By Tanya Steele
The people of Yarra Ranges jumped on board for the Biodiversity Blitz in September making a huge contribution to citizen science.
With over 13,000 contributions to iNaturalist the the community has displayed its love of all things nature and topped the list of councils who participated.
Yarra Ranges Acting CEO, Hjalmar Philipp said the Yarra Ranges community embraced citizen science by contributing a total of 13,145 flora, fauna and fungi sightings.
“The observations made by 397 people may go on to become data for researchers and scientists working to better understand and protect nature,” he said.
Yarra Ranges joined other councils across Victoria including Baw Baw, Bayside, Cardinia, Casey, Frankston, Greater Dandenong, Kingston, Knox, Latrobe, Maroondah, Mornington Peninsula, Nillumbik and the City of Yarra to log flora and species in their areas over a 30 day period.
The collaborative cross-council project aims to document species across urban and peri-urban areas.
Yarra Ranges lead this year with a total of 1,626 species followed by Frankston with 1,161 species and Nillumbik with 1,117 species.
A beautiful orchid topped the list of flora contributions in Yarra Ranges.
The Mountain Greenhood had a total of 106 observations and the orchid is a species endemic across south-eastern Australia.
For fauna, the Crimson Rosella bird was not far behind with 101 observations made.
Mr Philipp said the range of observations submitted included plants, insects, fungi, mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, arachnids and more.
“Special sightings included a pair of koalas in the Yarra Valley, a powerful owl, evidence of yellow-bellied gliders, birds of prey and several lyrebirds,” he said.
The Yarra Ranges council runs an ongoing iNaturalist project called the Yarra Ranges Nature Project.
Mr Phillip said it collates all observations contributed within the municipality at any time by nature enthusiasts.
“To date, 282,741 observations of 6,694 species have been logged in the Yarra Ranges area,” he said.
People can check out the iNaturalist website and see what has been logged in their area at: https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/projects/biodiversity-blitz-2024-melbourne
