From great things, little fins flow. Did you know that root balls make great fish habitats? After the June 2021 Victorian floods and storms, fallen timber found a new purpose – creating havens where river and lake species can thrive.
A root ball is the mass of roots and soil at the base of a plant, like trees. Since storm damaged root balls aren’t suitable for milling, they’re perfect for creating habitats for our aquatic friends.
We teamed up with the Corangamite Catchment Management Authority (CMA) to install root balls in the Barwon River as cosy fish hotels. These root balls provide much needed shelter for fish along the river’s edge.
The water infrastructure team uses heat maps and scientific methods to strategically place root balls for optimal fish habitat. In 2018, they conducted extensive mapping to understand where fish lived.
‘It gave us a clear of picture of where we could best place timber to connect habitat nodes along the river’, says CMA’s Anthony Byrne.
We visited the Barwon River to witness the works in action. Workers used heavy machinery to pick up root balls from a barge and place them into the water.
‘It looks like a crash and a splash but creating good fish habitat is more than just pushing logs into a river’, Anthony explains.
He points to a heatmap indicating the distribution of fish communities. Over 700 tonnes of tree logs and root balls have been installed in a 5 km section of the river, showing great improvements in native fish habitat and recruitment.
The CMA is doing a remarkable job reviving a section of the river that was once in poor condition.
‘It’s great to think we’re making best use of timber that would’ve been historically chipped or disposed of elsewhere’, Anthony adds.
We’re proud to support clean-up efforts, ensuring a healthy environment for our fish and root balls. Here’s to thriving schools of fish in the Barwon River.
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