Ecological Monitoring

Citizen Science Eco Monitoring is back on!

Citizen Science Eco Monitoring is back on!

On Thursday 18th November a group of our volunteer citizen scientists met our new Ecological Programs Manager, Victoria Austin at the Fairfax Track site in Blackheath. The event marked the official restart of our citizen science ecological monitoring program after many months of lockdown.

Cracking Film Trip into the Blue Gum Forest

Cracking Film Trip into the Blue Gum Forest

On Nov 2nd our Blue Gum Forest team once again descended into the Grose Valley to document the health of the Blue Gum Forest after the fires. The expedition group included Rosalie Chapple, Wyn Jones, Alex Allchin, Keith Muir, Simona Ermilova, Daniel Merson, Mengran Yu and Floris Van Ogtrop.

Halloween Swampfest for our field researchers

Halloween Swampfest for our field researchers

On Sunday 31st October, Dr Ian Wright and project intern Holly Nettle ventured out into the field to collect new sets of data from the swamps we are monitoring at Lawson, Bullaburra and Medlow Bath, as part of our Upland Swamps project. Dr Wright shared posts about the expedition on Twitter.

Meet our Interns: Holly Nettle

Meet our Interns: Holly Nettle

Holly Nettle is currently an Environmental Science cadet with the Blue Mountains City Council and a research intern with the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute, helping us out with coordination and data collection relating to our Upland Swamps monitoring and decision support project.

Wetlands should not burn - Nature NSW

Wetlands should not burn - Nature NSW

Wetlands should never burn, but a swamp in the Newnes Plateau did because it was undermined by coal mining. The Nature Conservation Council of NSW teamed up with Lithgow environmentalists to investigate and document damage to areas affected by mining. What they discovered was a disaster.

Climate change and fire: lessons from the Blue Mountains

Climate change and fire: lessons from the Blue Mountains

Periodic fires are a normal part of the lifecycle of many ecosystems, but climate change is creating mega-fires that instead of supporting biodiversity threaten to destroy it. BMWHI Executive Director Dr John Merson writes for the IUCN blog.

Name game to bring NSW’s threatened plants into the spotlight

Name game to bring NSW’s threatened plants into the spotlight

The NSW Government Saving our Species program is calling on the NSW public to play the ‘name game’ and suggest new names for some of NSW’s lesser-known threatened species. Winners will be announced on Threatened Species Day, 7 September 2020.

Native Fauna of the GBMWHA

Native Fauna of the GBMWHA

Judy and Peter Smith have prepared four annotated checklists of vertebrate fauna in the GBMWHA, covering native mammals, birds, reptiles and frogs. The checklists indicate that at least 423 native terrestrial vertebrate fauna species have been recorded in the GBMWHA.

FNPW supporting World Heritage sites

FNPW supporting World Heritage sites

In recognition of World Heritage Day, The Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife shared news of their grant awarded to the Institute to expand our citizen science project monitoring the impacts of climate change on the ecosystems of The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.

Entire hillsides of trees turned brown this summer

Entire hillsides of trees turned brown this summer

Is it the start of ecosystem collapse? The drought in Australia was a significant driver of the summer bushfires. But it also caused another, less well known environmental calamity: entire hillsides of trees turned from green to brown.

Turtle Island launched at Glenbrook Lagoon

Turtle Island launched at Glenbrook Lagoon

Turtle Island - a floating eco-habitat designed to provide a refuge from predation and a safe nesting place for turtles - was launched at Glenbrook Lagoon on March 10. Glenbrook Lagoon is home to a number of turtle species, including Eastern Long-neck and Sydney Basin turtles.

Fire recovery updates from the Federal Dept. of the Environment

Fire recovery updates from the Federal Dept. of the Environment

The Federal Minister for the Environment, Sussan Ley, and the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment are sharing regular updates on their bushfire recovery strategies, including their wildlife rescue interventions, via the following links.

Blue Mountains Fauna Inventory launched

Blue Mountains Fauna Inventory launched

The Blue Mountains Fauna Project is a research and citizen science initiative of the Blue Mountains Bushcare Network, supported by Blue Mountains City Council’s Bushcare program. In February 2020, the Project celebrated the official launch of the Blue Mountains Fauna Inventory.

Seven billion burnt trees

Seven billion burnt trees

Half a billion animals, now likely to be closer to a billion. Millions of acres, thousands of homes, 33 human lives. I follow these, I feel these, and a voice in the back of my head asks ‘how many trees, how many shrubs? How many plants?’. Read more from Georgina Reid on The Plant Hunter.