• About
  • Anacotilla: History & Hearsay
  • Junk: A Curated Collection
  • Resources
  • Species List
  • Yarnauwingga and beyond

Yarnauwi Farm

~ Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia

Yarnauwi Farm

Tag Archives: dam

Making a floating habitat island

12 Thursday Jul 2018

Posted by Joel in ecology, propagation, regeneration, waterways

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

birds, dam, design, ecology, habitat, how to, island, making, revegetation, water, waterways

DCIM100GOPRO

The planted habitat island, ready to launch

Regular readers and supporters of our farm will be familiar with the challenges we’ve faced trying to re-establish native vegetation in the face of large populations of rampaging herbivores. Inspired by an idea from @nature_at_work_ (check them out on Instagram) and folks around the world working to increase urban and rural habitat, we thought we’d construct a floating habitat island.

Once installed in the dam, we hoped the island would function as a seed bank for aquatic plants, a fox-proof roost for waterbirds, and offer filtration through the plant roots as well as aquatic shelter and habitat.

During the summer, our friend Shani, assisted by a team of kids, got to work assembling a frame from some leftover PVC stormwater pipe to act as the float, with a length of shade cloth salvaged from our gully junk to act as a base onto which we could later plant local aquatic plants. The frame was tied to a rock anchor and then launched with great ceremony.

IMG_9909

The official launch of the habitat island (and anchor)

IMG_9910

Installation requires a great deal of precision and technical know-how.

In the following months, the island became popular with waterbirds of all types, with ducks often spotted perched on the floating edge, grebes diving underneath and the enclosed centre of the island becoming coated with feathers and bird manure. Continue reading →

Yarnauwi on Etsy

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 210 other followers

Yarnauwi on Instagram

No Instagram images were found.

What We’re Writing About

alpacas annual report art art and craft bees before and after birds books building cheese climate change craft damara design downloads ecology embroidery erosion etsy events farm fencing fire Fleurieu Fleurieu Coast food future hack hiking history illustration insects kangaroos leather leathercraft linoprint livestock logo nursery permaculture photography picnics planning plants Plastic-free July printing propagation rain recipes recycling regeneration regenerative agriculture reuse revegetation sea seasons seeds shed sheep sheepskins shop soil southwestern Fleurieu stiles summer textiles tour tractor trees ute waste water waterways winter zones

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel