What is this project about, and what can I do?

What is this project about?

Hi, thanks for visiting! In this project, we're trying to learn about how long it takes different plant species to reproduce after severe fires. Even if we might know something about how long it takes plants to reach 'reproductive maturity' when they grow in nurseries and other controlled conditions, we often don't know how this timing changes when the plant is badly burned, or when the plant is germinating from seed and growing up in a post-fire landscape.

Where should I go walking?

You can make these observations anywhere in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, where you know that have been fires since 2013. If you'd like to double-check where those fires were, have a look at our...

Map of recently burned areas: https://bit.ly/wha_fires

We are particularly interested in areas that burned in 2019-20. In the Blue Mountains National Park, that includes areas near Woodford, Wentworth Falls, Katoomba, Blackheath, and pretty much everything along Bells Line of Road between Kurrajong and Mount Victoria. For areas that burned between 2013 and 2019, there are also areas near Glenbrook, Winmalee, Springwood, and Mountain Lagoon.

What can I do?

We would like you to help by looking for plants that are flowering and fruiting, or plants that are resprouting and healing from fire damage. Simply take a photo of those plants and answer a few quick questions about them. If you're walking in the same place regularly, we encourage you to submit observations of the same plants every time; repeated observations like this are incredibly valuable.

What about insects?

You may see some insects visiting the flowers, and we're interested in those too. Have a look at our taxa list to see what insects we've chosen. When you observe a plant, you'll be asked if you've also seen those insects.

Thanks for your time!
- Desi

Posted on August 13, 2021 04:47 AM by dquin