Community Information Session at Denmark Community Resource Centre
A community update was held in Denmark on Wednesday, 8 August 2018. The session provided a comprehensive update on the water quality of Wilson Inlet, as well as on-ground actions being implemented by Regional Estuaries Initiative partners including DWER staff, Wilson Inlet Catchment Committee, and the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development.
More than 40 people attended the Denmark Community Resource Centre to find out about the latest monitoring data and what REI will be focusing on next.
DWER South Coast Regional Manager Brett Ward said it was great to be able to get the community’s insight and share the latest results of the Wilson Inlet and catchment monitoring program.
“The Denmark community has such a strong connection to Wilson Inlet and it’s great to be able to share with them the good news from the last 12 months of monitoring data,” he said.
“Wilson Inlet is a very resilient system due to the seagrass and strong prevailing winds, both of which contribute to good water quality.
“While the system is in good health and there have been no algal blooms in the last monitoring period, we need to keep working to reduce nutrients running in from the catchment. The work of Shaun at the Wilson Inlet Catchment Committee is a crucial part of this – supporting farmers to fence and revegetate their waterways and optimise their fertiliser application through soil tests.
“As a part of REI, we’ve recently been monitoring water movement through the estuary and will be using it to build a model of the estuary. This will let us test different scenarios and investigate how things like temperature, rainfall and opening of the bar influences the movement of water and the growth of seagrass and algae.
“Everyone wants to keep the Inlet as healthy as possible, which means protecting water quality. The models we are building will give us insight into how to do this and how management of the bar will influence the Inlet.”
For more information, visit our Wilson Inlet page and check out the opening of the Wilson Inlet Bar.