With the Blue Mountains Community we’ve taken part in the Great Southern Bioblitz which managed to record 711 observations of 402 species over 4 days from 28-31 October. You can view them all here: 

The bio-control Leaf Smut Fungus (Kordyana brasillensisis) being trailed to help contain the growth of the weed Wandering Trad (Tradescantia fluminensis) which impacts plenty of sites across the Mountains. If private landholders would like to access stems of this bio-control fungus, you can contact CSIRO to provide the stems for planting in your Wandering Trad patch.

It was released at these 7 sites:
Glenbrook Lagoon
Else Mitchell Park
Tunnel Gully
Knapsack Creek
Fairy Dell
Mount Irvine
Gloria Park

The Great Southern Bioblitz event for 2022 will be held from Friday the 28th October until the end of Monday on the 31st, incorporating different communities, areas and regions across the Southern Hemisphere. The platform iNaturalist is a useful identification tool and it benefits communities and professionals to track and store information about species across the world.

At the picnic this year we are using iNaturalist to upload as many observations as we can on this weekend. There will be a crew at the Bushcare Picnic to start you off if you are keen to start but need some help. Or you want to explore the platform.

This is where you will find information on the Blue Mountains project. The dashboard is currently empty as the bioblitz has not started yet. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?project_id=141363

To download iNaturalist to your device https://www.inaturalist.org/ or use the app from wherever you get your apps.

Find out more about the Great Southern Bioblitz on their website
https://greatsouthernbiobl.wixsite.com/website

Damien Cook

Introduction.  Third Reedy Lake is a freshwater wetland in the Kerang region in north central Victoria. It is part of the Kerang Wetlands Ramsar Site, which means that it is recognised as being of international significance for wetland conservation as it supports threatened plant and animal species and ecological communities and rookeries of colonial nesting wetland birds.

Prior to European occupation this wetland, along with Middle Lake and Reedy Lake, would have been inundated only when floodwaters came down the Loddon River and caused the intermittent Wandella and Sheep Wash Creeks to flow. At that time the wetland experienced a natural wetting and drying cycle, filling up from floodwaters and drying out completely between floods, which occurred on average once every 3 to 4 years.

In the 1920s, however, this natural wetting and drying cycle was discontinued. Third Reedy Lake became part of the Torrumbarry Irrigation Scheme. Water was diverted out of the Murray River at Torrumbarry Weir and made to flow through a series of natural wetlands including Kow Swamp, the Reedy Lakes, Little Lake Charm and Kangaroo Lake to deliver water to irrigate farms. The lakes and swamps became permanently inundated.  While this meant farmers had a reliable supply of water it also profoundly altered the ecology of the wetlands.

To read the full article follow the link below:

NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service invites you to provide feedback on the Gardens of Stone
State Conservation Area draft Plan of Management and draft Master Plan. Submissions are open from 6 May to 5 July 2022.
The draft plans provide a framework for the future management of Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area.
To find out more or make a submission, visit www.environment.nsw.gov.au/consult
Submissions close 5 July 2022
environment.nsw.gov.au