Wetland and Lake restoration is common place now throughout the world. Lake Colac, its shoreline and the creeks that feed it can be repaired with community and government resolve.
Wetland and Lake restoration is common place now throughout the world. Lake Colac, its shoreline and the creeks that feed it can be repaired with community and government resolve.
Presently the margins of Lake Colac are extremely degraded.
The vast majority of the lakes foreshore exists of little more than large expanses of trampled mud making it sometimes impossible to tell where the actual shoreline finishes and the lake's water begin!
Other areas of foreshore do contain some remnant vegetation, usually in varying degrees of health. However, decades of disturbance and weed invasion have reduced these areas ability to function as they once did: protecting the stability of the shoreline, increasing water quality in the lake and providing habitat for wildlife.
River red gums, once commonly found around the lake at the time of settlement have almost to the last, been thoughtlessly felled along with many other countless numbers of trees and shrubs. If we are ever to redress this imbalance, we need to take action. Actions that will, in time begin to turn around the health of the lake; improving water quality, creating greater wildlife habitat and last but not defiantly least, increasing the quality of living for Colac and all residents of its lake!
2) Identify areas of significant remnant vegetation such as the mouth of Deans Creek and implement a program of weed management. By weed management I do not simply mean eradication, but a program where by weeds are removed from site and indigenous vegetation is encouraged to fill the gaps. In established sites as this, such a process can take surprisingly little time.
3) In areas of the lake where little or no remnant vegetation exists, appropriate species will have to be reintroduced. Some wetland species such as Common Reed Phragmites australis can be directly transplanted into the mud during its growing season. Once again, weed control will need to be implemented as indigenous species will cover areas more quickly without competition from weeds.
4) Source and grow seeds of species considered useful for reveg works. It is preferable to use seeds found as close as possible to the site proposed for replanting. This means we are keeping the seeds as local as possible, therefore preserving the 'provenance' of indigenous species. In time, it may be possible for the formation of some kind of community indigenous nursery to be developed for reveg projects around Colac and the district.
5) Continue a policy of expansion, repeating this process as often as appropriate.
Without going into too much detail, we have offered a basic master plan for turning around the health of the Lake Colac foreshore.
This process would no doubt take many years of ongoing work before completion and take much effort. It is only one strand of many needed for improving the water quality of the lake (such as sewerage outfalls and industrial effluents entering the lake) but I feel it is realistically achievable with some community backing and hard work.
What are the alternatives? Simply ignoring the state of the lake will only add the ever-growing list of environmental degradation choking our continent. Here is the chance for a win-win situation for not only Lake Colac and its environment, but also its residents!