FRIENDS of Lightning Swamp Bushland and the City of Bayswater will plant more than 19,000 native seedlings in three years at the A-class reserve site near the Lightning Park Recreation Centre in Noranda.
The project, which was launched on June 22, involved using undervalued household green waste converted to a soil conditioner and applied to the site, in preparation for the planting of 5000 seedlings this month.
The group and community members will plant the seedlings during two to three annual community events, where the seedlings would form a natural buffer and replace the loss of vegetation with the construction of the NorthLink WA project along Reid Highway.
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READ NOWPresident John Williams said once established, the area would be crucial to the protection of the site.
“The planting of seedlings at the site would help control invasive weeds and prevent further degradation of the site impacting on existing bushland,” he said.
“The planting will help to preserve and increase the local biodiversity and habitat at the highly sensitive environmental reserve.”
Mr Williams said the initiative would bring together groups like the Buddha’s Light International Association of WA, who shared the same values of helping to sustain natural environments.
“The rate of decline in health and number of natural urban green spaces in our cities is ever increasing due to such threats as, clearing, weed infestation, disease, low rainfall and urbanisation,” he said.
“The City of Bayswater is an example of this urban transformation and decline taking place in recent times and the project provides a rare opportunity to return and cultivate a barren expansive space to a healthy bushland for urban nature and community to benefit.”