The slowly extending days and the serenading birds are encouraging the end of the Winter and blossoming of spring. A time when the Victorian Volcanic Plains truly showcases its beauty with the wildflowers coming into bloom.
The warming weather of spring not only brings out our beautiful wildflowers, but it also encourages the flowering of many noxious weed species. It is therefore critical that effective, timely, and precise weed control strategies are deployed by trained professionals. Regular weed management carried out by Aus Eco Solutions minimises the potential that noxious weed species can establish or dominate a landscape, so when spring arrives, everyone can explore and enjoy our beautifully endemic wildflowers, and not just see a field of Artichoke Thistle weeds!
The warming days make it all the more encouraging in heading outdoors and witnessing the spectacle of the grasslands transforming from monotonous tones of brown into a field of colour. Some incredibly unique floral species to keep an eye out for these warmer months include the Blue Devil (Eryngium ovinum), the Small Golden Moths Orchid (Diuris basaltica), the Grassland Sun-orchid (Thelymitra basaltica) and the Hoary Sunray (Leucochrysum albicans var. tricolor).
With the warming weather, also keep vigilant for our wonderful fauna, including the Striped Legless Lizard (Delma impar). This 30cm long lizard is distinguishable by its light and dark parallel lines running along its entire length, and the obvious lack of legs! This vulnerable species is further threatened by habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation, which makes it critical for us to understand our part in ensuring that these wonderful ecosystems are restored and conserved, so that it, and other unique grassland species, can flourish into the future.
Some aspects of managing the Temperate Native Grasslands and the Grassy Eucalypt Woodlands consists of revegetating degraded sites, controlling noxious weeds and pest animals, and restoring proper burning regimes – all which Aus Eco Solutions are planning to implement this spring!
The warming weather and occasional rain makes it ideal to undertake controlled ecological burns. Numerous indigenous species have evolved and adapted to incorporate a regime of burning, some so strongly that it is prerequisite for their germination. The team at Aus Eco Solutions is highly skilled in identifying what species are present in the area to determine the benefits of a burn, and understand which noxious weed species may be controlled or suppressed from a burn. By balancing out these natural processes, more indigenous species can flourish, while invasive weeds are suppressed.
