One of Western Australia’s most important wetlands has been given a boost, with funding from the Peel-Harvey Catchment Council helping to protect the fragile environment at Lake Clifton.
The PHCC has provided almost $10,000 to the Lake Clifton-Herron Landcare Group through round two of their Community Environment Grants, enabling the group to carry out on-ground activities across a stretch of shoreline at the lake.
The Lake Clifton-Herron Landcare group used some of the funds to carry out a weed survey which is now informing a weed control programme which will take place shortly. A further $15,730 of funding is committed through Phase two of the PHCC Community Environment grants, and will go towards implementing weed control at the site.
“The weed survey will also help inform an action plan for the lake, and this will need to be considered carefully to get the best result for future projects,” Jenny Rose from the Lake Clifton-Herron Landcare Group said.
Lake Clifton is one of the most valuable environmental sites in the City of Mandurah, Shire of Waroona and broader Peel Region and is part of the Peel-Yalgorup Ramsar system, which is a Ramsar wetland of international significance.
“The Lake Clifton-Herron Landcare Group has been working hard for many years to protect the lake by managing weeds and the survey is assisting to focus priority actions to achieve the group’s vision, which is to restore the Lake’s shoreline vegetation to a more natural state.” PHCC CEO Jane O’Malley said.
Removing weeds will help clear the way for future planting programs to re-establish a native buffer of vegetation, which provides habitat for local and international migratory shorebirds and the small organisms on which the Shorebirds birds feed on.
The vegetation buffer also filters unwanted nutrients from water, stopping them entering the lake and upsetting the natural balance of the ecosystem, which is critical to the threatened federally listed Thrombolites, which have existed over thousands of years at Lake Clifton and are iconic to the Peel Harvey region.
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