Protecting and restoring native vegetation within Bremer River Catchment and Surrounds
Timeframe: December 2015 to December 2017
Funding source: State NRM
Project Coordinator: Georgina Griffiths
Summary
The objective of this project was to support landholders in the Bremer River Catchment and surrounding areas to protect remnant vegetation and waterways and to support revegetation efforts. In total, 16 km of fencing were constructed and 10 ha of land re-vegetated across five farms.
The FBG and landholders worked with Greening Australia to coordinate additional revegetation work at one other site. A revegetation guide for the area was updated and land management agreements were developed.
Project details and outcomes
Three of the five sites in this project are located in the Devil's Creek catchment, which is a sub-catchment of the Bremer River. The site that included both fencing and 10 ha of revegetation had suffered from flood damage in the past and was salt affected and bare prior to revegetation. Three species of Eucalypt were planted on the least saline ground and Anameka saltbush was planted in the most salt affected areas. High rainfall in 2016 meant the site remained too wet to access so planting didn’t occur until 2017, at which time it was noted that there had also been natural recruitment of local salt tolerant species since the area had been fenced off.
The second fenced site, not far from the first, was subsequently revegetated through Greening Australia’s 20 Million Trees program. The third site is at the headwaters of the Devil’s Creek catchment so its protection has benefits for the catchment downstream.
The remaining two sites are wetlands located adjacent to the Bremer River Catchment. Each belongs to different, internally draining wetland systems fringed by Yate woodlands. The wetlands provide valuable habitat for a large range of woodland birds, waterbirds and native marsupials.
To support the on-ground works, the revegetation guide, Simple Systems for Revegetation and Native Forage in the Bremer River catchment guide by landscape ecologist Nathan McQuoid, was updated. This guide is a fit for purpose document to build knowledge and skills for best management practise in remedial Landcare practises.