human perception of woody meadow plants and plantings? I plan to ask people to rate computer generated images of woody meadows that systemically change one aspect, such as structure. Understanding preferences for this novel urban greening initiative will improve future designs to maximise human engagement. Overall, this research aims to increase plant trait knowledge, from both an environmental and social perspective, to optimise the design of woody meadows and improve urban greening.
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Degradation or Restoration? Interactions between prescribed burning and weed management in urban bushland
DBCA
DBCA
Grassy weeds are a major threat in urban bushlands – impacting vegetation condition, native plant regeneration, and ground-dwelling fauna – and a conundrum for managers. Critically, grassy weeds such as perennial veld (Ehrharta calycina), can alter the patterns and availability of fuels for fire, essentially increasing likelihood of bushfire spread under a broader range of conditions. In a cycle of degradation, invasive grass occurrence may both promote fire, and, their spread is enhanced by fire. However, combining fire and weed management may help to reverse these trends, with benefits for fire risk and biodiversity.
Here we report on a long-term study examining interactions between prescribed burning and weed management in urban bushlands. Established by Kings Park Science in 2014, the study now includes a number of sites in several urban and near-urban reserves in Perth and Geraldton, with partners from DBCA, BGPA, Murdoch University and local government (Cities of Cockburn, Canning, Greater Geraldton). We report on changes in plant community composition, richness, weed species cover and fuel attributes prior to and following weed and fire management treatments.
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Turtle Trackers: Citizen science at Bibra Lake
Murdoch University
City of Cockburn
To reduce mortality rates in Bibra Lake’s native turtle population, in 2019 the City of Cockburn in partnership with Murdoch University, Parks & Wildlife Services, Native ARC and The Wetlands Centre launched the Turtle Trackers citizen science program to help protect nesting females, their nests and eggs during the peak of the nesting season.
Volunteers were recruited and tasked with tracking nesting female turtles around Bibra Lake from September to November, logging information about turtle sightings and behaviour, and helping to install nesting cages to protect hatchlings. Following two seasons, the program is sparking interest from nearby councils, land management groups and the broader community. The program has shown positive signs in supporting the turtle population, but to see lasting results there’s still a long road ahead. Learn about the successes and challenges of the Turtle Trackers over the last two years, and how this program plans to grow.
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Rehabilitating Roe 8: Monitoring, management and collaboration using Emapper
Emapper
Emapper is a Western Australian owned ecological management and restoration platform developed to host spatially enabled environmental data to monitor, guide and improve restoration performance. Emapper uses remote sensing data to produce vegetation, landform, biodiversity and wetland metrics as mapping layers, quantitative reporting outputs and advanced analytics.
Emapper has undertaken three consecutive years of restoration monitoring across the Rehabilitating Roe 8 project site using aerial imagery captured by manned aircraft in 2018 and 2019, and by drone in 2020. Photogrammetric processing and spatial analysis produce rehabilitation performance metrics for vegetation health, cover and height. Emapper’s innovative approach allows comprehensive understanding of restoration progress throughout the entire project area, removing the limitations associated with traditional on-ground sampling methods due to variation in vegetation across the landscape.
Restoration managers have found Emapper to be a powerful tool to monitor progress of the rehabilitation and plan upcoming works programs to improve performance and achieve program objectives. Results on Emapper can be shared between Rehabilitating Roe 8 project partners, allowing for easier collaboration and planning for any remediation measures.
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Networks of plants and pollinators in urbanised habitats in a biodiversity hotspot
Bees in the burbs
Urbanisation may disrupt the interactions between pollinators such as bees and the flowering plants that they visit. We used a network approach, which goes beyond simple metrics of abundance and species richness, to understand how the structure of plant-pollinator communities were affected by urbanisation. We compared pollination networks between seven native vegetation (bushland) remnants and seven residential gardens in the urbanised southwest Australian biodiversity hotspot. Extinction slope, network robustness and nestedness were higher for bushland remnants, suggesting these networks had greater integrity, but if disrupted, more cascading extinctions could occur.
Pollinator-level niche overlap was higher in residential gardens, suggesting greater competition for resources. The only species-level property that differed between habitats, normalised degree, was higher in bushland remnants. In conclusion, pollination networks in managed residential gardens are not structurally equivalent with those in bushland remnants. Removal of remnant native vegetation for residential development may disrupt the integrity of plant-pollinator assemblages.
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The Great Cocky Count
BirdLife Australia
Southwest Western Australia is home to three species of threatened black-cockatoos – Carnaby’s, Baudin’s and Forest Red-tailed. BirdLife Australia has been working on black-cockatoo recovery actions since 2001 with the aim of protecting and conserving these unique birds and their critical habitat. One of the key components of Birdlife’s black-cockatoo recovery actions over the last decade has been the annual Great Cocky Count (GCC). The GCC is a citizen science survey held on a single day in Autumn each year across southwest Western Australia, from Geraldton to Esperance. Volunteers are allocated known or potential roost sites, and count and record black-cockatoos at dusk as they fly in to roost for the night.
The GCC is currently the most reliable way to estimate black-cockatoo numbers in WA and has been instrumental in monitoring changes in population numbers and movements of the three species over the last 10 years. The Great Cocky Count is a great example of the effectiveness of engaging the community in citizen science programs to provide meaningful and tangible information and results.
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Restoration Ecology –Through the Landcare lens in the mid to upper Canning Southern Wungong River Catchment
Armadale Gosnells Landcare Group
Restoration Ecology is the practice of repairing natural areas, projects can differ in their methods of achieving such goals. AGLG aims to establish functioning ecosystems that aim to protect, enhance and build resilience in urban landscapes. A big part of what AGLG does is bring people into these spaces to teach, educate and assist in the rehabilitation of landscapes.
The AGLG program and its operations are coordinated by staff who seeks external investment to deliver its restoration goals. Investments are made by Federal, State and Local Governments, industry bodies and philanthropic organisations that enable the AGLG and its volunteers to achieve positive environmental and community outcomes.
The AGLG program demonstrates a commitment to elements of both its partner Local Governments Community Strategic Plans. For the City of Gosnells, the AGLG assist in achieving multiple outcomes within the Community, Environment and Places strategic objectives. For instance, the AGLG delivers inclusive events that provide opportunities for the community to experience the natural environment and contribute to its enhancement. For the City of Armadale, the AGLG assist in delivering multiple strategies within the Community, Environment and Leadership strategic goals.
Why care about native freshwater fish (and the challenges of managing invasive species)?
Murdoch University
Native freshwater fishes are among the most diverse and threatened vertebrate groups on Earth. This presentation will explore the value of these amazing and often unheralded species focussing on the highly endemic species in south-western Australia. Unfortunately, introduced fishes are arguably the major threat to freshwater fishes globally and their establishment in lakes and wetlands around Perth is increasing exponentially. Community education of the impacts of releasing unwanted pet fish is the key to slowing this trend. Steve will discuss this challenge and present case studies of introduced fish removal programs from the Swan Coastal Plain.
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Friends of Jirdarup : Caring for the ‘ Place of Birds’
Town of Victoria Park
The Friends of Jirdarup Bushland, formally known as the Friends of Kensington Bushland, was formed in 1999 to raise awareness of the largely neglected 10-hectare Kensington Bushland. Historically, Kensington Bushland was wedged between two rubbish tips, located at George Street Reserve and Kent Street Sand pit. Recommendations from the Remnant Vegetation Plan in 2004 and the Kensington Bushland Study in 2005 provided the foundation for the management of this precious Banksia Woodland in the heart of Victoria Park.
Like many other ‘Friends of Bushland’ groups the ‘Friends of Jirdarup’ rely on a proactive small group of dedicated volunteers to organise community events and conserve the ecological and cultural values of Jirdarup. In recent years, the Friends of Jirdarup Bushland have increased their online presence and community engagement with active accounts on Facebook, Instagram and a group website. The group regularly organises weeding, planting and watering days to promote the rehabilitation of the bushland, always finding ways to engage the community to help.
Recent projects that the Friends of Jirdarup Bushland have been involved or have organised, include the following:
- Jirdarup Bushland Interpretive Signage Project, where 4 signs incorporating Wadjuk Noongar artwork and themes were designed for the walking trails throughout the bushland.
- Nature-based Events Program which includes presentations and guided walks on caring for the bushland’s biodiversity.
- Design, development and the sourcing of grant funding for two bird watering stations.
- Jirdarup Bushland Photographic Competition and Exhibition 2020.
Kensington Bushland is a Bush Forever Site (48), a status which recognises the high ecological value of the Banksia-Eucalypt woodland. The Friends of Jirdarup have a significant role in preserving the bushland into the future from increasing anthropogenic pressures. The Jirdarup Precinct, which included Kensington Bushland is a place of rich urban biodiversity with 14 reptiles, 1 frog, over 60 bird species and at least 208 endemic plants.
Biological bulldozer meets ecosystem engineer: effects of dieback on habitat use and fungal food of a digging mammal
Murdoch University
This PhD project aims to understand how Phytophthora dieback infestation in the jarrah forest impact quenda, and whether habitat use and fungal food sources of quenda differs between infested and uninfested forest. The study sites lie within the northern jarrah forest, in the Shire of Mundaring, Western Australia. The extent that quenda habitat has been impacted will be assessed with vegetation surveys. These data will be linked to quenda digging surveys to assess their activities as ‘ecosystem engineers’. Quenda will be tracked throughout reserves with GPS units to determine whether their home ranges are affected by the infestation. Finally, advanced e-DNA analyses will be used to quantify fungal communities, which will be related to quenda movement and digging activity.
My research will help to understand the impacts of habitat alteration on native fauna. Native digging mammal populations are severely diminished in the south-west of Western Australia, due to habitat clearing, and quenda are one of the only species still common in the landscape. This study will be important in assessing the resilience of quendas to habitat degradation and help provide an understanding of what we can do to provide good quality habitat for their long-term persistence.
Coastal Restoration and Adopt A Beach in the Perth Region
Coastal Restoration and Adopt A Beach in the Perth Region
Perth NRM
Perth NRM
Perth NRM’s Coastal and Marine Program works collaboratively with land managers, community groups and other partners to deliver robust nature-based solutions to environmental problems facing our coasts. This presentation will demonstrate how diversifying engagement and providing support to Coastcare groups has enabled us to deliver projects that have sound and sustainable outcomes for both the coast and the community. Schools engagement is an important element in developing a successful community coastal stewardship programs. The second half of the presentation will work through the Adopt A Beach “Connect à Engage à Act” model to create meaningful engagement for schools with a conservation outcome
