....scrub management season starts of course! And that was one of the tasks for our monthly Sunday volunteers last weekend, along with working on our soon to be opened brand new viewing screen, overlooking the silt lagoon 7 and Phase 2 reedbeds.
We manage scrub to increase it's biodiversity value. Much of our scrub, being a few years old now has matured to a point where it is very tall and dense. This means reduced light levels within the scrub block limiting plant growth below the canopy and overcrowding the trees themselves. Limited plant growth means limited species of any taxonomic group - the plants themselves, invertebrates and consequently mammals and birds too. By selectively thinning some of our scrub, we enable an increase in light levels within the block, leading to increased floral diversity, increased invertebrate abundance and diversity and increased mammal and bird activity - everyone's a winner! And it really does work well - areas managed two winters ago are already showing good amounts of plant growth within them and a short study conducted by one of our volunteers, Sarah Burhouse last winter showed increased invertebrate abundance and diversity in areas that had been thinned only a year before.
Last winter we concentrated on the southern area of the Phase 1 scrub block, therefore this year we have started on the more northern section and hope to complete this over the course of the next few months.
The new viewing screen is taking shape too and we hope this to be open within 3 weeks. A spot of post and rail fencing was the task on Sunday, involving us getting stuck in digging post holes and setting them into the ground. This new facility is situated on a slightly elevated plateau, giving good views across the developing reedbed on the old silt lagoon 7 and over onto Phase 2.
Once again, many thanks to everyone who attended - another highly productive and very enjoyable day.
Phase 1 looking pretty in the sunshine! Photo - Barrington Randle.