At Burrin Burrin Reserve, as the sky began to lose its layers of daytime colour, Renee Hartley added layers of warmth, anticipating the approaching dark.
“The red had just disappeared from the sky and the stars were appearing,” says the Bush Heritage ecologist working at the south-east NSW reserve on Ngambri, Yuin walbunja muncata and Ngarigo Country. “There was relative silence across the forest – it was still and very beautiful.”
Standing with Renee were fellow ecologists, Traditional Custodians and scientists; they were on the lookout for the curiosity of nocturnal species that call Burrin Burrin home. “With our spotlights shining high in the trees, we began to see Greater Gliders looking down on us – first one, then another.”
Renee was taking part in Bush Heritage’s annual spring time monitoring, which provides information that feeds critical decisions about the land management strategies that will be most effective in nursing the reserve’s ecosystems toward recovery.
In early 2020, 95% of Burrin Burrin’s 411 hectares burnt in the Black Summer fires.
“A lightning strike in the neighbouring state forest quickly spread to Burrin Burrin. Within minutes, the fire consumed the reserve,” says Reserve Manager Phil Palmer. The loss of Burrin Burrin’s precious wildlife and plant life weighed heavily.
“There were many things I thought might never come back,” says Phil. If Phil had known that three years later, his colleague Renee would find a reserve showing great resilience, with healthy Greater Glider populations and a strong bird chorus, he might have breathed a little easier. At the time though, Phil and the team did the only thing they could – start planning.