The Science and Monitoring team have been busy hosting and supporting important visits.
In June, we welcomed the Friends of Grasslands (FoG) to Mulloon for a site tour and discussion on grassland restoration. Shortly after, the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust (BCT) team joined us to continue assessing grasslands and wooded areas for biodiversity and conservation management. Both visits highlight the importance of collaboration and shared knowledge in restoring and rehydrating landscapes.
Pictured right are the Friends of Grasslands team in action.
We’ve also been out in the field, assisting the Water Stewardship Project at Brogers Creek, Kangaroo Valley. Working alongside Rachel Kneeves (NSW WaterWatch), local Landcare members, and the broader community, we explored opportunities for community water monitoring and provided support through drone mapping here and at Lorrina near Braidwood.
Pictured right: Brogers Creek monitoring.
Pictured below: Brogers Creek monitoring, and the team mapping at Lorrina.
The team has been pushing forward with new tools and workflows. We’ve developed an automated Groundwater Piezometer Workflow, streamlining the journey from raw sensor downloads through naming conventions, processing, and quality assurance/quality control checks. Alongside this, we released a suite of automated terrain attribute tools, which can generate 13 landscape measures from a single Digital Elevation Model – including Contours, Slope, Aspect, Hillshade, Flow Direction, Flow Accumulation, Curvature (both Profile & Plan), REM (Relative Elevation Model), LS Factor (Slope Length and Steepness factor), TPI (Topographic Position Index), VBF (Valley Bottom Flatness), and Flow Length – all designed to support catchment-scale monitoring and restoration planning.
Click on images to enlarge.
Our research team is continuing work on the second Mulloon Rehydration Initiative research paper – watch this space for updates on what promises to be another landmark contribution to the science of landscape rehydration.
Finally, at Mulloon Creek, the transformation of the old brood shed into the new Mulloon Lab Hub is well underway. The refurbished space is fast becoming a dedicated centre for research, monitoring, and collaboration – keep an eye out for our official launch later this year. Pictured right: Mulloon Lab Hub transformation underway.
