Ecolgical restoration
Info
Background
Along the Eastern edge of the Blue Mountains run a line of Melaleuca swamp forests, rare examples of the Riverflat Paperbark Swamp Forest endangered ecological community. Of these swamps the swamps along Cripple Creek are amongst the largest and also most degraded. In 2019 I completed a restoration plan for the Cripple Creek swamps, and, beginning in 2020, I have begun a research project through the University of New England investigating the use of what I refer to as bio-weirs to restore the hydrological functioning of the swamp forests.
Bio-weirs
Bio-weirs combine constructed leaky weirs with strategic plantings to create self-sustaining living structures which are predicted to kick-off a process of channel widening and aggradation. The weirs are constructed out of timber stakes, small and medium branches, organic debris and sediment. The weirs are packed lightly to allow baseflow to move under and through the weir, leaving an exposed ‘island’ of sediment and debris above the water line. This area is planted out with appropriate vegetation which is protected from floods by ‘nurse branches’ staked in around the growing plants.
At the same time that decomposition acts to lower the level of the fill, the vegetation and nurse branches capture new sediment and organic debris counteracting any lowering of the fill height. As the fill compresses, the hydraulic conductivity of the weir is reduced and sub-surface erosion underneath one of the banks is promoted. This eventually leads to the undermining of the bank which widens the channel and releases sediment to aggrade downstream weirs. Once an area or channel has widened around a bio-weir, the weir is extended to cover the new wider channel. It is predicted that one or two widening events will be sufficient to create a stable sub-surface flow regime.
Rather than engineering the channel to fit pre-conceived notions, the aim of a bio-weir to facilitate and promote the natural interplay between vegetation and hydrology to fast-track a new self-sustaining geomorphic regime.
Photos
Restoration plan
Soil Science
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Soil profiles
Fungi
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Geoderma
The living, breathing skin of the earth is an endlessly fascinating medium. My particular interests are at the complex interface of soil biology and soil hydrology.
Permaculture Design Certificate
I have taught the soil science and hydrology components of three permaculture design certificate courses for the Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute. This involved teaching basic soil science concepts such as role of texture, structure and organic matter in the functioning of soils. It also included applied topics such as crop nutrition, erosion management and water storage.
Fungi workshops
I also run full day introductory mycology workshops through Lyttleton Stores which I developed myself. These cover topics such as the role of fungi in the ecosystem, biological aspects of pedogenisis, fungal disease, mycorrhizal fungi and the low-tech cultivation of gourmet mushrooms.
Soil judging
In 2018 I was part of the team that took out silver in the National Soil Judging Competition, which was followed up by bronze in 2019. Profile descriptions has since become a hobby and any time I see an exposed profile I practice field texturing and structure classification.
Soil judging awards
2Permaculture design certificates facilitated
3Fungi workshops facilitated
5Water Science
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Piper plots are a standard method for visualising water chemistry data. They allow for the simple determination of hydrochemical facies and the determination of evolutionary patterns. Unfortunately, there are limited open-source packages for the creation of piper plots. To fill this gap I have developed an R package to generate animated piper plots simplify the analysis of longitudinal water chemistry data.
I have also extended Arthur Piper’s original design to allow for the consideration of additional significant ions as is frequently found in contaminated groundwater.