Tag Archives: Science

A cadetship with the Healthy Waterways Team at Blue Mountains City Council has helped 23-year-old Will Goodwin pursue a passion for helping wildlife and nature.

Bill Dixon has cultivated a rainforest garden on a ridge in South Springwood. He talks about how growing rainforest species can be an adaptive response to local climate conditions.

'Middle Earth' is a remarkable off-grid paradise in the Kanimbla Valley, created over many decades by Hans and Tillie Coster. What was once a degraded grazing property has been regenerated, with its underground 'Hobbit Hall' built to survive all weather extremes.

Pollinators are critical for life on earth. As we face a biodiversity crisis in which we’re losing plants and animals at an alarming rate, the Rotary Club of Blackheath and Planting Seeds have collaborated on the B&B Highway pollinator program.

Renewed efforts to save the Dwarf Mountain Pine in light of its potential upgrade to ‘critically endangered’ status are giving greater recognition to a rare and unusual prehistoric native in our midst.

Maligned through the ages for their association with witchcraft, disease, drug use and poisonings, the fungus kingdom is gaining due credit thanks to ecologists, photographers and foragers.

Maligned through the ages for their association with witchcraft, disease, drug use and poisonings, the fungus kingdom is gaining due credit thanks to ecologists, photographers and foragers.

Mushrooms are a hot topic at the moment with more and more research illuminating the essential role these organisms play in the health of the planet as well as the significant health and medicinal benefits they hold for humans. Belle Butler visited local mushroom grower, Alex Felix, at his farm in Lawson to talk about the mighty mushroom.

In August 2023, a mass kill of freshwater spiny crayfish took place in a tributary to Hazelbrook Creek. Belle Butler talked to Blue Mountains City Council Aquatic Systems Officers Amy St Lawrence and Alice Blackwood about the incident, how recovery is going and what we can do to protect this keystone species.

What do an Archibald prize finalist, an industrial ruin and aquatic insects have in common? At Lake Pillans it was an opportunity to document the extraordinary world of our waterways, including a real time underwater survival challenge.