Covid-19 has changed Australia’s focus, but it hasn’t changed the fact that flora, fauna and whole ecosystems are still struggling to recover from the summer wildfires that affected over 800,000 hectares of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area (GBMWHA), and the torrential rainfall that followed immediately after.
The Covid-19 pandemic also reminds us of the central role of data in analysing and resolving ‘wicked’ problems – those so complex that the uncertainties they throw up seem to overwhelm us. However, whether it’s a global pandemic or global climate change, we can move towards the best possible decisions by gathering and mobilising observations, measurements and records - in other words, by monitoring what is happening.
Data gathered during bushfire recovery is vital for assessing landscape impacts, effects on wildlife populations and vegetation, and changes across whole ecosystems. This helps direct recovery efforts, but also underpins our preparedness for future bushfire management.
Documenting fire recovery around the Fairfax Track in Blackheath, Jan 2020.
Dr John Merson, Executive Director of the Institute, is working with local experts to introduce fieldwork processes that follow distancing guidelines while still enabling the efficient capture of data.
“Nature is slowly but surely recovering from the devastating fires and floods, but many species will be struggling. Much like testing is paramount to understanding the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, we need to monitor the environment to gather as much information as possible to understand the impacts of more extreme fires, and weather conditions driven by climate change. During this difficult time, we are following strict distancing protocols while still aiming to gather as much data as possible.”
We are grateful to the following organisations who are supporting our monitoring, impact assessment, recovery and communication efforts through these challenging times.
The Peter und Luise Hager Foundation has provided a generous 30K Euro donation to support the ongoing fire recovery efforts of the Institute, focusing on the monitoring and assessment of the impacts on ecosystems, flora and fauna across the GBMWHA.
The Peter und Luise Hager Foundation develops, supports and implements a variety of philanthropic projects around the world. They are currently supporting 36 projects in 13 countries, across their five key funding areas of education, scientific research, arts and culture, the environment and social work.
The Peter und Luise Foundation core values are solidarity, public spirit, sustainability, authenticity and humanity. They provide more than just a willingness to help - they aim to ensure that assistance is provided exactly where it is required, when it is needed.
After the summer fires that devastated Australia, affecting 80% of the GBMWHA, the Foundation immediately sought to find Australian organisations that they could work with and support to directly aid the fire recovery process. The Institute is immensely grateful to the P&L Hager Foundation for caring enough to support Australia’s fire recovery.
The Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife (FNPW) has granted the Institute 10K to support our growing project monitoring the impact of climate change on the ecosystems of the Blue Mountains, focusing on the impacts for threatened upland swamps which face intensifying drought, fire and flooding.
BMWHI was one of six organisations in NSW to receive fire recovery funding from the FNPW.
The Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife is the charity partner of Australia’s National Parks. They are a non-government organisation on a mission to safeguard wilderness & wildlife for future generations. They are passionate about Australia’s natural and cultural heritage, funding and supporting conservation projects Australia-wide, in every state and territory.
The Australian Government Communities Environment Program (CEP) supports a wide range of small-scale, on-ground projects that aim to conserve, protect and manage our environment. The program supports community groups—including those that may not be able to compete in larger and more competitive grant programs—to address local environmental priorities. The program also seeks to encourage the community to connect with their local natural environment and to build and strengthen local communities.
With support from the Federal Member for Macquarie, Susan Templeman, the Institute was granted 20K to support the review and upgrade of our monitoring methodology, the expansion of our program to 28 sites across the GBMWHA, and the development of an app in collaboration with the CSIRO BioCollect platform.
PROJECT BACKGROUND
This citizen science project monitors the impacts of climate change on flora, fauna and the ecosystems of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area (GBMWHA). The Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute supports and enables teams of citizen scientists to collaborate with researchers and institutions to deliver ongoing ecological monitoring in the face of climate change, aiming to assess the impacts of drought, fire and flood.
Building from a successful pilot program in 2018, the project is now expanding to include 28 monitoring sites and the findings will contribute to the better understanding and conservation of the natural heritage in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area , and the protection of threatened species and ecosystems.
In 2020, the project aims to:
Monitor change across five ecosystems - rainforest, wet sclerophyll, dry sclerophyll, heath and swamps.
Enhance our methodology and procedures for data collection and analysis
Provide reliable information on the impacts of drought, fire and floods on ecosystems and species, with an emphasis on monitoring endangered upland swamps.
Contribute site-specific knowledge to recovery planning in the wake of recent fires
Create the structure to support a long-term ecological monitoring program
Increase our corp of citizen scientists to monitor 28 sites across the Blue Mountains
Disseminate the findings and recommendations via events and publications
THANKS TO OUR COMMUNITY OF SUPPORTERS
This project has been developed in partnership with the Blue Mountains Conservation Society, whose members helped establish initial monitoring teams for our 2019 pilot expansion program; and in partnership with Scenic World, whose initial support for two monitoring sites in the Jamison Valley helped instigate the expanded project.
The project also has the support of both NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and the Blue Mountains City Council (BMCC) who have land management responsibility for the urban/bushland environment where the majority of the monitoring takes place. These organisations are core members of the Institute and have provided support and advice for the project. Specifically, NPWS has provided people and facilities including the use of visitor centres, and the BMCC has collaborated via its environmental science team.