THE Bell Miner challenge was the subject of a free, citizen science workshop held in Valla last week, Tuesday 26 April.

Nambucca Valley Landcare and North Coast Local Land Services joined forces for the workshop with local experts to share information about Bell Miner Associated Dieback (BMAD).

The workshop introduced attendees to a new mobile app designed to help anybody monitor the extent of Bell Miner activity and associated forest dieback.

“Citizen science opportunities like this allow everybody and anybody to join in and help provide scientists with information about local issues,” Ainslie Ashton, Project Support, Nambucca Valley Landcare, told News Of The Area.

Bell Miners are territorial and aggressive native birds.

Their favourite food is the sugary protective coating, or lerp, growing around a sap sucking insect called a psyllid.

Bell Minors don’t often eat the insect itself, leaving it to continue breeding while they fight off birds and predators that eat psyllids.

As Bell Minors begin to dominate, psyllid populations increase and the overabundance of psyllids defoliates trees, leading to a decline in tree health.

Often, the whole tree will eventually die, and over a forest scale, Bell Miner Associated Dieback (BMAD) is a significant threat to biodiversity.

In some examples, BMAD has affected an area of over ten hectares where almost every eucalyptus tree has died.

The workshop ran for half a day and included presentations by experts in avifauna and forest ecology.

Attendees spoke about Bell Miners and their behaviours, what makes certain forests susceptible to BMAD and what options there are to help reduce or prevent the impacts of Bell Miner activity.

A field trip was included where attendees were able to test out the app, which will allow anybody to report Bell Miner colonies and areas of forest dieback.

The app is called Anecdata, and you just have to join up to the Bell Miner Project in order to report any sightings of Bell Miners at any time.

 

By Andrea FERRARI