Tambo Bluff Landcare Coastcare held a planting day on Saturday 24 May to infill 600 understorey plants to complete a planting of 1000 trees planted in Spring 2005 surrounding Dolphin Lagoon, Tambo Bluff.

Species planted included: Sunshine Wattle, Showy Bossiea Prickly Currant Bush, Common Heath, Tangled Guinea Flower, Tree Violet, Austral Indigo, Snowy Daisy Bush, Hazel Pomederris, Yellowwood, Blackwood, Forest Clematis (glycinoides) and Wonga Vine.

Many thanks to our comrades from Lower Tambo Landcare Group for assisting on the day and to Ray and Carol for providing the creature comforts.

View online gallery to see more pictures.

World Wetlands Day is Saturday 2 February 2008

http://www.wetlandcare.com.au/

East Gippsland Water and Parks Vic are offering tours of the Bairnsdale Wastewater Treatment Plant and the neighbouring Macleod Morass respectively. East Gippsland Water keen to show how treated wastewater recycled into Macleod Morass is beneficial to the environmental health of the morass. Take the opportunity to judge for yourself; for more information and to book a place, contact East Gippsland Water by 4.30pm on Thursday 31 January on 5150 4434.

The Tambo Bluff Wetlands; Dolphin Lagoon and Bluff Lagoon are wetlands that also deserve to be celebrated as habitait refuges for a wide variety of native species. These wetlands are enjoying a bounteous year despite the floods (or perhaps partly because of) and are providing plenty of food for varieties of Ducks (including a family group of 13 ducklings), Pelicans, Cormorants, Swans, Swamp Harriers, Brown Falcons, grey Goshawks, Herons and Egrets.

Carp that found their way in during the floods are now going belly-up and providing a feed for Sea Eagles and Ravens.

East Gippsland Water have plans to install Sewerage Works including Sewerage Pumping Stations and pipelines immediately adjacent to the Tambo Bluff Wetlands in 2008. Everyone who cares for the Gippsland Lakes wetlands will be keen to keep a watching brief that the works undertaken by EGW are of the same publicly proclaimable benefit to the environmental health of Tambo Bluff's wetlands as those purported for Macleod Morass.

Tambo Bluff Landcare Coastcare has teamed with Mission Australia to remove pest species Boxthorn and Mirror Bush from the foreshore and Bluff slopes at Tambo Bluff.

The team from Bairnsdale and Lakes Entrance were ably led by Supervisor Ian Hammersgill. Their willingness to assist Tambo Bluff Landcare Coastcare take on the challenge in difficult terrain is very much appreciated.

Suffocating Bridal Creeper is currently in retreat thanks to an introduced rust and the Bluff's native vegetation is re-emerging with vigour. With the removal of Boxthorn and Mirror Bush the Bluff is looking reasonably healthy as far as vegetation goes. Ongoing vigilance will be crucial.

Tunnel Erosion

There are serious problems with sections of the Bluff collapsing due to tunnel erosion caused by innapropriate storm water drainage but it is to be hoped that the Shire will do something to stop any more damage before it is too late. Images here.

 "Comparisons of all threats showed that pest animals are contributing significantly to biodiversity decline in New South Wales, posing the fourth greatest threat, behind land clearing, altered fire regimes and weeds. Collectively, alien species (pest animals and weeds) pose the second greatest threat. Pest animals also rank highly when compared with broader processes threatening biodiversity (as outlined in the threat hierarchy developed here), such as the destruction and modification of native vegetation.

Pest animals pose a threat to 40% of the threatened biodiversity in New South Wales. These 388 threatened species at risk include 154 plants, 186 animals, 17 endangered populations and 31 endangered ecological communities. A total of 29 individual pest animal species were identified as placing 322 threatened species at risk. A specific pest animal species could not be determined for the other 66 threatened species at risk from pest animals, as the threat was poorly articulated or described (for example, described as ‘introduced predators’ or as a group of alien animals such as rodents or deer).

The majority of the 29 pest animals could be classified as either predators, herbivores or fishes. Feral cats, red foxes and wild dogs are the main alien predators threatening biodiversity, while feral goats, rabbits and feral pigs are the main alien herbivores. The main alien freshwater fishes threatening biodiversity are gambusia, redfin perch and European carp."

"Given the potential application of this information to conservation managers, the approach could be used in other states and territories as well as for Commonwealth threatened species, to give a national picture of biodiversity threatened by pest animals."

Read the full paper here (1.5mb download) 

Coutts-Smith, A.J., Mahon, P.S., Letnic, M. and Downey, P.O. (2007). The threat posed by pest animals to biodiversity in New South Wales. Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre, Canberra.

• Preserve Public Conservation and Resource Zoning for Tambo Bluff foreshore and,
• Council and DSE to more carefully consider conservation values of the two wetlands in any future zoning review.

Get the full report here: C53 Panel Report (approx. 5MB)