By Tanya Steele
Yarra Ranges Council is seeking volunteer garden guides for the free Yarra Ranges Gardens for Wildlife (YRG4W) program, available to communities in the shire.
Volunteer garden guides visit people’s homes to give a free assessment and provide tips and tricks to encourage local fauna into their gardens.
The program aims to increase general knowledge and understanding for people in their gardens. It has a small dedicated group of volunteers but is seeking to introduce and train more guides.
Hannah Grant, who is the biodiversity rehabilitation officer running the project, invites the public to sign up as guides, even if they have no previous experience.
“Becoming a guide really helps them to advance their flora and fauna knowledge. They get to meet like minded people in the community and are supported by the council as well,” Ms Grant said.
The volunteer program is quite flexible, so anyone can train as a guide and contribute in a manner that suits their needs.
The volunteer guides are trained to give people ideas on how to make small improvements to their garden spaces.
“Our role is not to go out and tell people how to have their gardens. It’s just to give them ideas on how they could make their gardens more wildlife friendly,” she said.
The volunteers go on a tour of the person’s garden and then provide a report to the resident afterwards, with ideas and links to programs that can help their space.
Some properties in the Yarra Ranges are much bigger than your average garden, but even small modifications can make a difference to transport corridors of the local wildlife.
“We have lots of large areas of bush and if we can create these small patches in our backyard, then we can help some species move through the landscape because they’ve got the stepping stones.”
This program provides free opportunities for the general public to become involved in small changes in their own backyard.
Information sessions on how to get involved as a guide were held online on Tuesday 21 February from 7pm to 7.30pm. Yarra Ranges Residents can register for this session online through the council website.
If you miss the session, those interested can still get in touch with the biodiversity team through gardensforwildlife@yarraranges.vic.gov.au
