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< PreviousEcological burn regeneration: Sandringham Golf Links Words and photos by Pauline Reynolds Last year, the Royal Melbourne Golf Club (RMGC) completed the first of two scheduled ecological burns at Sandringham Golf Links. With no previous record of an ecological burn or even a wildfire, there was no history about which species would regerminate. Some plants were evident such as the bracken and coastal species, but there were also Dianella brevicaulis and promisingly Lepidosperma concavum, which could be an indicator of a store of other seeds in the soil according to botanist Simon Cropper. The burn area was next to the east boundary of the RMGC where a good biodiversity of plants had regenerated after a burn nearby. The 2021 burn was completed in late April after clearing the bracken and weeds for fuel. There was doubt about the biodiversity of species that would regenerate, so within a couple of weeks of the fire, while the ash bed was settling and before the rain, some seeds were sown that had been collected and stored by the golf club. Plants that regenerated naturally: Laxmannia orientalis Platysace heterophylla Platylobium obstusangulum Hibbertia fasciculata Lomandra filiformis Plants that grew after direct seeding: Bossiaea cinerea Aotus ericoides Allocasuarina paradoxa Acacia suaveolens Stylidium graminifolium Coronidium scorpioides Regeneration of both seeded and natural species including weeds which are being removed at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club by Stuart and Darren. Opercularia ovata Olearia ramulosaHibbertia riparia Leptospermum myrsinoides Austrostipa mollis Banksia Bulletin | Winter 202210The small species, Banksia marginata, was also planted. The photographs show how the direct seeding was successful, combining with the regeneration plants to produce a nice little ‘heathland’. Almost 12 months to the day, on the fairway of the 4th hole, the second ecological controlled burn took place. The plan is to gradually increase the heathland and understorey to slowly weed out some areas of Coast Tea Tree (Leptospermum laevigatum), which is dominating large parts of the course. This year it was approximately three weeks before direct seed could be sown but already there are signs of germination. The photographs show the species on the ash bed waiting for rain. Plants that regenerated naturally: Bossiaea cinerea Aotus ericoides Leptospermum myrsinoides Acacia suaveolens Austrostipa mollis Stylidium graminifolium Xanthorrhoea minor Rytidiosperma racemosum Dianella longifolia Plants that grew after direct seeding: Burchardia umbellata Arthopodium strictum Chamaescilla corymbosa On the golf courses, as elsewhere in our bushlands, great care must be taken to protect the health of golfers and nearby neighbours, so it is not always possible to let the fire produce much smoke, which is essential for some plants to grow. It will be interesting to see the germination produced and compare it with last year’secologicalburn. Bay Road Heathland Sanctuary: Working bees Words and photos by Sue Forster Convenor, Friends of Bay Road Heathland Sanctuary Friends of Bay Road Heathland Sanctuary are enjoying getting back to planting in both the locked and public sections of the reserve. During the Apriland May working bees, volunteersplanted around 450 seedlingswith progress accelerated by persistent showers during the Maysession. The group has benefitted from the assistance of three new volunteers — Paul, Justin and Karen — and previouslyenrolled volunteers TainaandAlaska. We are closely watching the south- east corner of the reserve, which had its firstecological burn by Citywide on12April. New growth started to appear three weeks after the burn including bracken, sedges, and Small Grass Tree (Xanthorrhoea minor). We are crossing our fingers for improved biodiversity in future months and a good spring wildflower display. Regeneration and a patch from some of the seeds. Rosie and Michael planting, April 2022. Alaska and Pauline planting, April 2022. 11Elsternwick Park Nature Reserve update It has been a very welcome return to connecting with community for the Elsternwick Park Association over the first half of 2022. Words and photos by Natalie Davey, President Elsternwick Park Association The association was able to keep working with a skeleton crew during the deeper COVID-19 restrictions, supported by Bayside City Council issuing our core group of volunteers with worker permits as we linked to the constructioneffortsin the Chain ofPonds. This enabled us to keep collecting, growing and/or propagating often rare and hard-to-find locally indigenous plants in our plant lab. Since the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, the community has planted 10,000 plants with recent working bees seeing another 3,000 plants go in the ground at the Chain of Ponds. If we are to grow biodiversity, we need to understand local ecology. It is particularly complex in regeneration projects where much of what was here beforehand has changed significantly. Rare ant spotting A lovely insight into some of the positive changes already underway was illustrated to me recently in a conversation with local resident and naturalist Gio Fitzpatrick. In 2020, Sweet Bursaria was planted in the reserve. Gio shared that one of the keen amateur entomologists involved in the reserve had spotted a new variety of ant, the tiny Notoncus (Notoncus ectatommoides), under this very plant. This ant has a key role in the life cycle of the Copper Butterfly which lives in the nest of these ants as larvae and is in fact cared for by them. It will be interesting to see if these graceful butterflies are spotted in the future. Significance of waterways I can understand why the Boonwurrung term for the First Peoples of this area is Yaluk-ut Weelam, which translates as People of the River or Waterways. Waterways defined the boundaries of most of Melbourne’s clans. Boonwurrung lands were mainly those with streams that flowed to the sea. The Elsternwick Park Nature Reserve is a much-needed restoration project for a small but significant part of the Elster Creek catchment. The work that community, and of course the Council and other stakeholders, are putting into restoring the health of waterways and habitat will give a huge boost to a now very compromised urban creek and wetland. As many of you know, the part of Elster Creek that flows through the reserve is the only ‘natural’ part of the creek. Therest is mainly concreted. Volunteers’ planting day at the Chain of Ponds. Photo: Marcus Gwynne Banksia Bulletin | Winter 202212To understand the health of our local waterway, we need to consistently measure it. There has been a long-term citizen science group collecting water quality samples in Elster Creek (in the reserve and formerly in the golf course) for the last 14 years, started by the Friends of Elster Creek. Two years ago, the Elsternwick Park Association took on the coordination of the group and have only this year been able to restart the important work of measuring the health of the water through both WQ (water quality) tests and macroinvertebrate surveys. Melbourne Water coordinates 55 such groups covering the Melbourne catchment area. All had to wait as the COVID-19 lockdown wave came over and water quality chemicals got stuck inthe Suez Canal for quite a time. Underwater life sounds A new site to monitor the Chain of Ponds in one of the soaks was recently established, finding it already teeming with underwater life. A new method to capture data in waterways has been introduced using a hydrophone which is like an underwater microphone survey for each site. Only about 30 per cent of macroinvertebrates and fish make sound but the ones that do give us a good indication of the biodiversity present. Ambassador program At the end of 2021 the Elsternwick Park Association was approached by Sienna from Elwood Primary School who was concerned about the health of the waterbirds as she had seen so many dogs off-lead in the reserve. Sienna has established an ambassador program within her school where students from every grade can be active supporters ofnature in the reserve. The Elsternwick Nature Reserve is creating a wonderful community, passionately involved in supporting the Elsternwick Park Nature Reserve Masterplan. Parks Victoria has an adage, Healthy Parks Healthy People, and the way we are all helping to create a healthy and biodiverse reserve is a powerfulengagement mechanism to support our own health through buildingcommunity and connection toplace. Thank you I would like to give a huge shout- out to all the wonderful volunteers who are bringing a diverse range of skills and enthusiasm to this unique former golf course. To follow the journey of Elsternwick Park Nature Reservevisitour website. https://www.elsternwickpark.org/ Common everlasting (Chryscephalum apiculatum) Volunteers working in the seed production area. The seeds from here will be collected to help create the wildflower meadow next to the Chain of Ponds. Waterland Planting the Chain of Ponds working bee. Macroinvertebrates The Elsternwick Park Association recently held a macroinvertebrate workshop with Richard Akers from Melbourne Water to sharpen up our macroinvertebrate identification skills. Learn more about waterbugs with John Gooderham from the Waterbug Company/National Waterbug Blitz. 13A young humpback whale with its mother near the island of Rurutu in French Polynesia. Photo by Alexis Rosenfeld/Getty Images Wild sounds: The loss of sonic diversity and why it matters From birdsong in the rainforest to whale calls in the oceans, the world is losing the variety of sounds that enriches life. Habitat loss, species extinctions, and industrial noise all contribute to this sonic loss, which cuts off a vital human connection to the Earth. By David George Haskell Source: Yale Environment 360 Sound is made of the most ephemeral stuff on Earth, insubstantial tremors of air. Yet sound is also the great connector and revealer. Because sound waves pass through and around obstacles, they link living beings into sonic information networks. Some of these networks are communicative — songs, music, and speech — and some amount to eavesdropping— predators and competitors listening to one another as they breathe, move, and eat. Listening, then, can reveal the unseen dynamics of the living world. In a time of crisis and rapid change, listening offers us a powerful way to connect and understand. But what we hear is often sonic loss. Some of this loss is erasure through species extinction. The song of the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, a honeyeater bird from Hawaii, or the Rabbs’ fringe-limbed treefrog from central Panama will never again ring through forests. Another form of loss is the diminished sonic diversity of habitats: a reduction in the variety of melodies, the richness of layers of different sound frequencies, the range of different tempos, and the temporal variability of sonic expression through daily and seasonal cycles. Tree plantations or row crops are acoustically bland and anemic compared to the vigor and lush sonic variegations of a forest abounding in diverse life. Excess engine and industrial noise also causes loss of sonic diversity by smothering other sounds and fragmenting the acoustic links that formerly linked populations and communities. And then there is the loss caused by our inattention. When we cease to listen, the richness of human sensory experience, a necessary foundation for right action, is eroded. At the global scale, distinctiveness is eroded. We’ve lost millions of singing whales and billions of vocalizing fish. Every habitat on Earth has its own sonic signature, made of the thousands of voices present at each place. It took a long time for this sonic diversity to emerge. Predation likely kept a lid on sonic communication for hundreds of millions of years. The first animals in the oceans and on land could hear, especially in the low frequencies. To sing or cry out was therefore to invite death. To this day, vocal creatures arethose that can quickly escape or defend themselves. The frog, cricket, and bird owe their songs, in part, to their jumping legs or wings. Once communicative sound evolved, starting with ocean fishes and crustaceans and cricket-like insects on land, the creative forces of evolution soon diversified sound, taking simple cries and building the complexity and nuance that we hear around us today. These creative evolutionary processes worked over many time scales, and so sound reveals the many layers of life’s generative powers. Sonic loss erodes the legacy of these different times and diminishes evolutionary creativity and possibility for the future. At the continental scale, plate tectonics and ancient movements of animal groups from one continent to another account for the markedly different soundscapes we encounter around the world. The bird communities of the Americas, for example, sound very different from those of Australia because only a few of Australia’s diverse assemblage of ancient songbirds left the continent of their origin and dispersed to other places. These emigrants then radiated in the new lands, each finding its own acoustic path. On each continent and in each ocean, species adapted to physical and social conditions, further diversifying sound. The songs of forest species are adapted to transmission through dense foliage and are often slower and less complex than those of species that live in open country. Sexual selection added layers of exaggeration and extravagance, causing mating songs to diverge and explore new vocal extremes. In a few mammals and birds, social learning of sounds spurred cultural evolution and the development of highly localized dialects and vocal fashions. In some species, among the white- crowned sparrows of the Bay Area on the California coast, for example, these dialects are fine-grained, changing on the scale of kilometers, a reflection of the short dispersal distances of the young. But in sparrow species whose young disperse farther, the dialects mark out large portions of the North American continent. For sexual selection and cultural evolution, especially, sonic communication was itself a diversifying force, a social Banksia Bulletin | Winter 202214signal that accelerated local adaptation of populations and divergence of species. Now, at all these levels, we hear loss. At the global scale, distinctiveness is eroded. We’ve lost millions of singing whales and billions of vocalizing fish. In the North Atlantic, for example, the collapse of cod populations, down more than 99 percent in some areas, has eliminated most of the thrumming, grunting sounds that this species uses during the matingseasons. For whales, in the 20th century alone humans killed at least 2.9 million individuals, removing the sounds of sperm, fin, minke, humpback, and other species, turning oceans alive with song and calls into impoverished acoustic spaces. Because every lost fish and marine mammal formerly occupied a specific habitat, their demise creates a lost aquatic geography of sound, replaced with the drone of ship engines and crack of seismic air guns in search of buried oil. On land, homogenization of species caused by recent introductions of non-native species — such as European starlings and common mynas — and eradications of indigenous species leads to the convergence of soundscapes on different continents, especially in urban and agricultural areas. Yet, much sonic diversity remains. Oneway to stem and reverse the loss is to hear and celebrate distinctiveness. The “100 Soundscapes of Japan,” launched by that nation’s Ministry of the Environment in 1996, does just this, honoring both natural and cultural sounds such as bird song, wind in reed beds, or the ringing of bells. Can we now imagine such a program in every part of the world, a way to draw sensory experience into community and thus create a culture of listening? The now-rare regent honeyeater encounters so few elders that it has no chance to learn its species’ song. At smaller scales, within ecosystems, loss of sonic diversity not only reflects loss of species, but also changed rhythms of life. Some of these changes are accessible to human ears — the early arrivals of migrating birds or the loss of familiar insects or frogs — but others are more readily discernible with the help of recording and sound analysis technologies. The daily cycle of insect, bird, frog, and primate calls in logged forests in Kalimantan, Indonesia, for example, differed from unlogged forests, a pattern revealed by remote recording devices and statistical analysis of sounds across many weeks. Sound therefore not only gives us a way to assess biodiversity at one time and place, its ebb and flow reveal hidden dynamics of ecosystems. At the level of the individual, the sonic crisis manifests as either too little sound or too much noise. The regent honeyeater, for example, is now so rare in New South Wales that the cross-generational sonic connections that sustain the bird’s song have been frayed. Many of these honeyeaters encounter so few singing elders of their own species that they have no chance to learn their species’ song. Instead, they sing attenuated songs or borrow distorted snippets from other species. Thisbodes ill for future successful breeding. In urban areas and in the oceans, human-caused sound levels are so high that individuals of many vocal species must sing louder and higher to be heard over the din. In the most extreme cases in the oceans, sound from seismic exploration or military sonar is loud enough to directly harm animal bodies. Even at lower sound levels, the social networks of singers in noise are partly blocked, disrupting social dynamics. The stresses of noise affect humans, too. The first urban noise complaints date to the origin of cities, recorded on Babylonian clay tablets. Now, over half of all humans live in cities, and there we are often subjected to alarming, uncontrollable, or unwanted sound. These burdens are not borne equally. Racist and classist city planning has imposed the heaviest toll of noise on minority and low-income neighborhoods. More than an annoyance, urban noise causes stress that disrupts learning, fragments sleep, and causes physiological harm such as increased rates of cardiovascular disease. The sonic crisis extends from the global scale of continents and ocean basins, right down to the individual scale of singing birds and human city dwellers. At all these scales we have a crisis of inattention. “Not listening” is a form of sonic loss. The crises in which we live are not just “environmental,” of the environs, but perceptual. When the most powerful species on Earth ceases to listen to the voices of others, calamity surely will ensue. We live embedded in systems designed to turn our attentions away from the voices of the living Earth, inward toward the human. The many ways that digital platforms and algorithms do this are well known and often deplored. Subtler are practices of unhearing in education and policy-making. We teach inside walls that exclude all living sounds from non- humans. Our curricula and lesson plans are tightly controlled, with no room for the call of a raven, the gust of wind in pine needles, or the allures of cricket song to redirect the pedagogical flow. The same is true in much of the work of corporations, governments, and even environmental organizations. Even when discussing the fate of living rivers or forests, we sequester ourselves, blocking all sensory connection, removing any possibility of learning from the very living beings whose fate we debate, let alone giving those beings the opportunity quite literally to be heard. The vitality of the world depends, in part, on whether we turn our ears back to the Earth, hear both the beauty and brokenness of the living world, then act. The Rabbs' fringe-limbed treefrog, with its bark-like mating call, went extinct in 2016. Photo by Brian Gratwicke Via Wikipedia A prinia in Pekanbaru, Indonesia. Photo by Taufik Ardiansyah/Eyeem Banksia Bulletin | Winter 202215Discovering the secrets of Victoria’s small bats Innovative monitoring methods help to monitor and protect microbats Source: Arthur Rylah Institute, Victorian Government Department of Land, Water and Planning Bats are a fascinating yet poorly understood group of our native mammal fauna. This is especially the case for the small insect-eating bats, often called ‘microbats’, which are rarely seen by most people. Microbats play an important role in ecosystem functioning by consuming large quantities of insects, including mosquitoes and agricultural pests. Each bat can eat over half its body weight in insects in a night (imagine doing that yourself!). Since they only come out at night, microbats are notoriously difficult to see, hear, and therefore to monitor. To study these bats and learn more about their ecology, habitat requirements and conservation needs, the Arthur Rylah Institute (ARI) uses a wide range of innovative approaches and technologies. This is especially important for threatened species where understanding their status and population trends helps wildlife managers to assess the effectiveness of recovery actions. Estimating population numbers of cave-dwelling bats White lights disturb bats. ARI uses thermal and infrared cameras to ‘see’ in the dark to reduce interference with bats while they roost during the day or fly out of caves at dusk. Thermal cameras detect the heat of the bat (like Hot Spot at the cricket), while infrared cameras use high-frequency light that neither the bats nor people can see. Pairing the thermal camera technology with motion-tracking software, scientists count bat numbers as they leave their caves using an automated specialist counting program. An accurate estimateofbatsleaving the cave can be made by measuring the number of ‘outs’ and ‘ins’ tallied for the 1.5-hour fly outatdusk. For more than five years, ARI has used these techniques to monitor the critically endangered Southern Bent-wing Bat (Miniopterus orianae bassanii) in south-western Victoria. The development of these techniques has allowed ARI toaccurately track population changes over time, assess the benefits of management interventions and provide advice for the protection of the species and their critically important roostingsites. Assessing genetic diversity When threatened species get to critically small population numbers, low genetic diversity may result in them becoming even more threatened. By examining the genetic diversity of populations, we can determine if genetic interventions such as gene mixing or translocations areneeded. The South-eastern Long-eared Bat (Nyctophilus corbeni) is a threatened species with a very limited distribution within Victoria. It is found predominantly in a small area in the north-west in the Nowingi area and adjacent Hattah Kulkyne National Park. A recent ARI study trapped extensively for this species but caught only a small number of individuals. A mark-recapture analysis suggested that the populationmay be criticallylow– Banksia Bulletin | Winter 202216The high frequency echolocation calls of a Little Forest Bat Vespadelus vulturnus, where the pulses are above 50 kHz (human hearing is up to about 15 kHz). less than 50individuals. Genetic samples were taken which revealed an unexpectedly high level of genetic diversity for this tiny population. This may reflect a ‘lag effect’ from when the Victorian population waslarger or indicate that this population is connected to larger populations in NSW, despite appearing to be physicallyseparated. Incorporating an understanding of the genetic makeup of populations of threatened species has enabled a more detailed understanding of thestatusofthe species and whatrecovery interventions may berequired. Identifying bats from their high frequency calls Most species of microbats produce echolocation calls well outside our hearing range. Humans can typically only hear up to about 15 kHz while Victorian bats produce calls up to 70 kHz. To eavesdrop on bats, ARI uses ultrasonic detectors which can record these high frequency calls. These can be set for several months to survey bat activity and be used to monitor populations of both threatened and non-threatened species. This survey technique can capture many calls with a recent study in north-western Victoria recording over 6 million. Withnumbersof this scale, an accurate, automated approach is needed as it is not possible to manually identify all these calls. ARI is currently developing sound- recognition software using deep-learning artificial intelligence (AI) to identify frog calls. This approach is now being extended to include high-frequency bat calls. Using thousands of ‘reference calls’ from known individuals, the program can ‘learn’ what each species’ calls look like. For the 23 species of microbats in Victoria, many of their call characteristics overlap making them difficult to tell apart. It is hoped that by using the new AI approach we will be able to identify each species’ calls more quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively to support microbat monitoring. These exciting innovations in bat research techniques and approaches are enabling ARI researchers to understand these important, yet poorly understood species, and to provide high quality information to guide their management and conservation. This work has been funded by a range of partners and collaborators: DELWP Bushfire Recovery and Icon Species programs, Zoos Victoria and Mallee Catchment Management Authority. This video shows Southern Bent-winged bat flying out of a coastal cave. While this is in the pitch black, the camera can see in the infrared light. For more information contact: Lindy Lumsden lindy.lumsden@ delwp.vic.gov.au or Amanda Bush amanda.bush@delwp.vic.gov.au 17 Click here to view the videoLetterbox sanctuary Regular contributors to Banksia Bulletin, Sue Raverty and Pauline Reynolds, have made some interesting discoveries inside their letterboxes recently. If you find any of nature’s treasures hiding out in your letterbox, or anywhere inside or outside your home, we would love to see them. Please email banksia@bayside.vic.gov.au to share pictures and the story of what you found. Marbled Geckos By Sue Raverty I have been living in my house for 37 years and for as long as I can remember Marbled Geckos ( Christinus marmoratus) have been laying eggs in my letterbox around Christmas time. In the 1980s it was not uncommon to see geckos. They came inside and visited our wardrobes, hid in the wheel arch of the car, and got caught in windows when we closed them. I still have a sad, squashed skeleton of a gecko from one of those accidents. They are still around but I only see one when I do something like lift an old flowerpot or disturb a pile of wood. Yet, we still have lots of places for them to hide. Last Christmas, geckos laid seven eggs in my letterbox. These photos were taken on 27 December 2021, with an expectation they would soon hatch. Geckos lay one clutch of two eggs per year, so that means that three geckos must have visited my letterbox to lay their eggs. I have been lucky in past years to catch a glimpse of ‘just hatched’ baby geckos disappearing into the darkness. The individuals have been differently coloured, some pale and some darker. The geckos’ eggs in the letterbox are protected by mesh, bubble wrap and a green plastic sheet, which stops the postman dropping letters on top of them. Spider haven By Pauline Reynolds In January, I found a huntsman with her egg sac hiding out in my letterbox. The following month, not long after she had spun her protective web, I discovered a gecko. It was only there for one day as far as I know but with the mother spider gone it was hard to tell if her spiderlings hatched or if they were gobbled up by the gecko or became a parasite. There is another quite large common black house spider in the other corner too. I evicted the redback when it got very big, and I lost my nerve. Our local naturalist, John Eichler, has researched widely to see how long the huntsman's eggs take to hatch but couldn’t find any definitive information. We know that gecko eggs can take anything up to 200 days to hatch. With another, smaller, spider egg sac discovered in a box on the veranda, I have decided my house is one big major spider habitat – both inside and out. Help our bronzewings! Common Bronzewings are beautiful native pigeons that are under pressure in Bayside. You can help these uncommon birds improve their habitat by helping to plant food. When: Sunday 17 July from 9am - 11am Where: Former Sandringham Golf Driving Range, Wangara Rd, Sandringham Entry: George Steet near Wangara Road (look for the wire fence double gate on the west side of the former golf driving range). This event is organised by Friends of Native Wildlife Inc. Follow FoNW Inc. 18Restoring the balance with Marine Care Ricketts Point While snorkelling in the summer of 2021, Marine Care Ricketts Point (MCRP) community volunteers noticed a significant decline in the amount of seaweed growing in the southern part of the Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary. Elizabeth Jensen President Marine Care Ricketts Point Overabundance of sea urchins can destroy the seagrass and kelp forest habitats, which are importantecosystems for fish and other marine species. Areas that were once rich with seaweed off the Beaumaris coast arenow bare rock and covered in purple-spined sea urchins. These bare areas are underwater deserts called urchin barrens. Concerned for the underwater ecology at Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary, MCRP alerted Parks Victoria and, with support from the Coastcare Victoria Community Grants program, a project was established to counter the overabundant urchins in the area. With oversight from Parks Victoria,the group of 16 completed the first two urchin culls in February and March this year. MCRP volunteer and snorkel leader, Ian O’Loughlin, was keen to get the cull underway as it had previously been cancelled due to poor weather. “I enjoy taking people out snorkelling and showing them whatagreat place the marine sanctuary is, how much life is in the water and on the rock ledges,” Iansaid. “It’s important to be involved so that the sanctuary continues to be a beautiful and healthy place for future generations to relax and enjoy themselves.” The group received a detailed brief from Parks Victoria to explain how to effectively bring a marine system back into balance by the safe and humane removal of the urchin barren, supported by scientific research. Despite some choppy conditions, it only took about one hour to complete the removal of 2,475 urchins. Fellow volunteer and snorkel leader, Toni Roberts, was also involved. Toni values the strong sense of community connection and mutual appreciation of the marine environment gained by volunteering at Ricketts Point. “It is a satisfying experience to be working together to rebuild the ecosystem, ensuring a healthy future for the area,” Toni said. “And we were very careful not todamage the surrounding rocks or plants during the cull.” The MCRP volunteers are hopeful this activity will allow theseaweeds to re-establish to provide improved habitat for fish and other species. Parks Victoria, the manager ofthe Marine Sanctuary, will monitor the effects of the urchinculls. For more information visit https://marinecare.org.au/ Banksia Bulletin | Winter 202219Next >