Monitoring & maintaining Bellmere restoration site on Caboolture river
Retaining soils on land: keeping up the good work in Bellmere.
Rainforest strip to be built.The project aims to protect the restoration work done in Bellmere to ensure the riparian rainforest flourishes.
The Bellmere restoration site was established in 2019 to form a strip of rainforest environment on the riverbanks that will slow down the speed of the river to decrease erosion.
This work involves one year of continued maintenance and monitoring activities at this site. Along with weed suppression through manual brush cutting, this project also replants areas that are damaged from excess rain or third-party weed spraying. The species replanted include Eucalyptus saplings, Lomandra grass, Rhodes grass, and Vetiver grass.
The program focuses on:
- Maintaining the fences protecting the Bellmere site on Caboolture River during the Gallery Rainforest generation process.
- Take measurements of changes to the condition of the site.
- Monitor the establishment progress of replanted vegetation.
- Monitoring the site for any overt signs of inappropriate use or third-party tampering.
What we are doing
Bellmere restoration site.
The main goal of this site is the eventual realisation of Gallery Rainforest (RE12.3.1) with Manning’s N roughness coefficient of 0.17 when mature. This work involves:
- Recreate an area of an endangered ecosystem.
- Ensure the progress of the site is maintained despite environmental livestock stressors.
- Ensure soil retention levels are improving.
Measuring success
As a result of the program, the following will be achieved:
- Weed management via hand-pull, slashing, approved pesticide application, approximately monthly, weather dependent, with monthly reporting.
- Monthly brush cutting/slashing on site to promote native vegetation growth and natural regeneration, approximately monthly, weather dependent, with monthly reporting.
- General site monitoring including:
- Signs of erosion.
- Vandalism prevention.
- Safety concerns.
- Adverse impacts on neighbouring properties.
- Evidence of inappropriate use.
Monthly reporting of activities.
- Annual monitoring and maintenance report.
- Timely reporting of safety issues.
- Quarterly vegetation monitoring and reporting.
- Quarterly photo-point monitoring image capture.
- One photogrammetry data capture event and digital elevation model (DEM) generation, with comparison to 2019 DEM.
Why this project is important
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Restoration sites are subject to many stressors after planting works have been done and saplings have yet to establish significant enough roots. Maintenance and monitoring not only protect the saplings but also allow for additional learning on which species thrive in the region and soil composition. Another threat is fast-growing weeds that threaten the desired planted native species. These shallow-rooted weeds require regular manual pruning to allow deep-rooted natives to properly establish and stabilise the soil. This plan ensures that the significant investment in restoration work at this site is realised, and the many benefits are reaped. |
Project snapshot
| Project name: | Monitoring & maintaining Bellmere restoration site on Caboolture River |
| Project manager: | Vanessa Durand, Healthy Land & Water |
| Catchment: | Caboolture |
| Timing: | 2022 – 2023 |
| Budget: | $52,200 |
| Partnerships: |
This Unitywater project is supported by Healthy Land & Water, through funding from Unitywater. |
| Related Articles: |
What's next
There is huge potential to build on the successful work and negotiations for the extension of the project over an additional five years are underway.
Project collaborators
This project is part of Unitywater's dedication to protecting riparian zones from erosion.
