What do snake-necked turtles and firewise gardens have in common?
They are both on the list of new programs to be delivered by GeoCatch this year, announced after it was confirmed the initiatives had received support under the City of Busselton's 'You Choose' program.
Members of the community voted online for their favourite projects, choosing GeoCatch's FireWise Demonstration Garden and 'Turtle Trackers', a Citizen Science project, along with six other worthwhile community initiatives.
Each summer, firefighters across the South West prepare to face the sobering prospect of wildfire in rural and urban bushland areas and homeowners wonder what they can do to make their properties safer and more likely to withstand the onslaught of a wildfire.
GeoCatch, in partnership with the Dunsborough Volunteer Bush Fire Brigade, and the Forever Project, will establish a FireWise demonstration garden at the Dunsborough Fire Station this winter to help homeowners prepare for bushfires by sharing good practices in FireWise garden design.
Part of the installation includes a community workshop with author and sustainability expert Chris Ferreira from The Forever Project.
The installation workshop will demonstrate how homeowners can design and install a FireWise landscape of their own.
The garden will also be used to promote fire safety and support Bushfire Ready - a community-led program that encourages residents to plan and prepare for bushfires by working together.
Project officer Lisa Massey explained the importance of planning a garden that can withstand a bushfire.
"FireWise gardens are designed to not only be an attractive amenity setting for our houses, but by planting the right plants, we can help protect our home and neighbouring bushland," she said.
"These landscapes can effectively resist ember attack and fire creep while maintaining a cool, vegetated landscape. They are beautiful and also waterwise."
The second project is a Citizen Science initiative that offers an opportunity for all members of the community to contribute to the knowledge of the southwestern snake-neck turtle through interactive field trips, workshops, and monitoring of numbers in the wild.
GeoCatch project officer Shannon Clohessy emphasised the importance of understanding more about these unique hard-shelled creatures.
"These turtles are beautiful creatures that have a long neck that retracts sideways into their shells. Their homes are being threatened by clearing and catchment destruction, foxes, and other predators," she said.
"At the moment, we don't know the exact numbers remaining in the wild, so this project is vital to understanding the populations that remain."
Harry Butler Institute's Aquatic Ecologist Dr Stephen Beatty from Murdoch University, said although good progress has been made protecting the species, there is still a long way to go.
"While we're on track to achieving goals in project wetlands, there are still many wetlands not being protected.
"We now need to expand the project across the entire range of this species if we're to prevent local extinctions.
"We are calling on all local governments across the south-west of WA to join the Save Our Snake Neck Turtle program, so we can expand our efforts to engage and train more members of the community in tracking and protecting this remarkable species," he said.
