1.6 Million Plants For World Wetlands Day

ENVIRONMENTAL BOOST IN MELBOURNE'S EAST

* 1.6 million plants for new wetland
* Scoresby on-site nursery a success
* Project coincides with World Wetlands Day

A big operation to plant 1.6 million plants has started at the site of a new wetland in the City of Knox, coinciding with World Wetlands Day celebrated today.

The 48 hectare Dandenong Creek Wetland being built in Scoresby will be Victoria's biggest man-made wetland.

Acting Waterways Delivery Manager, David Ryan, said the plants would create a new habitat
for thousands of birds, fish and other animals, and improve the health of Dandenong Creek.

"Melbourne Water created its own nursery on site at the wetland to grow 892,000 of the 1.6 million plants," Mr Ryan said.

"A big logistical exercise is now underway with a team of 26 people starting to do the planting by hand. The plants, indigenous to the local area, will include River Red Gums, Yarra Gums, Swamp Paper Bark Trees and Blackwood Trees.

"About 1.2 million will be aquatic plants and the remaining 400,000 will be located around the wetlands. Planting is expected to be completed in mid-2010."

World Wetlands Day marks the anniversary of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, in Ramsar, Iran, on 2nd February 1971.

"The wetlands at Melbourne Water's Western Treatment Plant in Werribee are listed under the Ramsar Convention for significant wetlands and they attract some 270 species of birds," Mr Ryan said.

"Wetlands create their own unique ecosystem that provides food, water and habitat for an array of plants and animals.

"Melbourne Water has constructed about 50 other wetlands to help protect the health of the city's waterways. "The new Knox wetland and its plants would help to soak up pollutants in stormwater runoff from Dandenong Creek that would ultimately end up in Port Phillip Bay.

"Stormwater runoff can carry pollutants ranging from nitrogen that causes algal blooms, to motor oil and animal droppings that affect the health of fish and platypus. "Our modelling shows that the Dandenong Creek Wetland will trap about 5,000 tonnes of suspended solids, 9 tonnes of phosphorus and 28 tonnes of nitrogen per year, helping to protect our waterways and the bay," Mr Ryan said.

Media contact:
Gavin Rainsford
03 9235 1587
M 0400 690 502

SOURCE: Melbourne Water