DSE Planting Day on Murrindindi River

Volunteers from the DSE and the Dept of Planning and Rural Communities planted 300 shrubs and grasses along the Murrindindi River in Murrindindi.

The plantings were a great support for the local Yea River Landcare Group who have spent many hours carrying out weed control and improving this and other reserves in the area.

The reserve is a popular fishing spot and the work they did also beautifies the area for other recreational users and lovers of nature.

Local kids build homes for wildlife

Students from Yea High School and the Kinglake Scouts have been building nest boxes for wildlife which we have been installing on properties in Flowerdale, Junction Hill and Kinglake.

Due to the loss of many hollow bearing trees in the area as a result of the fires, we are providing artificial homes for the animals that generally nest in hollows in the trees. Suitable hollows can take many decades to form.

Recent inspections of boxes that we installed last year have discovered that they are being used by Ringtail Possums, Brush-tailed Phascogales and Sugar Gliders.

This is the second year that the students and Scouts have been involved with our fire recovery nest box project. Installing the boxes involves more than just nailing them to a tree. The kids record on a data sheet the height of the box, tree type, nest box and entrance aspect using a compass and they also GPS the location so we can find them later to inspect.