By Tim Pallister
Our group met at the Pickled Wombat on Bulga Rd, after crossing the truss steel bridge over the Macdonald River.
We sat down for a community workshop on the need for a wildlife survey in the Macdonald River valley. Our first speaker, Dr. Michelle Ryan from Western Sydney University, spoke of her Platypus research and previous catch and release program that checked on the health of the population in their urban home range.
Our second speaker was Stephan from the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust who spoke of the known local threatened species, including plants as well as animals. All were subject to the same problem of isolated home ranges with no connectivity to others, creating genetically similar groups which are vulnerable to becoming locally extinct.
We heard about the importance of online reporting tools, community engagement, citizen science, research projects and surveys to ensure all species are fully represented, which aids in the conservation of endangered flora and fauna.
