Wagin and Woodanilling Landcare Zone host flora and fauna cataloguing workshops to help explore own backyards

A team of dedicated environmentalists are helping nature lovers learn what is in their own backyards with a series of a flora and fauna cataloguing workshops.

The Wagin and Woodanilling Landcare Zone put on the workshops last month, with the help of Albany botanist and botanical artist Ellen Hickman and fauna specialist Genevieve Harvey from Broomehill.

The program, funded by the WA State Government’s natural resource management program, involved participants being taken on a bushwalk through the Woodanilling area.

Ms Hickman helped participants identify a variety of different plant species, and with a permit from the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, helped them collect specimens to study.

Ms Harvey taught them how to spot signs of wildlife, and take photographs of the creatures and their habitats they found.

Students at Woodanilling Primary School discovered an animal larger than they were expecting when they found a carpet python hiding in a tree hollow.

Using the specimens and photographs, participants drew their own personalised flora and fauna catalogues which they can add to before the portfolios are finalised and displayed at the Great Southern Bloom Festival.

The catalogue display, which will be titled The Adventures of Woodanilling Nature Nerds and be showcased in the Woodanilling Art Exhibition, also featured DBCA’s Herbarium plant specimens, taxidermied native animals and birds, and a tour of Blyth Tree Farm in Katanning.

Further aspects of the project will include a native seed collecting workshop, planting seedlings in a Shire of Woodanilling former gravel reserve for bird habitats, insects and small animals, and a community tree planting event on a local farm.