Yarra Ranges Council has joined Bushfire Recovery Victoria and Victorian Fisheries to provide tree stumps and root balls from fallen storm trees to create native fish habitat.
Close to 40 enormous snags will be replenished into Rivers around the Goulbourn and Glenelg area, and at a Shepparton native fish hatchery.
Native fish, including the Murray Cod and Golden Perch use the stumps and root balls as habitat, helping to make use of some of the 31,000 tonnes of wood, stump and branch debris the council has collected since the June storms.
Yarra Ranges Council Mayor, Jim Child said Council is excited to be working with BRV and Victoria Fisheries on this project.
“While the loss of trees during the storm is sad, reusing root balls and stumps which were too big to mill and produced poor quality mulch is good for conservation, good for healthy waterways and good for recreational fishing.”
This collaborative approach led to an agreement between YRC, BRC and Victorian Fisheries whereby root balls that would otherwise require additional costly processing to turn into mulch, could instead be effectively utilised for native fish habitat.
Some of these repurposed snags will also be used at the Victorian Fisheries Authority’s new native fish hatchery near Shepparton, where thirty-two ponds will be built to grow newly hatched native fish that will eventually be released into waters across Victoria.
Once in the environment these root balls will increase breeding environments, add natural food sources and create a sustainable native fish community, resulting in benefits not only to the local environment and waterways but to recreational fishers.
