cattai – Cattai Hills Environment Network

The Future of Wetlands in the Hawkesbury Forum

CHEN Conservation July 8, 2022July 15, 2022birds, cattai, community, Conservation, councillors, ecosystems, landcare, protect wetlands, waterways, wetlands 0 Comment

In the month of June 2022, 6 Councillors from Hawkesbury City Council and The Hills Shire Council, organizations, community groups, and wetland managers, came together to learn about the current state of wetlands and determine a direction that will improve the future of wetlands and the wildlife that depend on them.

The Future of the Wetlands in the Hawkesbury Forum was organized by Hawkesbury-Nepean Landcare Network and the Hawkesbury Wetlands Group and held at the Deerubbin Centre in Windsor. Attendees heard from several speakers and participated in discussions about their concerns, challenges, and future actions.

“Healthy wetlands benefit us all and are an incredibly important yet undervalued feature in the Hawkesbury Catchment’s landscape. More needs to be done to protect them” said Christine Watson, from Hawkesbury Wetlands Group and HEN.

Hawkesbury-Nepean Landcare Network (HNLN) formally presented their recent landmark report Wetlands of the Hawkesbury Report which includes assessments of 35 wetlands (view online). Hawkesbury Environment Network (HEN) and Blundell’s Swamp Wildlife Refuge spoke about their efforts to conserve wetlands, the latter highlighting the beauty of wetlands through incredible drone footage and photography. Manali Kherodiya from WSU also presented her Master’s research on the Historical Significance of Wetlands.

“Once developers had to prove why they should be allowed to damage the environment for profit, but now the Community has to prove, at length, why the environment needs to be protected” commented Rodney Molesworth, a member of BSWR, “and the time and expense of that task now falls on individuals and cash-starved community groups”.

“We need commitment and action not just from community groups but from organizations too, who can support us with resources, mapping, and research,” said organizer Katherine Clare, Local Landcare Coordinator.

Participants agreed on future actions including

– a follow-up forum focusing on regarding aspects of the landscape entities

– the development of a digital library that compiles information and research about wetlands and is publicly accessible

– highlighting wetlands that are examples of good management where the community can gather

To be involved in wetland conservation and management, please contact the Local Landcare Coordinator via email at landcare@hrcc.nsw.gov.au or call 4574 9600.

You can also join Wetlands of the Hawkesbury Facebook group to stay up to date with all things wetlands.

Recognition for funding and support goes to Supporting and Strengthening Local Communities grant funding, Landcare NSW, Hawkesbury Environment Network, and Hawkesbury River County Council.

An Example of a Landcare group looking after Blundells Swamp

Blundell’s Swamp Wildlife Refuge http://www.blundellswamp.com/ shared how a group of private land owners are managing and protecting an incredible wetland, and the frustrations and challenges they face. “Once developers had to prove why they should be allowed to damage the environment for profit, but now the Community has to prove, at length, why the environment needs to be protected” commented Rodney Molesworth, a member of BSWR, “and the time and expense of that task now falls on individuals and cash-starved community groups”.

Platypus Landcare – A Habitat Corridor Project

CHEN Citizen Science & Research, Landcare June 6, 2021July 23, 2021biodiversity, cattai, cattaicreek, landcarensw, platypus, platypus conservation, platypus in cattai creek, platypus landcare, save our species, threatened fauna 0 Comment

CHEN has started a new project to assist in platypus conservation efforts after finding platypus eDNA in the Cattai and Little Cattai Creek Catchment. This project will assist in the repair of the riparian zones in Cattai creek by removing the environmental weeds along the banks and planting the indigenous plants of this vegetative community, the Sydney Shale Transition Forest, an endangered ecological community.

Eroding bank. Image by Danielle Packer 2021.

Platypus Burrow within the Cattai Creek Catchment. Image by Dr. Michelle Ryan 2020.

The creek banks have become eroded due to changes in the flow regime due to stormwater release via conventional drains. They also become eroded due to weeds replacing native plants which keep the banks together with their deep roots. Platypus rely on these sturdy banks to use for their burrows which they use as shelter, protection, and to nest their young.

At the moment we have five landholders that have properties along Cattai and Blue Gum Creek and are meeting up monthly at each site to repair these riparian zones and assist in the natural regeneration of the bush.

The more volunteers we have to assist in this project the larger the area of the creek line we can cover and therefore repair more platypus habitat. If you would like to become involved, either continuously, or just for one day, we would love the help! Please email danielle@chen.org.au if you would like to be added to our mailing list.

We had our first Platypus Landcare day on the 6th of June 2021 in Annangrove along Cattai Creek. Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA) assisted us in our mission as they were looking for a site to help in flood recovery efforts. Instead of five landholders, we had about 20 people show up! This big turnout really helped us make a big difference for our first day and inspired us to see the impact we can have. Dr. Michelle Ryan, Lecturer at Western Sydney University (WSU) came along to our first day to speak with all the volunteers about the platypus and how the work we are doing is helping restore platypus habitat.