Nangip Creek Reserve Habitat Enhancement Project
Darkan Primary School in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt is determined to make a positive difference to their town. Teachers and kids regularly get their hands dirty on Clean Up Australia Day, or planting trees on National Tree Day.
The school turned its attention to rehabilitating the nearby Nangip Reserve. The reserve is an Open Woodland regularly used by locals, made up of a variety of gums and other native trees with a creek running through it. Despite its popularity, and importance as habitat for native birds and animals, it was badly in need of attention.
Sections of woodland had become overgrown with weeds, and the creek was polluted, with the banks needing to be stabilised. The creek supports a population of microbats, while the reserve is home to a number of threatened species like Brush-tailed, and Red-tailed Phascogales.
Rehabilitating Nangip Creek Reserve
In 2017, Darkan Primary School in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt turned its attention to rehabilitating Nangip Reserve, located near the school. They applied for a South32 Enhancing Habitats Junior Landcare grant, to fund activities over a 12-month period.
Once they’d received funding, the teachers, students and their parents set up a project team to assist with managing all the tasks. Starting with weeding the woodland they were able to remove pest plant species. They then planted native trees and shrubs along the creekbank to help bring it back to its original state, so that native animals and birds would be encouraged back.
Part of this work to encourage native animals back to the reserve included building and installing nest boxes. On Father’s Day, the school held a nest box working bee as part of the project to encourage the students’ families and the local community to participate.
The students benefited from all steps of the project. From replanting, weeding, building and installing nest boxes, each task was treated as a way to educate on looking after the local environment. It also taught students about how to create healthy ecosystems for native plants and animals through weeding and planting out with the right native species. As part of the reserve is right next to the school, this makes it an ideal outdoor classroom to teach students the value and importance of management of natural areas.
Collaborating with the Blackwood Basin Group (BBG) was a key part of this project. The BBG Landcare Officer helped the School plan the project and write the application, as well as providing technical advice on site selection, plant species selection, and implementation and monitoring methods.
As part of their education, animal experts and a Phascogale Mascot visited the school to meet the kids. The visit was a huge highlight for them as they’d learned about the animal in the classroom. It also gave them an opportunity to see up close one of the animals that use the nest boxes they built.
Looking to the future
With the hard work cleaning up, replanting and installing nest boxes done the school continues to monitor and take care of the reserve. Turning it into their daily classroom routine, the kids are responsible for caring and monitoring seedlings and their survival rates.
With the majority of the rehabilitation work underway or complete, the school is running ongoing activities to enhance student learning. Cameras have been set up so that school kids can record what animals are coming onto the reserve. They also check the nest boxes on a weekly basis to see what animals are using them. They use the information they gather to research and enhance their understanding of the impact they have on native animals and the environment.
In the future, the school has grand plans to build on their current efforts, rehabilitating more areas of the reserve and getting the whole community involved.
