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Bushland Restoration Project
Funding from the National Heritage Trust has recently been granted to the Friends for a bushland restoration project.
The National Heritage Trust is a federal fund that allocates money under the Bushcare program for the protection and rehabilitation of native bush to preserve Australia's precious natural heritage and help stop the loss of biodiversity.
The Friend's NHT project focuses on four areas totalling about 20 hectares. These are some of the most degraded areas in the Park and are alongside some areas of good vegetation. They act as a buffer zone and, therefore, are in urgent need of revegetation both in their own right and to help protect the good areas.
These four areas and the Friends project coordinators for each area are listed below. Please call the project coordinator in the area you wish to assist.
* Chain of Diamonds/BindareeTerrace
(David Hancock, 9309 4569)
* Duck Landing/Wanneroo Road
(Peter Jacoby, 9448 1818)
* Ocean Reef Road/south Lake Joondalup
(David Taggart, 9300 4538)
* Edgewater/southwest Lake Joondalup
(Dean Wakefield, 94056699)
DUCKS LANDING
The Duck Landing site comprises about 10 hectares on the Eastern shore of Lake Goollelal. Although there is some remnant natural fringing vegetation and a sizeable stand of marri woodland, much of the area is seriously degraded with a long history of stock grazing which has helped introduce veldt grass and numerous other weeds.
Friends of Yellagonga started revegetation work here in 1993. Some of the paperbarks, flooded gums and swishbushes planted at that time have now reached a height of several metres and completely transformed parts of the lakeshore. Plantings have continued ever since with a wide variety of native species, all grown in the FOY nursery from locally collected seed.
Other recent rehabilitation work includes brush cutting of veldt grass (this reduces fire risk), selective application of herbicides to encourage the natural regeneration of natives, transplanting of reeds from other areas around the lake and experiments with direct seeding of banksias and other species. Progress is slow but steady, tiger snakes are common again (always a good sign!) and the birds are coming back to the area.
The news is not all good though. In recent summers a large number of nests of the Long-necked Tortoise have been destroyed, presumably by foxes. The tortoise is obviously still common in the lake but the population surely cant survive such a high level of predation of eggs. At present no fox control measures are allowed within the park. The area also faces challenges from increased human use. As well as the new development directly to the south, there are CALM plans for a car park on the site linking to a dual-use path around the lake.
Any help with work at Duck Landing would be very much appreciated.
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