Griffith Wetlands Important Bird Area

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The IBA is an important site for Australasian bitterns Australasian Bittern (Botaurus poiciloptilus) in the grass.jpg
The IBA is an important site for Australasian bitterns

The Griffith Wetlands Important Bird Area is a group of wetlands lying close to the Riverina town of Griffith in southern New South Wales, Australia. It lies within the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area.

Wetland A land area that is permanently or seasonally saturated with water

A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is inundated by water, either permanently or seasonally, where oxygen-free processes prevail. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other land forms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the unique hydric soil. Wetlands play a number of functions, including water purification, water storage, processing of carbon and other nutrients, stabilization of shorelines, and support of plants and animals. Wetlands are also considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal life. Whether any individual wetland performs these functions, and the degree to which it performs them, depends on characteristics of that wetland and the lands and waters near it. Methods for rapidly assessing these functions, wetland ecological health, and general wetland condition have been developed in many regions and have contributed to wetland conservation partly by raising public awareness of the functions and the ecosystem services some wetlands provide.

Riverina Region in New South Wales, Australia

The Riverina is an agricultural region of South-Western New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The Riverina is distinguished from other Australian regions by the combination of flat plains, warm to hot climate and an ample supply of water for irrigation. This combination has allowed the Riverina to develop into one of the most productive and agriculturally diverse areas of Australia. Bordered on the south by the state of Victoria and on the east by the Great Dividing Range, the Riverina covers those areas of New South Wales in the Murray and Murrumbidgee drainage zones to their confluence in the west.

Griffith, New South Wales City in New South Wales, Australia

Griffith is a major regional city in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area that is located in the north-western part of the Riverina region of New South Wales, known commonly as the food bowl of Australia. It is also the seat of the City of Griffith local government area. Like the Australian capital, Canberra, and the nearby town of Leeton, Griffith was designed by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin. Griffith was named after Arthur Hill Griffith, the first New South Wales Minister of Public Works. Griffith was proclaimed a city in 1987, and had a population of 19,144 in 2016.

Contents

Description

North and South Lake Wyangan are used for water storage; they contain an area of cumbungi. Nericon Swamp is a shallow swamp usually dry enough to be grazed by cattle, though it sometimes fills from local rains when it supports large numbers of waders. Barren Box Swamp was originally an ephemeral swamp; it has been divided into three parts, with 60% of it remaining a natural wetland which holds water only in wet years; the other 40% is used for water storage and recycling, with reed beds and grazed margins. Campbell's Swamp is a black box-lignum swamp containing extensive open areas punctuated by stands of reeds and cumbungi; it fills occasionally from local rainfall or with water released from the irrigation system. [1]

Lake Wyangan is a recreational lake located immediately to the northwest of the town of Griffith in New South Wales, Australia. The lake was formed in 1950 and is surrounded by many orchards. It was formed with the remnants of a gypsum mine and also there was a natural swamp at the location as well. The lake is a popular attraction for tourists and locals alike. It is popular for many activities which include such things as boating, fishing, skiing, sailing, picnicking, walking, jogging, running, driving and other such activities. There are also some animals in the area. They are fenced off in secure enclosures and include such animals as deer. There is as well a playground where children can play and it includes such facilities as swings. It is one of the component wetlands of the Griffith Wetlands Important Bird Area.

<i>Typha</i> genus of plants

Typha is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrush or wild corndog, in American English as reed, cattail, swamp sausage, or punks, in Australia as cumbungi or bulrush, in Canada as bulrush or cattail, and in New Zealand as raupō. Other taxa of plants may be known as bulrush, including some sedges in Scirpus and related genera.

Wader

Waders are birds commonly found along shorelines and mudflats that wade in order to forage for food in the mud or sand. They are called shorebirds in North America, where the term "wader" is used to refer to long-legged wading birds such as storks and herons. Waders are members of the order Charadriiformes, which includes gulls, auks and their allies.

Birds

Together, the wetlands have been identified by BirdLife International as a fragmented 38 km2 (15 sq mi) Important Bird Area (IBA) because they regularly support small numbers of the endangered Australasian bittern as well as occasionally supporting over 1% of the world populations of sharp-tailed sandpipers, red-necked avocets and chestnut teals. [2]

BirdLife International global partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds

BirdLife International is a global partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats, and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources. It is the world's largest partnership of conservation organisations, with over 120 partner organisations.

Important Bird Area area recognized as being globally important habitat for the conservation of birds populations

An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations.

Australasian bittern species of bird

The Australasian bittern, also known as the brown bittern or matuku hūrepo, is a large bird in the heron family Ardeidae. A secretive bird with a distinctive booming call, it is more often heard than seen. Australasian bitterns are endangered in both Australia and New Zealand.

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References

  1. BirdLife International. (2011). Important Bird Areas factsheet: Griffith Wetlands. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 30/06/2011.
  2. "IBA: Griffith Wetlands". Birdata. Birds Australia. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2011.

Coordinates: 34°09′42″S145°51′21″E / 34.16167°S 145.85583°E / -34.16167; 145.85583

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.