Australian Bush Life

Roadside Conservation Sign - No Mowing.

Since the bushfire in February 2009 we have worked with our local council to get a street roadside conservation sign installed. This sign says “Roadside Conservation Area. No Disturbance. No mowing.”

The sign is placed on council owned land on roadsides. This strip of land is contentious as neighbouring private land owners often tend to look after them by “tidying up”. In our area this usually means mowing with little regard for the quality of indigenous vegetation remaining on these strips of land. Tidying up of habitat logs and leaf litter is also very common.

Mowing tends to occur through the bushfire preparation season - spring and into summer. It amazes us to see mowing on these areas often all that is mowed are ground cover plants such as indigenous grasses and wildflowers. Which at this time of year are actually astonishingly beautiful whilst flowering and their low fuel load is a minimal fire risk. We just don’t understand this behaviour which additionally stops the wildflowers from seeding and setting up the next generation.

Roadside reserves are some of the best quality remaining vegetation which hosts a great number of different indigenous plant species – local biodiversity. These exact roadside reserves are often used by Landcare and other volunteer type groups who undertake revegetation works. As they can use them to collect seed to bring back the diversity lost in nearby areas where indigenous vegetation is lacking or completely lost.

Roadside Conservation Sign on Street.

We have tended our roadside reserve for over 4 years. Mostly all that is required is a couple of days a year hand weeding to keep it healthy. It is an important route for local wildlife. Mainly echidnas hike up this protected stretch as often it is difficult for them to access or cross nearby properties as they would have to negotiate fences and pets particularly dogs.

Since the bushfires these roadside reserves were put under increasingly threatening levels of activity. From many levels of government there was a massive clean up process of removing dead trees, habitat logs, slashing  etc. Many local landowners also took the liberty to clear these areas after such a major disaster as who was going to question their clearing behaviour when they had just lived through the bushfire.

In addition there are many new people moving onto blocks that were sold by residents who lost housing and often these new residents are unaware of local indigenous plants and wildlife. So hopefully our new Roadside Conservation street sign will help this little strip of nature hold it’s ground for at least a few more years, actually we hope that with a little weeding maintenance it might now be there for those who come after us to appreciate it’s natural beauty.

Do you live in an area where there is quality indigenous vegetation on a road reserve that is not protected? Why not call your local council and see if you can get a sign installed on your street?

We only use our wood fire for heating our house. As our home is under trees we wrestled with the concept of solar/thermal energy for heating but we do not receive enough direct sunlight to achieve this. We did not feel that it was sustainable to cut down our bush to gain access to sunlight. As the reason we had chosen this house initially was because of the bush (trees) and the beautiful wildlife biodiversity it provides. Cutting this exact bush down did not provide us with the moral answer. Also living under the trees also provides us with much desired shade in summer.

Firewood collection - sustainably.

Instead we manage and source all our firewood from our bush block in a sustainable manner. We feel that this is probably the most sustainable heating fuel option as it is truely a fuel that can provide a current and renewable energy source. Fossil based fuels source energy which is millions of years old, but the energy in the trees we use for fuel has been generated in less than 100 years and can be recycled within or lifetime.

After ensuring that our need to heat is as low as possible by improving insulation and reducing drafts within the home some concepts we consider to improve the sustainability of this home heating option are:

• Use trees that are already dead, but we don’t take every dead tree.
• Ensure that dead trees with good hollows are left as habitat.
• Leave some dead trees on the ground as logs to rot and provide habitat and nutrients to the forest.
• Only burn wood that has been thoroughly dried – no green wood.
• Protect and manage our bush habitat by reducing weeds and ensuring regeneration for future use.
• Planting indigenous trees as required in un-treed areas for future use and as habitat improvements.

Harvesting wood can be a sustainable product for human consumption such as heating, but this does not endorse some of the harvesting practices that are used in native forests around where we live. But the logging of native forests debate is a whole other issue for another blog post!

Erosion control with logs, twigs and leaf litter laid across the slope.

Our block is quite steep and after the bushfire when we had lost all our vegetation cover we had some issues with erosion. The best erosion control is keeping vegetation structure in place from larger trees, to shrubs and groundcovers these all work to hold the soil together. About 3 weeks after the bushfire we had a large rain event and we have never experienced so much soil and ash filling up drains, gutters and just getting washed away.

Erosion from water flow after heavy rainfall still causes some problems even 1.5 years after much of our indigenous vegetation has regrown since the bushfire. To help our bush recover and reduce the impacts of erosion we have ensured that we left any logs and leaf litter on the ground. After the bushfire event there was a reduced amount of logs and leaf litter available as much was burnt.  We collected as much as we could of this resource off neighbours or local council / road authorities who cut trees on road reserves. Many of our neighbours cut down trees after the bushfire, often piling these trees up to be burnt as waste, this ”tidying up” actually increases the chance of erosion.

Logs trap soil, moss acts as a coloniser plant for revegetation.

We still continue to use logs to reduce erosion laying them across the slope to slow down the speed of the water. Some needed to be dug in a litte to help them stabilise. Along with small twigs and leaf litter they collect the soil and any available seeds (many indigenous plants have seeds that survive bushfire) allowing small micro-habitats where revegetation can occur. The logs and leaf litter also provide habitat for small wildlife. On picking up a log I will usually always find ants, beetles, slaters and even skinks, frogs or scorpions. A pity leaf litter and logs, ground habitat, is targetted as a bushfire risk and heavily “tidied” up by many people.

Bush Rat - Rattus fuscipes. Volunteering trap and release program.

We spent the last weekend doing some volunteer work around Lake Mountain near Marysville. The area was severely burnt during the February 2009 bushfires and we joined up with some local Parks Victoria staff to set and bait “Elliot” traps amongst new growth of ground cover plants. The aim was to trap and release to see if we could find some of the rarer small mammals that were previously recorded in these mountain areas and see what had survived the devastating bushfire. We were particularly looking for a threatened species the Broad-toothed Rat - Masacomys fuscus.

Unfortunately on the day we helped out we didn’t find any Broad-toothed Rats but that doesn’t mean they aren’t out there! We did find lots of our native rat more commonly known as the Bush Rat – Rattus fuscipes. This Bush Rat is pretty cute, more softer looking than the introduced Brown and Black rats and have quite a different diet of native vegetation, fungi and insects - whereas the introduced ones eat pretty much anything and everything which can be devastating on the environment.

The native Bush Rat can be easily identified from a Brown or Black rat by the length of their tail, which is shorter than their body length. Brown and Black rats have tails longer than their body length.

We chose to volunteer our time to understand more about the local indigenous plants and wildlife in our local forest. Trapping animals gives us the chance to see animals that we may otherwise never see, as they are generally shy and nocturnal. The Bush Rat habitat relies on having good ground cover vegetation, habitat logs and leaf litter to provide food and shelter. Maybe this is why we also don’t see them on our bush block as many of our neighbours have cleared away their ground cover vegetation, habitat logs and leaf litter reducing the quality of their bush habitat.

Bush Rat in Elliot trap - ready for release.

As we live quite close to this mountain area and being a National Park (state government land) we believe that the land, forest and all it’s animals are the responsibility of all Victorians. It is really up to us to get involved, to find out what is out there and learn how we can continue to look after what we find.

Since the bushfire about 90% of the eucalypt trees on our bush block shot out epicormic shoots. The eucalyptus trees that haven’t produced and maintained epicormic shoots after a year would be assumed dead. These shoots are a sign of the tree healing and are usually the result of a major trauma event such as when a tree is lopped or after a bushfire event.

Epicormic shoots help the tree make it’s own energy through photosynthesis. They give the tree and any new seedlings growing beneath the tree protection from sunlight and frosts – which is particularly important in the first year after a bushfire event as the soil is very vulnerable to these severe environments with no ground cover and no canopy.

Eucalypt shooting epicormic growth.

Epicormic shoots bud out from the bark of trunks and stems and can be quite fragile if knocked whilst they are young (first few years). Once they grow to a larger size they can grow a stronger bark around them and take on a form like normal branches.

It is important to be aware though that as a recovered injury as epicormic branches become older and heavier they may be more susceptible to falling, particularly under strong winds. It is important to keep an eye out on trees in areas where we move under them while they are healing particularly avoiding being under them during strong winds.

Epicormic shoots really assist the tree in survival through the first few years until they can grow more stable structures such as branches in the canopy or form new trunks from lignotuber shoots.

Striped Marsh Frog - Limnodynastes peronii.

We find Striped Marsh Frogs – Limnodynastes peronii in our garden most summers. We usually have to be careful if we are digging a hole for planting our vegies as Striped Marsh Frogs tend to like digging in to softer soil especialy in areas where the soil is often moistened. We haven’t managed to spade one yet and I hope we don’t either it wouldn’t be pleasant.

After the bushfire we didn’t know if any of our frogs would have made it, but as our whole home didn’t burn down we had some plants in pots and other things around the house that they managed to survive in or under. The first few months after the bushfire would have been difficult for them as there was no cover like logs or indignenous vegetation for them to hide under, but I guess they found food as there were insects around particularly ants.

Striped Marsh Frog - Limnodynastes peronii. Hiding after bushfire.

About 2 months after the bushfire we were cleaning up some of the debris from our 4 burnt down sheds on our bush block when we turned up a bit of corrugated iron we noticed a weird hole. When we looked closely we realised that it was a Striped Marsh Frogs home. They really do live in the most amazing places, well I suppose there was little choice as the ground was still bare from the bushfire. We put the iron back down over the Striped Marsh Frogs hole to give him some protection.

More information on wildlife on our bush block.

Juvenile Blue-tongue Lizard survives bushfire

We found 2 juvenile Blue-tongued Lizards about 3 weeks after the bushfire passed through our area. They were hiding in the telephone pit and when the phone line contractor came to fix the phone line he got quite a shock – especially thinking they were snakes at first. They were very young and I suppose had been surviving on ants as they were the most abundant food source around for this species in the first weeks after the bushfire.

We immediately set up some logs and leaf litter in a pile on the ground for them to hide under. The landscape after a bushfire doesn’t always leave many hiding options for species like Blue-tongue Lizards. Ensuring we don’t clean up the logs and leaf litter on the ground is critical to their survival and is as important as maintaining indigenous vegetation to complete their habitat (food & home) requirements. We have seen them many times since the bushfire and they have grown up quite a bit since then.

So many people are scared of spiders, especially in Australia, but we find them completely beautiful and amazing. Just stop and watch them for a while, spinning a web, waiting for prey or binding and eating their dinner. During spring and summer there are spiders everywhere. Mostly we hope they are eating mosquitoes as mosquitoes can be a bit annoying in spring and summer.

After a bushfire it is really important to not “tidy up” and cut back all your dead wood, such as logs and branches as this is important habitat for wildlife. While the new vegetation is growing up from seed the old dead shrubs and trees provide birds with perches and spiders areas to construct their webs. We know that our bush is back on track to being a healthy ecosystem just by seeing how many spiders we had this spring and summer – they indicated to us that there were plenty of other insects around for them to eat. Hopefully they only eat the other insects after they have pollinated our fruit and vegetables for us.

Gang-gang Cockatoos at our birdbath

If you want to enjoy the birdlife in your garden then having a birdbath is a must. So many people have bird feeders, laying out seeds etc for birds to eat. We are very worried about this approach as it has so many negative impacts on indigenous birds. Changing their foraging behaviours & diet and increasing their potential to get sick from malnutrition or diseases at uncleaned bird feeders. Not to mention that it encourages some of the feral birds in our area like Indian Mynahs, Starlings and Feral Pigeons which all compete with our indigenous wildlife for resources. 

All you need is a birdbath strategically located in a highly visible place so you can observe and enjoy all your visitors. Almost every bird species that we have observed on our block uses our birdbath. The exception is Kookaburra’s they are always here singing away in the trees, but we never see them use the birdbath.

King Parrot eating seeds of Cherry Ballart - Exocarpus cupressifirmis. Also a Bushtucker plant.

Just keep the birdbath clean and topped up with fresh water. Birdbaths require a bit more cleaning in summer as warmer water gets dirtier more quickly and the sides may need a regular scrub to remove algae build up. Also place the birdbath in an area which has good landing places and a bit of vegetation, preferably indigenous plants around it as the birds like to come in and land on a branch nearby to check out the safety of the birdbath first.

We do also ensure that we actually provide visiting birds and other wildlife with food, but we do this by ensuring that we keep indigenous plants in the garden of which they regularly come to feed from. We can’t stress enough how important keeping our gardens full of local plants of different varieties is to ensure the diversity of wildlife come to visit.

Many people these days are obsessed with behaviours that are going to be seriously detrimental to maintaining wildlife diversity – biodiversity. Mowing (especially mowing bush and turning it into weeds), fire prevention practices which includes mowing and other forms of “tidying up” such as picking up all the groundcovers (leaves, twigs, logs etc) and an overall lack of appreciation or understanding of how beautiful our indigenous plants are. Usually this is shown through planting exoctic plants – do people see these as more beautiful? Even worse when indigenous plants are removed to plant exotic ones!