City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn (middle) joins Geraldton Community Nursery volunteers to celebrate the launch of their Native Plant Propagation Guide e-booklet, available free on the City website.

The continued protection of local biodiversity has received a big helping hand following the official launch of the City of Greater Geraldton Community Nursery Native Plant Propagation Guide.

Following years of trials and testing on the collection and propagation of more than 120 different native plant species, Community Nursery volunteers decided to document their hard won knowledge for the benefit of the environment and the wider community.

City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn said the Native Plant Propagation Guide will be critical to ensuring a wide range of plant species can be grown to restore and revegetate the region’s bushland and coastal reserves.

“This year alone, Community Nursery volunteers are growing about 20,000 seedlings comprising 55 different species,” he said.

“Thanks to their research, the techniques they have developed have contributed to the successful propagation of important plant species such as the Scaevola tomentose,also known as Raggedleaf Fanflower, and the Westringia dampieri, which they were previously unable to reliably germinate or grow.”

To ensure the Native Plant Propagation Guide is always current, it has been published in e-booklet format.

“E-booklets make sense,” Mayor Van Styn said.

“Not only can they be quickly updated, as new volunteers join the team or management staff changes, the guide can be easily shared.

“This format also makes our native plant propagation information readily available to other nurseries from across our great state.”

The development of the Native Plant Propagation Guide was supported by Central Regional TAFE, The Drylands Foundation and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions Herbarium with the Western Australian State Natural Resource Management program contributing $7,700 in grant funding towards the project.

The City of Greater Geraldton Community Nursery Native Plant Propagation Guide e-booklet is available on the City website www.cgg.wa.gov.au