From the desk of Natalie, Projects Leader. 

Phytophthora dieback is a soil-borne pathogen and a major threat to biodiversity in the South Coast region of WA, with around 40% of native species susceptible to the pathogen. Dieback causes sudden deaths in vulnerable species and results in the devastation of large areas of natural habitat. 

‘Project Dieback’ is a collaborative program for dieback management led by South Coast NRM in cooperation with the Dieback Working Group, state and local government, industry and the WA community. South Coast NRM’s leadership and achievements in managing dieback has been recognised with receiving the 2021 Australian Environmental Biosecurity Award. 

A key component of Project Dieback is the webpage hosted by South Coast NRM, to raise awareness and promote hygiene practices to protect WA ecosystems from Phytophthora dieback. Over many years, South Coast NRM has developed substantial resources on planning and behavioural change along with numerous reports that investigate and promote mitigation of dieback in the south western area of WA.  

With support from Western Australian Government’s State NRM Program, South Coast NRM has brought all our dieback resources into one library. 

IMAGE: Cape Le Grand National Park in Esperance, showing dieback affected native vegetation in the foreground.

The resource library on Project Dieback has grown from 10Mb of data to now holding over 300Mb of information to assist the community in managing dieback in WA and beyond. This centralised, free, and easily available library is an excellent new resource for managing dieback in WA. You can see if a dieback report has been done for your local area or the best way to change behaviour and manage risk to protect the valuable ecosystems and biodiversity in bushland that you want to protect. The resource library includes photos and short videos to visually demonstrate dieback messages.

You will soon find the newly released dieback animation video in the resource library, which is fantastic resource to share and help protect WA’s biodiversity and ecosystems from Phytophthora dieback.   

For more information, please contact Natalie Reeves (p) 9845 8537 (e) natalier@southcoastnrm.com.au