Projects

Paul Foreman

Paul Foreman is a highly regarded and skilled field botanist and ecologist with over 23 years of experience in land management and nature conservation across a range of sectors and in a range of technical, strategic and management roles throughout Victoria and many other parts of Australia. Paul has an undergraduate degree in Forestry from the University of Melbourne and completed a Botany Masters of Science in Northern Plains Grassland ecology at La Trobe University in 1996.

Wetland Monitoring

Protecting and Enhancing the Moolort Plains Wetlands

The Moolort Plains wetlands comprising dozens of freshwater meadows, shallow freshwater marshes and deep freshwater marshes, mostly on private land on the Volcanic Plain between Carisbrook and Newstead, are known significant natural remnants for bird migration, wildlife corridors and habitat for many rare or threatened species. Following recent floods, the North Central Catchment Management Authority secured Australian Government’s ‘Caring for our Country’ funding to work with landholders to help protect and restore these unique environments via fencing to control grazing pressure and promote natural regeneration, as well as revegetation and permanent protection (amongst other things). This project involved establishing a network of permanent monitoring sites at a representative sample of wetlands to help monitor and record the project’s short and long-term environmental improvements. The results revealed a surprising diversity of wetland types and the huge potential for further management improvements to help protect the remnant wetlands of this unusual central Victorian landscape.