A project aiming to understand and preserve the Walpole Wilderness — Western Australia’s only gazetted wilderness — brought together 200 citizen scientists last month.
The Walpole-Nornalup National Parks Association held their fourth bioblitz project on September 28 and 29 inviting community volunteers to join local enthusiasts, amateur experts and scientists to survey species found in an area over a short period of time.
Organiser David Edmonds said the purpose of researching the “poorly studied area” was to collect information on the state of the forest and parks to preserve the areas’ future.
“It’s been a stable enough environment they have survived over tens of millions of years,” he said.
“But when we have the impacts of humans in the way that we do now on the planet — with things like climate change but also road networks, using fire in different ways, having houses and assets located close to national parks — that does impact how it’s managed.”
Mr Edmonds told the Times, species and eco-systems are connected throughout the wilderness zone, which is also in the highest rainfall zone of WA.
Despite that, climate change and drought have impacted the area, leading to a decline and disappearance of some habitats unable to adapt to the rapid changes.
“There’ll be forests still here, but it may not be the same sorts of forest, or it might not be as tall a forest,” he said.
In teams of 10 people working alongside experts, the groups recorded all the species they could find in a given survey area by photographing and uploading them to iNaturalist.
There were more than 4000 observations and 579 species identified.
Among the significant findings, the Murdoch University fish team caught a pouched lamprey, which has an unusual life cycle. Adults spend most of their life in the ocean where they are bright blue and migrate into freshwater rivers to spawn, changing to a dull brown colour.
Other findings included a peacock spider, quokkas and some rare new plant populations.
Mr Edmonds said the volunteer assignment had other flow-on impacts.
“It’s led to research projects because we’ve got a bit of a spotlight on the wilderness now, and so institutions, like the universities, are now starting to do research projects down here,” he said.
“The very first one that we did, we would have been happy with 20 or 30 people, and we ended up with 130 people.
“It’s a good way for people to connect to country and to connect with other like-minded people.
“This year, we had a lot more young people. We are suddenly getting a shift to the younger generation, and that’s something that’s really, really encouraging. They’re the ones that are going to be the next round of managers.”
While the organisation would like to continue growing the events, Mr Edmonds said it was a balancing act of giving people the opportunity to join without causing an impact on the environment.
“We don’t want to damage the very thing we’re trying to protect,” he said.
The next major bioblitz is to be held on October 4 and 5, 2025.
Get the latest news from thewest.com.au in your inbox.
Sign up for our emails
This post was originally published on here
