Currimundi Climate Watch Trail
We’ve all felt the much hotter than average temperatures and seen the smoke from a spate of bushfires burning across our very dry hinterland and beyond, destroying homes and wildlife habitat and understand that climate change is exacerbating these weather patterns. But how quickly and how much is the climate changing? How are changes in temperature and rainfall affecting the seasonal behaviour of plants and animals?
These are questions that Earthwatch Australia, in collaboration with the Bureau of Meteorology and Melbourne University, are keen to investigate by gathering lots of observations from across the country over time. This is where you can directly contribute by becoming a citizen scientist. You don’t need to be an expert in species ID. Earthwatch has developed a ClimateWatch App that is easy to use and will guide you though simple questions about where you are and what you are observing, including automatically uploading your photo of one of the indicator species of plant, animal, bird or insect. Don’t worry if you can’t answer some of the prompts or make a mistake, as it’s all checked by experts. The important thing is to report what you observe, ideally of the same plant or animal over time.
You can download the free App from Apple App Store or Android Play Store by searching for ClimateWatch SPOTTERON.
Currimundi Catchment Care Group and Friends of Currimundi Lake partnered with the Sunshine Coast Council (SCC) to develop a Climate Watch Trail around Currimundi Lake. The trail was officially launched in 2023. The ClimateWatch trails are all sign-posted.
To introduce locals to the trail and Climate Watch concept, the two local groups and SCC hosted a guided walk along part of the Currimundi Lake ClimateWatch Trail (one of three such trails on the Sunshine Coast) for interested residents on Saturday 29th October. Twenty people spent a couple of hours learning how easy it is to use the App and making their own observations, becoming citizen scientists then and there.
More information about the species you are likely to encounter and the expected seasonal changes you might observe along these trails is available here:
Currimundi Lake Climate Watch Trail map and species information
