![]() ![]() The environmental watering program at Lyrup Forest is a partnership between the Nature Foundation SA, Commonwealth Enviornmental Water office, Loxton to Bookpurnong Local Action Planning Group, the Central Irrigation Trust and local landholders.Aerate the tank water twice a day. "If the weather conditions are right we can prime the channel ahead of a normal flood event and that way we can already have a large population of artemia here ready to be washed into the wetlands and the river," he said. If successful Mr Reilly hopes the simulated flood will be repeated. "One of the first things we will look at as we walk up to the wetland from a distance is the populations of duck on the water," he said. Together with other project participants, Mr Reilly will be visiting the Lyrup Forest daily over the next month, watching carefully for signs of new life at the wetland. He now nearly exclusively grows the Middle Eastern date palm on his property because of its tolerance of saline conditions. ![]() ![]() Mr Reilly has first-hand knowledge of the extreme salinity of the Lyrup Forest wetland. "We had our first flood event though the Gurra wetlands in 2010 and we had 17 years before that. "It is actually isolated from the Gurra wetlands and only receives inundation during times of flood above 25,000 gigalitres per day," Mr Reilly said. The Lyrup Forest wetland plays an important role in the health of the neighbouring Gurra wetland, the Riverland's third largest wetland with 800 hectares of permanent water. It is the first time an artificial flood event has been created on the extremely saline floodplain, which spans about 300 metres along a 5km channel downstream of the Lyrup ferry. "They start in very hyper saline conditions but interesting enough they can go from an environment that is two, or three times seawater to get washed into a wetland with freshwater," Mr Reilly said.ĭuring the next month, 200 megalitres of Commonwealth environmental water will fill the Lyrup Forest wetland. They can survive bushfires and frosts and tolerate saltwater and freshwater. "That's just attracted an amazing amount of bird life, and of course once that's washed through to the greater wetlands that acts as a very good food source for native fish species as well."Īrtemia produce tiny eggs called cysts when their water source dries up and it is these cysts that can last centuries while they wait for water. "Based on previous accounts where fresh water has come in we've seen amazing hatchings of artemia, or brine shrimp, it's just been like a brine shrimp soup down here. "They are an incredible creature," Mr Reilly said. Lyrup landholder and Loxton to Bookpurnong Local Action Planning member Dave Reilly is excited by the promise of what he describes as 'brine shrimp soup'. These are the prehistoric crustaceans that have been popularised as a novelty pet under the brand names sea monkey or aqua dragons. They expect the simulated flood will bring to life artemia salina, also known as brine shrimp. It is like watching sea monkeys hatch in a child's aquarium toy but on a massive scale.Įnvironmental groups this week turned on the tap to release millions of litres of water through an irrigation pipe onto the dry wetland at Lyrup Forest, near Berri. ![]()
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