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Discovering Kama

Driving northbound through Canberra, have you ever wondered what is on the left hand side of William Hovel Drive? I never had. Little did I know, there is an area that holds one of the newest, most modest and endangered ecosystems in Canberra. That area is called Kama.

Discover Kama is one of nine natural treasure walks in the Heritage Festival running over April 2016. Kama National Reserve is located between William Hovel Drive and the Lower Molonglo Nature Reserve. The Discover Kama Dam Walk is 2km long although, there too is also a river walk that is 5km long.

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Kama in the morning. Image taken by Meg De Sousa

Kama Nature Reserve forms an important flora and fauna habitat link between the Murrumbidgee River Corridor and nature reserves across the north of Canberra including Mt Majura, Black Mountain, Aranda Bushland, Mt Painter and the Pinnacle.

“For those who are unfamiliar with Kama, there are two distinct parts of it: there’s the woodland part of it and there’s the grassland part. So if we were to go beyond the tree line, there is just open grassland with hardly any trees at all and then it goes down to the river and there, of course is habitat. That’s why this area is so valuable, it’s a wonderful corridor” said Chris Davey, from the Canberra Ornithologists Group.

Grasslands, being natural ecological communities are dominated by grasses and are one of the most endangered areas in Australia. This is due to being flat, fertile, and with humans thinking it looks like farmland, we turn it into farmland and put houses on it.

These are the reasons that around Australia, “ecosystems like the grasslands and the box-gum grassy woodlands, which are basically grassy areas with the dotted trees with the yellow-box and red gums are suffering” said Rebecca Palmer-Brodie, Event Coordinator from the Conservation Council.

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Discover Kama walk. Image taken by Meg De Sousa

With the developments of Canberra and in particular, north Canberra, the Government “wants to put houses on the eastern side of Kama and if you go down the road to where Kama ends, you will find a deep gully and we’d like them to stop at this gully and use it as a buffer zone but I’m sure they won’t” said Davey.

This is a huge issue as Kama provides an essential link between Pinnacle Nature Reserve which has been there for years behind Kama and the new Molonglo Nature Reserve that’s going down along the corridor.

“We are in an endangered ecosystem. The woodlands are even more in danger than forests” said Katerina Ng, an agriculture expert and completing a PhD in plant/entomology relationship diversities at the Australian National University.

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Katerina Ng explaining details of endangered plants. Image taken by Meg De Sousa

“When there is a developing area which impact on endangered species and ecological communities, government policies state they have to offset it elsewhere by looking after the same community and preferably improving it in another area” said Ms. Palmer-Brodie.

The government and ecologists are working on restoring the corridor to functionality as the Molonglo river corridor was degraded.

Developments, construction and degradations result in having an isolated area which results in decreasing numbers of plants and animals because all impacts move in from the edges. Whereas, when you link things up, it’s a bit of a buffer and means animals and plants can move from one area to another which is why Kama is such a vital reserve as a linking corridor for different reserves. For example, it enables birds to fly safely across areas while still looking for food and places to live.

“The Conservation Council is very concerned about buffers and that you can’t just stick an area in surrounded by roads and urban development and call it safe. You actually have to buffer it and that’s the discussion we’re having about Kama at the moment about when they are going to bring in more developments and more roads, we have to make sure there is enough space around Kama nature reserve that’s not being used for fire management and other purposes to allow plants and animals to move around. It’s a huge challenge” said Ms. Palmer-Brodie.

The government and ecologists are also currently working on creating Kangaroo and Wombat friendly underpasses. The Majura Parkway is also working on making the Kangaroo friendly underpasses help animals move across safely. It will be interesting to know if these adjustments will encourage wildlife road safety.

Being a person who doesn’t know much about Canberra’s environment and ecology, the Discover Kama walk was eye-opening to discover the issues that surround Kama and what plants and animals depend on Kama’s land specifically.

Click here to see an interactive map of the Discover Kama walk with points of particular significance.

 

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