Dumaresq Creek in Jeopardy
By Reid Davidson
Intro
The Dumaresq Creek, Armidale is the most known creek in the town, It spans from one end of the city to the other . throughout the years it has experienced many problems including intoduced species, pollution and deforestation.
Soil Erosion
One of the bigger problems that the creek faces is Soil Erosion. Soil Erosion Occurs when there is too much sediment in the creek, which makes the creek less capable of carrying water from rainfall. The issue is wrecking the habitat of fish and thus forcing other creatures to leave the area. Wind breaks and native plants can be an effective treatment to this problem
Bulrush
Another problem in Dumaresq creek is the bulrush population. These plants soak up large amounts of water and this makes it hard for other plants and animals to survive. We can solve this problem by exterminating the bulrush, however this would be a long and tedious proccess
Willow Trees
The Willow tree in an introduced species and is incredibly detrimental to the creek because the tree's root system is an inward circular pattern and this destroys the earth around it and creates a net which catches the dirt and pollution which is travelling down stream.
I feel that irradicating the willows and replacing them with native flora is the obvious approach, however the willow tree spreads rapidly as 1 wisp from the tree can form an entirely formed adult tree