and develop a sustainable future for tomorrow
community • environment • farming
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our followers 🎅
We're taking a break until 4 January and look forward to working together to protect the environment of the South West in 2021!
🌼 Nuytsia floribunda (moodjar / WA Christmas tree) are flowering right now across the South West of WA.
Did you know it's the largest parasitic plant in the world? It can attach itself to the roots of host plants up to 150m away and steal sap using root 'blades' which are sharp enough to cut through electrical cables!
🕵️♀️Looking for fun and rewarding activities for the kids this school holiday? Go possum spotting in your backyard and help us learn how to protect these cute critters into the future!
Simply download the CAUL Urban Wildlife app to identify native animals, conduct surveys, report sightings and even upload photos!
Information from your budding scientists will be used to inform our conservation activities 🌿
This project is supported by SWCC, through funding from the Australian Government's National Landcare Program
#NLP #landcare #conservation #possum
🌱 Saturday is #WorldSoilDay!
Healthy soil is teeming with life, from bacteria and fungi to worms and beetles, working together to make life on earth possible!
To keep soil alive, protection of soil biodiversity is key. We work with farmers and landholders to protect and enhance soil in the South West of WA.
#soilbiodiversity #soilbiology
SWCC would like to extend Happy NAIDOC Week and sincere thanks to all our Aboriginal partners, contractors and collaborators who add so much depth to our work by sharing their time, expertise and wonderful cultural and traditional ecological knowledge. #naidoc2020 #NAIDOC #naidocweek
🥑🥑Another interesting avocado project is now underway in the south west!
Curtin University PhD student, Joshua Kestel, was out in the field collecting data for the SWCC e-DNA Avocado Pollinator project recently. He used cameras to record what insects visit avocado flowers, as well as pan traps to find what insects are in the orchard.
He also collected flowers for e-DNA analysis that will be conducted by Murdoch University which will help determine what insects visited those flowers. Josh was ably assisted by his mother, Jo-Anne Kestel, and 92 year-old grandfather, Terry Kestel.
The research he does will help determine which pollinators are important for avocados.
The project is supported by the Australian Government’s #NationalLandcareProgram and runs until 2023. Field work will occur on two avocado orchards in Pemberton and Middlesex twice a year - at the beginning and end of flowering.
Read more about the project here: http://bit.ly/2rzkGpV
