26 – Involving volunteers in threatened plant monitoring in South Australia^337● (^) The Native Orchid Society of South Australia (NOSSA) is a specialist
community group with an interest in conserving and growing native orchids.
NOSSA volunteers routinely assist with threatened orchid monitoring in at
least four of SA’s eight Natural Resource Management regions, and willingly
participate in one off surveys, requests for herbarium specimen collections and
other research related matters. Formed in 1977 as an offshoot of the Society for
Growing Australian Plants, NOSSA was initially comprised predominantly of
orchid growers; however, the number of members interested in conservation
now appears to outnumber the growers. A recent survey of 79 members
(NOSSA 2016) found they were interested in: learning about orchids (67%);
field trips (61%); photography (59%); conservation (58%); growing terrestrials
(44%); surveys and monitoring (38%); growing epiphytes (35%) and citizen
science (26%).
● (^) The Friends of Parks network is very strong in South Australia, and members
with a botanical bent will often volunteer to assist with monitoring of
threatened plant species when the occasion arises. Friends of Parks SA Inc.
comprises 113 groups and more than 5000 volunteers (Friends of Parks 2016),
working in partnership with DEWNR and other community groups for the
conservation of natural and cultural heritage in parks and reserves across
South Australia.
● (^) The Biodiversity and Endangered Species Team (BEST) was formed in the
2000s to encourage and support volunteers in SA’s Natural Resources Northern
and Yorke Region who are interested in biodiversity conservation. Although
the group tends to have more of a focus on fauna, they regularly involve
themselves in threatened plant site maintenance and monitoring activities.
Discussion
Local volunteers bring multiple advantages to monitoring programs. For example,
Friends of Parks members are usually locals with an affinity for the area they live
in, so they often come with knowledge of local weather patterns, road conditions,
history of the area, neighbouring landowners and important contacts in the
district. These factors can be handy when planning a monitoring program,
collecting data and interpreting the results. If the site is in a particularly remote
area, local weather knowledge is important in gauging variations in the timing of
germination, f lowering, or seed collection, and of course when to commence
monitoring. A local volunteer can drop in to the site and check the progress of the
plants, saving an urban-based project officer or volunteer hours of potentially
unnecessary driving.
In addition, long-time resident volunteers often know the history of a site, such
as the names of previous landowners, land practices and fire history, and these can