Try growing: a grassy woodland

If you go down to the woods today, you're a lucky person, because the woods are endangered and incredibly special! 

Illawarra Lowland Grassy Woodland, a beautiful but endangered local ecological community. Image by Emma Rooksby. 

Illawarra Lowlands Grassy Woodland, the only woodland that occurs on the Illawarra coastal plain, is one of the most endangered ecological communities in the region. There's less than 12% of this ecological community remaining, with land clearing, development, spread of weeds and feral animals all having taken their toll and still threatening its future. 

This grassy woodland is also incredibly cool, with diverse scattered trees allowing plenty of sunlight to reach the ground, where a huge profusion of grasses, sedges, shrubs, climbers and other little plants growing together in complex and intricate tangles. In spring in particular, the forest floor comes alive with a profusion of colourful flowers.  

Grassy woodland understorey plants include climbers such as the colourful Purple Coral-pea (Hardenbergia violacea) and shrubs such as Gorse Bitter Pea (Daviesia ulicifolia). Image by Emma Rooksby.

The huge plant diversity of Illawarra Lowlands Grassy Woodland creates absolutely awesome habitat for all sorts of animals: birds, bees, butterflies, echidnas, possums, gliders, bats, lizards, and more! Fauna surveys being conducted by the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) are looking at, for example, the occurrence of microbats in local grassy woodland patches. Several species of these tiny fast-moving bats call grassy woodland home, using echolocation to hunt their insect prey by night, and roosting in tree hollows and under loose flaky bark (looking at you eucalypts!) during the day. Just think how many mosquitoes a few of these champions could down each and every evening! 

The Eastern Coastal Free-tailed Bat (Micronomus norfolkensis) is one of several microbats that live in the Grassy Woodland, eating mosquitoes and other insects, depending largely on eucalypt hollows for roosting. You can find out more about this threatened microbat here. Image by Garry Daly. 

You'll find small remnant patches of Illawarra Lowlands Grassy Woodland all around the place, for example at Purrungully Reserve in Horsley, Mount Brown in Dapto, Blackbutt and Croom Reserves in Dapto, Wiseman Park in Gwynneville, and the tiny patch at Phil Adams Park in Corrimal. Visit them and appreciate the huge diversity they have to offer. You can also see the threats that face them, with weeds encroaching from north, east, south and west, feral animals munching, and humans transforming woodlands to our liking with all sorts of tracks, trails and structures. 

Many of the remnant areas of Illawarra Lowlands Grassy Woodland are very small and isolated, no longer functioning as good habitat for many species that call them home. Still, they contain significant biodiversity and beauty, such as these pretty Plume Grasses (Dichelachne micrantha) at Phil Adams Park in Corrimal. Image by Keith Horton. 

Thankfully, there are immense opportunities to restore this endangered grassy woodland, by removing invasive species from remnant patches, and replanting it in areas it once stood tall. This is something that you can do if you live almost anywhere along the Illawarra coastal plain, by planting a native eucalypt (Eucalyptus) or Paperbark (Melaleuca) tree, or some of the local grasses and ground covers. 

Local grassy woodland trees, such as White-feather Honey-myrtle (Melaleuca decora) make excellent yard or verge trees, providing shade and beauty as well as habitat. Image by Leon Fuller. 

Right now, the NSW Government's Guardians of the Grassy Woodland project is funding local landholders to protect and restore this critically endangered ecological community on their lands. So it's the perfect time to reach out and ask for help in creating your own grassy woodland. There are also some incredible community events, including a Backyard Biodiversity Breakfast at Purrungully Woodland in Horsley on Saturday 28 March (from 8am), and the Stream Hill Community Day at Integral Energy Park in Dapto on Tuesday 14 April (10am-1pm). Expect native plant giveaways and fun activities at both events. You can find out more and express interest via this website.

Here's to the Grassy Woodland!