Bush Crew diaries April 2023
Published on 21 March 2023
Over the next few months, the Bush Crew will be conducting ecological burning in several of our bushland reserves to promote biodiversity. Fire is a crucial component in the management of most of our bushland sites which have evolved alongside Wurundjeri burning practices for thousands of years.
Of particular focus for the crew is the Banyule Northern Grassland Reserve. The crew began the burning season by conducting a hot 0.3ha reset burn to significantly reduce the cover of canary grass, an introduced pasture grass which is toxic to kangaroos. This is the first step in transitioning this particular section of the reserve back to indigenous species; a process which will take several years of management.
Elsewhere within the reserve, over a decade of intense management has seen the balance swing back to indigenous grassland species. These sections of grassland thrive with frequent low-intensity burns every 2 to 5 years.
These relatively cool burns will be conducted in small patches with the goal of opening spaces between vegetation in which a range of indigenous grasses and wildflower species can germinate from seed. Additionally, burning can reinvigorate some species, such as kangaroo grass, to increase flowering and seed production the following season. Autumn is the ideal time to conduct these burns as the majority of indigenous species have already dropped seed and weather conditions allow burns to be conducted safely.
Following these burns, the crew will lay down a range of grass and wildflower seeds to provide indigenous species a competitive advantage over weed species; a revegetation technique called direct seeding. This has been used in the reserve over the last three years with great results.
Maintaining appropriate burning regimes in our grassland reserves is crucial to the ongoing survival of the ecosystem of which less than 1% of the original range remains in Victoria following European settlement. Burning is also crucial for the management of individual species within grasslands such as the matted flax-lily which is now listed as critically endangered in Victoria.
You can get involved with restoring the Banyule Northern Grassland Reserve by joining the Friends of Darebin Creek for one of our planting days in 2023.
Not near the Darebin Creek? There are plenty of other environmental friends of groups that operate throughout Banyule.