NGT Out and About – Photos from the field in December

As you may have read in Mark’s post we recently held our NGT end of year workshop, where NGT staff from across south-eastern Australia get together to share project news, ideas, and each others company – this time in Robe. A field trip is usually on the itinerary and this year we toured Lake Hawdon South, a very large and spectacular wetland out of Robe, near one of the project sites where Ben (and some helpers) have been undertaking bird surveys, and working on a restoration plan. The group saw ancient Thrombolites, amazing living structures made of cyanobacterial colonies and a spectacular display of birds.

To top it off Bryan spotted an Ancient Greenling, pictured on the NGT logo!

This rare species is globally significant as the only living representative of a family (Hemiphlebiidae) that can be traced back 250 million years to fossil records from Brazil to Russia. This “living fossil” is a biological indicator that (like us) is fond of wetlands, but only occurs at a limited number of sites in south-eastern Australia.

What a special afternoon.

Nelson Coastcare is a group that has often popped up in our blogs over the years. They are an active and dedicated group, advocating for the local environment, engaging the community and taking action to improve and protect the environmental in and around the Nelson area, situated near SA/Vic border. They were an important community partner in the Long Swamp restoration project, for example.

In November, the group paid a visit to our NGT nursery in Mount Gambier. Angela, our nursery coordinator took the group through the whole nursery process, from species ID and selection, to seed collection, propagation, and all the way to a seedling ready-to-go for a restoration project. The NGT nursery has a group a wonderful volunteers, who along with Angela produce many endangered and native plant seedlings, and it was great to share their work with the Nelson Coastcare group.

Thanks to Nelson Coastcare’s members (S. Taunt and M. Styles) for the photos.