30 July, 2009
Schools get creative to save our native grasslands

Two school classes have won a Planting Day at Werribee Open Range Zoo through a Poster Competition that encouraged students to take action for habitat loss.

Several students from Manorvale Primary School and Braybrook College have won the opportunity to spend a day with the Zoo's horticultural team and help them restore the endangered native grasslands of the Volcanic Plains.

The winning entries were from Royston Fernandes (Year 5/6, Manorvale) and Phuong Tran (Year 7, Braybrook). Their classmates will join them on their Planting Day also.

The winning entries and other quality entries will be on public display at the Zoo so that others can learn more about the amazing animals and plants that call these grasslands home.

Zoo Education Officer, Phoebe Lynch, said there were 143 entries from seven schools, which was a brilliant result.

'The students will learn how urban sprawl is pushing the last domain of the basalt plains grassland toward extinction,' Ms Lynch said.

'The grasslands have been reduced to less than one per cent of their original reach across the west of the state.

'This means that more native flora and fauna are probably going to become extinct unless we do more to protect these precious grasslands.'

The Federal Government lists the Volcanic Plains grasslands as one of the nation's biodiversity hotspots. Victoria has the most devastated landscape in Australia, with about half of all native vegetation and 80 per cent of private land cleared since European settlement.

Werribee Open Range Zoo recently received a $193,000 State Government grant to promote education about grasslands in 36 schools in the Werribee Plains region, and to establish a seed nursery for further zoo regional grassland projects.

To find our more about Zoo Victoria's school conservation actions, visit www.zoo.org.au/learning