A dedicated team of scientists, rangers and volunteers has marked a major milestone at Bael Bael Grassland Nature Conservation Reserve, completing the tenth annual fauna survey at one of Victoria's most important - and least understood - ecosystems.
Bael Bael Grassland, located between Kerang and Swan Hill in the state's north, is the largest continuous area of protected native grassland in Victoria. Once widespread, native grasslands are now listed as an endangered ecological community, with less than two per cent of their original area remaining.
Volunteer citizen scientists from the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria joined Parks Victoria's Conservation Science and Insights team and local rangers for the milestone survey at Bael Bael and nearby Yassom Swamp in early April.
Image: Volunteers from the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria have been helping with the annual surveys at Bael Bael Grassland for 10 years. Photo supplied by Andrej Hohmann.
Following heavy rainfall at the end of summer, Bael Bael was greener than participants had ever seen it at this time of year.
According to Andrej Hohmann, a volunteer with the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, "it was a sort of a second spring" with the amount of wildflowers and grasses that were blooming.
"One of the great things about constantly coming back to Bael Bael is we see how it changes. Usually at the end of the summer it'll be a lot drier, some years it's been flooded, but this year everything was green with lots of new vegetation having sprung up," Andrej said.
