Pulling the plug on wetlands for environment's sake

20 October 2004

Researchers from Monash University will start draining the equivalent of 1250 Olympic swimming pools from Dowd Morass in the Gippsland Lakes this week to help improve the health of the heritage listed site.

The team of 10 from the school of Biological Sciences is embarking on what is believed to be one of the largest water manipulation projects ever undertaken in a natural environment, to provide strategies for future management of the coastal wetlands system.

Research fellow Dr Elisa Raulings said the project would affect about 60 plant species in the area with flow-on effects to the resident bird population.

Dr Raulings said findings from the Dowd Morass project could be used to improve other degraded wetland systems throughout Australia.

She said in Victoria alone, one third of all natural wetlands had been destroyed and we have limited information on the health of those that remain.

"Wetlands are among the most valuable of all aquatic systems, and play an important role in erosion control and water purification. If we can help improve the health of these wetlands there will be positive effects for local tourism and the community," she said.

The team will use aerial photos and satellite imagery over the last 50 years to monitor long term environmental changes at Dowd Morass -- a 1500 hectare freshwater marsh which has remained artificially flooded for 30 years.

"We expect the plants and birds in the area will respond well to the return to a more natural water regime," Dr Raulings said.

The team led by Dr Paul Bailey is using existing levee banks to contain the draining to one third, or about 500 hectares of the wetland to simulate the natural drying process which has been absent for three decades.

Dr Raulings and the research team will be on site at Dowd Morass for media interviews on Friday, 22 October. For further information contact Ms Ingrid Sanders in Media Communications on +61 3 9905 9201.