Protect our bushland

Bushland areas are valuable and fragile and need to be protected and looked after. Council aims to protect areas with significant flora and fauna by installing fencing and signage in significant areas to allow them to regenerate.

Even walking through Bushland can negatively impact the environment by trampling sensitive vegetation, supressing the germination of seedlings, bringing in and spreading invasive weed species, pathogens and disease as well as compacting and eroding soil. By leaving areas undisturbed we can protect significant vegetation and habitat for local wildlife, restore and maintain ecosystem health, and facilitate the natural regeneration processes.

Sticking to designated paths is an important way the community can help to protect and enhance Maroondah’s bushland and biodiversity.

To conserve Maroondah's bushland, locally native (indigenous) plant species MUST NOT be removed from any bushland reserve. They are protected by law.

Some indigenous plants look similar to invasive weeds. If you have questions, or would like a plant identified, please email a photo to nature@maroondah.vic.gov.au.

Rubbish dumping and particularly the prevalent dumping of green waste in Council bushland reserves negatively impacts the environment, bushland areas and waterways.

Green waste includes materials such as lawn clippings, branches, weeds, leaves, soil, and mulch. Green waste dumping can have numerous impacts including:

• introducing environmental weeds and non-indigenous species into the environment, which can smother and out compete our indigenous species. This can have flow on effects for our wildlife and natural ecosystem processes.
• increasing nutrients in the soil which indigenous plants aren’t accustomed to. Australian plants have adapted to low soil nutrient levels. Excessive nutrients can also contaminate waterways, cause algal blooms, and affect aquatic life.
• introducing disease, pathogens, and pests into environmentally sensitive areas.
• increasing fuel load and fire risk.

It is illegal to remove dead trees, logs and branches from bushland reserves without permission from Council. Council will retain dead standing trees for habitat in parks, reserves or nature strips where possible, to ensure there is habitat for our local wildlife in the long term.

Due to the decline in shelter for wildlife, leaving what you may consider to be dead wood in place assists indigenous wildlife in the area, unless the dead wood is considered to be dangerous.

Benefits of retaining dead wood

Dead wood, whether lying on the ground or still standing, provides precious habitat.

• Native birds and mammals rely on tree hollows and dead wood for shelter from predators and for breeding purposes.
• Insects such as the stag beetle rely on dead wood as a food source. In turn, many birds, reptiles and mammals need insects for survival.
• Understorey species such as fungi, grasses and shrubs rely on decomposed wood to contribute to growth and nutrient cycles.
• Trees bearing hollows provide an array of housing and shelter for our local native wildlife. Hollows often form when the centre of a tree limb rots away due to fungal or termite activity - this is more common in old or dead trees and the process can take many hundreds of years, making hollow bearing trees especially valuable.

Picking up after your dog and disposing of their poo in a responsible manner can help Maroondah’s bushland reserves as it prevents contamination and nutrient loading within soil and faecal matter entering our waterways.

Picking up after your dog also ensures that community members, volunteer groups, and the bushland team can enjoy and maintain bushland reserves safely without encountering dog poo.

The building of bike jumps, tracks and other obstacles on Council land, particularly in bushland reserves, has become more common and can cause devastating issues and damage to wildlife habitat and Maroondah's biodiversity.

Building unauthorised structures on Council land has large impacts on our natural environment, including soil erosion and damage to native plants, which can take years to recover. Building bike tracks or bush huts in bushland areas often causes irreversible damage to local indigenous vegetation that is removed. This damage to vegetation is permanent and cannot be rectified or replaced.