Aussies urged to adopt surprising garden advice after storms: 'Resist the urge'
Australia's east coast has been hammered by weather extremes throughout the last two weeks, with intense winds causing widespread damage to homes, backyards and nature.
While our instinct may be to immediately clean up the mess made by storms, there's one significant reason it might be an idea to leave it be. Environmentalists in NSW say that, actually, "debris is great to leave on the ground" in some cases because "it benefits wildlife".
Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, ecologist Colleen O'Malley, with the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust, explained why our native species thrive under these conditions.
O'Malley urged those in the state to "resist the urge" where it's safe to do so. While that may not be the case in many suburban homes, on larger properties it may an easy feat.
"We know cleaning up fallen tree litter sometimes can't be avoided in order to reduce wildfire risk or to prevent fences being damaged, but where possible it is beneficial to leave it alone," she told Yahoo.
O'Malley explained threatened woodland birds including brown treecreepers, hooded robins, and grey-crowned babblers flourish while foraging for insects among leaf litter and fallen branches.
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Many frogs, skinks, and dragons rely on leaf litter and crevices in fallen timber for shelter from predators and as hunting grounds for prey, she added.
But that's not all. Nutrient cycling is another key benefit of leaving fallen branches and leaf litter in situ. Fungi, bacteria and invertebrates break down woody material and accelerate the process of creating nutrient-rich humus as well as aerating the soil through the decomposition process.
"Leaf litter and fallen branches also protect soils against erosion, trap seeds and provide ideal growing conditions, and deter the spread of weeds that prefer bare ground to colonise," O'Malley said.
Murray River region Senior Landholder Support Officer, Kev Chaplin, shared a recent example of the benefits. He recalled a local landholder on the western edge of the Snowy Mountains found an antechinus mum and her 10 hungry babies in a newly fallen dead tree.
"If the landholder had removed dead trees from the landscape this native carnivorous marsupial group could have been lost," he said. "Luckily, they were able to move the family to an existing nearby tree hollow and mum was observed tucking into nine fat wood grubs before moving on to a different tree."
Fallen branches and logs contribute to moisture retention in the soil, reducing erosion and helping sustain plant life, another added bonus.
This organic matter encourages fungi and microorganisms, which play a key role in nutrient cycling. Rather than seeing storm mess as waste, it should be recognised as an important part of the natural habitat that supports wildlife and maintains ecological balance, O'Malley said.
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