Forty hectares of jet black columns stand to attention in and around Montrose’ Dr Ken Leversha Reserve.
The canopy in the reserve is eerily quiet apart from the creak of burnt, brittle trunks in the wind.
The fire that tore through Montrose in March earlier this year left the Dr Ken Leversha Reserve black and bare. Now, six months later there are small signs of rejuvenation. New greenery has begun to creep its way back in among the scarred brush.
While it is still too early for heavy handed intervention, locals and the council have banded together to aid in rejuvenating the landscape.
President of the Mount Evelyn Environment Protection and Progress Association (MEEPPA) Clare Worsnop has been keeping an eye out for the return of local wildlife.
“It takes a long while for the bush to regenerate. Our concerns are for the wildlife, especially the pair of Powerful Owls that used to live in the Reserve,” Ms Worsnop said.
Powerful Owls are an endangered species that are threatened by the loss of old trees with large hollows in which they nest.
Ms Worsnop said, “We are monitoring them and checking but don’t believe the pair of owls are breeding this year because the area where they were hanging out mostly, is part of the area that got burnt.”
“We do know they had twins last year and that they survived the fire, but the family of owls have moved.”
The impacts of the fire on the ecosystems and environment in and around the reserve were vast, and while carcasses of dead animals were not found, the loss of habitat bears lasting consequences for the wildlife that once called the reserve home.
Ms Worsnop said, “The ground-dwelling animals like kangaroos, wallabies and wombats have to find new food sources and places to shelter.”
“They can move a little bit further up the mountain but of course, they would be moving into someone else’s territory and animals like humans, are quite territorial, so there’s always that issue to be monitored and checked on.
“We also have to keep an eye on the animals themselves and the birds that may have got burnt and injured but didn’t die immediately. There’s always checking to see which animals are okay, which ones have survived.”
While the MEEPA group often does a lot of bush regeneration work, they have been unable to jump in and begin working on the landscape.
Ms Worsnop said, “We haven’t done a lot of bush work because we haven’t been allowed in so we have been focusing on monitoring the critters and are watching what’s happening and we can see some re-veg work happening.
“People need to remember that when you have a storm or a fire or whatever, the trees and stuff that get burnt or fall down should be left alone. Some of the creatures can then live in that and make new or temporary homes and hollows until something else grows back in.
“We monitor what’s happening along with other groups, to make sure that people aren’t just going in and cleaning it up.”
While Ms Worsnop confirmed that some wildlife has been returning to the reserve, she maintained that it has been a “slow process.”
“The wallabies are still coming back and coming through but they need a bigger area than they had in order to have enough food,” Ms Worsnop said.
“We’ve got a wildlife carer group who are also keeping a very close eye on the animals. We are all most concerned about the owls but we are hoping that next year the environment will be stable enough again for them to come back and breed.
“Caring for the bush and helping it to regenerate naturally as well as working out what is necessary in the longer term with re-vegetation is a long process.”
Working together with the council and other organisations such as Melbourne Water, MEEPA focuses on bush regeneration and the monitoring of wildlife and is scheduled to meet with the council in the upcoming months to discuss further regeneration work at the Dr Ken Leversha Reserve.
Zoologist and Chief Executive Officer of the Bungalook Creek Wildlife Shelter Dr Emma Cash has also been keeping an eye on the Reserve.
“Straight after the fire there was a lot more diurnal activity, so daytime activity from animals that are usually nocturnal,” Dr Cash said.
“A lot of our possum and glider species were seen out during the daylight hours, simply just trying to find somewhere safe to sleep for the day. Most of those animals lived in the reserve.”
Due to the fact that the fire began at night, many of the reserve’s nocturnal inhabitants were awake and able to escape.
Dr Cash said, “We’re probably lucky, not so much for the humans, but for the animals in the fact that the fires took off during the night.”
“The wildlife were hopefully out and about and not in the fire zone.
“Their problem now is finding safe places to sleep, so people might be seeing a little bit more activity from species around their homes. A lot of the hollows that they would have lived in can take up to 100 years to form, and so we don’t have habitats yet.”
According to Dr Cash, locals can help out the local wildlife in a series of ways.
“People that live around the area can make their gardens as wildlife friendly as possible,” Dr Cash said.
“This involves planting native trees and shrubs and ground covers so that our wildlife have something safe to eat, but also installing nesting boxes in appropriate locations and keeping cats indoors.”
The Bungalook Creek Wildlife Shelter was founded in Montrose 18 years ago and cares for and rehabilitates Australian native wildlife.
For more information on MEEPA and or to donate to the Bungalook Creek Wildlife Shelter, visit the following website and Facebook pages respectively.
MEEPA: meeppa.org.au
Bungalook Creek Wildlife Shelter: facebook.com/bungalookcreekwildlifeshelter/
