As many burnt areas reopen, it is now possible to get into much of the High Country and surrounding foothills. The impacts of this fire season are obvious across so much of the Alps, the mountains of the ACT and East Gippsland.

The Environment Recovery Project is an online tool that allows people to pool their observations about nature with other people on the iNaturalist Australia website. A new project allows you to contribute your observations about ecological recovery in recently burnt areas.

Further information about the project

Over 46,000,000 acres has burnt so far in the 2019-2020 Australian bushfire season in eastern Australia, including South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. Understanding how the environment recovers from this unprecedented fire season is an important scientific goal.

As a citizen scientist, your observations from recently burnt areas are important. Providing it’s safe to do so, take a walk in areas of burnt bushland, and upload observations to the Environment Recovery Project. We are also interested in common species just as much as rare species.

– Plants (native and weeds): Seedling or resprout 

– Animals (natives and ferals): Alive or dead, tracks and scats 

  • Fungi and Lichen 

– Landscapes: Scorch height (how high the fires went) and the amount of leaves burnt in the canopy, shrubs, and ground cover.

Thank you for contributing to the project, your findings will help us understand how species recover from the 2019-2020 bushfire season.

Disclaimer: Be aware of current weather conditions and fire danger ratings. Never enter areas where there is active fire. Many bushfire impacted communities are still grieving, please be respectful of their privacy. Do not trespass private property. Always stay on designated walking trails and do not trample recovering biodiversity.