Coastal saltmarsh roadshow on video

The presentations by saltmarsh expert Peri Coleman from Delta Consulting were to have been held in Whyalla, Cowell and Kellidie Bay but were cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The videos are aimed at community decision makers, coastal ambassadors, teachers, bird groups and interested members of the public. They are part of the Saltmarsh Threat Abatement and Recovery Project, which is supported by Natural Resources Eyre Peninsula, through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.

The Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board invites you to join Peri Coleman on a journey of discovery leading to a greater understanding of, and appreciation for, these high-value, protected ecosystems.

Ms Coleman is undertaking field work on the Eyre Peninsula, mapping saltmarsh vegetation and collecting samples.

“My boots are covered in mud and I have been watching scurrying crabs and imagining the feast the little fat fish will be having later this month at the spring tides,” she said.

“The birds, the crabs, the expansive sky, are the kinds of ’instant gratification’ I think of when I am in a marsh. There’s the ability of the marsh to grow land and serve as coastal defence. The sequestration of carbon, working tirelessly to reverse the direction of carbon flow - our use causes it to flow from earth to air, but the marshes take it from the air and put it back in the earth. The way marshes have nurtured our civilisation, providing us with the resources to make glass, soap, cements, and even mag wheels! Their ability to ask nothing from us but to be. The space they give us to be creative ourselves... I started collecting marsh poems at one point, and quickly found myself flooded with them, because the marshes have been muses for many poets.”

Local staff member Barbara Murphy said it’s hard not to fall in love with saltmarshes once you learn how vital they are to the ecology and economy of Eyre Peninsula. They protect shorelines, act as blue-carbon sinks and are important fish nursery and bird habitat.

“Eyre Peninsula hosts a third of South Australia’s intertidal saltmarsh habitats, which are of high conservation value and at great risk of degradation, particularly around developed and highly visited coastal areas,” Ms Murphy said.

For further information or to download the videos visit http://www.landscape.sa.gov.au/ep/projects-and-partners/star-project