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We had a fantastic session today with a beautiful sunny start for our Dandenong Catchment Workshop at the stunning Namatjira Reserve! Our Ambassadors began their day at the litter trap where Mandy explained how the stormwater drains lead to the litter catchments to trap as much litter as possible from flowing into our creeks, rivers and ocean. Kyle, Jesse and Hayden from Melbourne Water explained the huge costs such as for staff and transport to collect the litter from traps all over Melbourne, and then lifted 4 litter bags out to show Ambassadors what happens when litter is discarded in our parks and streets.
Ambassadors then had a great time undertaking a Healthy Waterways Workshop which included a water pollution testing lesson, and a hunt for macroinvertebrates to identify their tolerance to pollution in the filtration watershed! They learned how important these wetland filtration systems are to trap the pollutants that cannot be caught in the litter traps such as oil, and the dangerous chemicals from our lawns after residents blow grass clippings and leaf litter into the gutters.
Jess then conducted a Frog Identification session and explained how the presence and absence of different types of frogs help us to determine the condition of a water catchment, and the Ambassadors raced each other to identify different frogs by their calls. We finished off with a litter collection and the Ambassadors collected a huge amount of litter from amongst the reeds in the watershed and discussed the sources of different types of letter they found.
We would like to thank our awesome partners at the City of Greater Dandenong, folks from Melbourne Water, and ISIC teachers and parent/carers for giving up their time and transporting the Ambassadors today.
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