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We are lucky to work across amazing projects and places. Follow us on Instagram to see what we get up to.

The annual Threatened Species Bake Off went absolutely off this year!! #tsbakeoff2023 Our team put our creative kitchen skills to use with this years theme “unloved and unknown” threatened species. An impressive showing by the whole team. But there can be only one winner of the Champions Apron, and this year it was hard to split, but the Hoary Sunray red velvet cupcakes came out victorious!! Congratulations @lissabelleg and thanks for running this years comp @oliviagobran! Can you tell which is the cake and which is the real photo?! 🧁🦆🌸
Spring is in full swing out and about with plenty of surveys underway. Camera traps, audiomoths, flora and fauna surveys pictured here across multiple Stewardship Sites! Not to mention the trusty #jimny and a few Glossies
We have branched out..! And are now excited to take to the trees with our in-house tree climbing certified ecologists! We can now complete nest box monitoring, artificial hollow installation, @hollowhog installation and arboreal fauna monitoring with no need for additional subbies to help with the ropes. Our team can do it all! 🌳🧗‍♀️🐨
Stewardship Sites 🌱 Stewardship Sites are areas of land that are managed for conservation, in perpetuity. In other words, this land gets locked away forever and is maintained and improved through management in accordance with a Biodiversity Stewardship Agreement. Getting to work on conservation-directed jobs is a major highlight for us. It is pretty special to be a part of getting these incredible sites conserved. Not to mention the work itself is fun – lots of fieldwork mapping out plant community types, completing vegetation integrity plots, and undertaking targeted surveys for threatened flora and fauna! We’ve helped to successfully establish nearly 1,000 ha of land under multiple approved Biodiversity Stewardship Agreements and are currently working on hundreds of hectares more. Have a look at these amazing snaps from sites in the South West Slopes, Southern Tablelands, and the South Coast.
The past few months have been wildly busy with lots of fieldwork, but we wouldn’t have it any other way! We love that our work takes us to such amazing places and allows us to have a lot of fun while getting the job done. Some days we’ll be kayaking through swamp forests, relocating fauna from giant dams or doing beach side nocturnal surveys. No field day is the same!
Meet some of the Microbats we have had the pleasure of working with recently! Microbats are, as their name suggests, tiny bats! They range from about 4 to 10cm in length and will find habitat just about anywhere! Places we have found them recently include bridges and culverts, but depending on the species they will roost in caves, buildings, old mines and tree hollows, just to name a few! Some of work we do here at Lodge involves: - identifying Microbats through searching potential habitat and placing out ultrasonic recorders to detect their calls - Writing Microbat Management Plans that are tailored to each specific project and Microbat species - Where necessary, we also help with exclusion of Microbats from structures such a bridges and culverts This is all to ensure these little guys stay safe!
The team putting their new tree climbing skills to use checking nest boxes! We’ve been monitoring these nest boxes for a couple of years now, so it was very exciting to get to do the climbing this time. Our highlight fauna find was a Diamond Python! Get in touch if you have any nest boxes that need installing or monitoring, we love any excuse to climb into the canopy 😍
This week our ecologists became tree climbing ecologists! Thanks to @ironbarkenviroarb for the top notch training and @hollowhog for dropping off the #hollowhog tools! We’re keen to start rolling out these new skills surveying hollows and creating more habitat. #ecologists #hangingout
Gday mate! This is a native Common Yabby (Cherux destructor) lucky enough to be relocated to a reserve along with another 119 yabbies! Great work by our ecologists catching and relocating so many as part of a dam decommissioning #yabbies #movingtothecountry
This year has already been full of fun and exciting fieldwork!! Here are some fauna shots from yesterday’s trip 🐨 📷: @maxdebeer
Happy holidays from the Lodge team! We have had a huge year full of cool projects, lots of fieldwork and fun! Thank you to our wonderful clients and thank you to the team! We will see you all in the New Year!
It’s Australian Pollinator Week! Australian Pollinator week is all about celebrating our native pollinator species. There are many different types of pollinators including bees, flies, butterflies, moths and even some bird and mammal species! Bees are especially important pollinators as they are able to pollinate and help grow many fruits and vegetables. Our native bees are also pollinators for many of our native flora species! Australia is home to around 1,600 native bee species. Most native bee species are solitary bees, meaning they complete their life cycle alone (unlike the introduced Honey Bee). Here are some of the cool bees and insects the team have had the pleasure of spotting in the field or in their gardens! 1. Stingless Bee (Tetragonula carbonaria) 2. Blue-banded Bee (Amegilla sp.) – this particular Blue-banded bee is actually not pollinating the flower! You can see it piercing its proboscis (mouthpart) through the side of the flower to get the nectar, instead of going through the opening of the flower where the pollen is, this is called nectar thieving or robbing. It means it won’t be helping move pollen from one flower to another… cheeky!!! 3. Green Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa aerata) – This species is sadly extinct on mainland South Australia and Victoria but still exists on Kangaroo Island, and around Sydney and the Great Dividing Range in NSW. 4. Great Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa aruana) - This one is coming out of its little nest in the ground 5. Hover fly (Melangyna sp.) References and Resources: https://www.australianpollinatorweek.org.au/ https://www.beesbusiness.com.au/article.php https://www.aussiebee.com.au/index.html
Today (7th September) is Threatened Species Day! Threatened Species Day was first declared in 1996, on the 60th anniversary of the last Tasmanian tiger’s death. It serves as a day to reflect on our threatened species and highlights how we can protect them now and in the future. It also provides space to celebrate species success stories and the ongoing work many amazing people are doing to help! We occasionally get the pleasure of spotting threatened species in our work; here are a few of our favourites. Hoary Sunray (Leucochrysum albicans var. tricolor) – Endangered (EPBC Act) Greater Glider (Petauroides volans) – Endangered (EPBC Act) Scrub Turpentine (Rhodamnia rubescens) – Critically Endangered (BC Act & EPBC Act) Sooty Oystercatcher (Haematopus fuliginosus) - Vulnerable (BC Act) Biconvex Paperbark (Melaleuca biconvexa) – Vulnerable (BC Act & EPBC Act) Gang-gang Cockatoo (Callocephalon fimbriatum) – Vulnerable (BC Act), Endangered (EPBC Act) BC Act meaning they are listed under the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 EPBC Act meaning they are listed under the Federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 If you want to learn more about any of these threatened species, you can visit their profiles here: https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedspeciesapp/ If you want to learn more about Threatened Species Day, you can find more information here: https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/animals-and-plants/threatened-species/saving-our- species-news/threatened-species-day
Night training! The team were shown the light by @maxdebeer who provided some tips on spotlighting 101 and Dr Rodney Armistead who gave a great demonstration on deployment of Anabats to increase detection of target microbat species. A fun night out full of laughs, Blue Mountains Tree Frogs, and countless Ringtail Possums in The Dharawal National Park.
EOFY fun with the @lodge_environmental team at @hangdogclimbinggym. Nothing like belaying each other to put our trust in our colleagues to the test! Great year and great crew. Looking forward to another one!
The team came together last week for our Tree Day. We were guided along the upper reaches of the Nattai River by Aboriculturalist guru @timwyszynski to gain an insight into all things tree health, structure, growth, communication and hollow formation. Seeing trees for the day through the lens of an Arboriculturalist has helped deepen our insights into tree retention, habitat considerations and species identification so that our projects can deliver more informed and sensitive outcomes on all our projects 🌿🍄
Out and about this winter on a prospective Stewardship Site. Luckily the best accomodation in town still had vacancy. Most of the biggest rooms up in the trees were occupied by the Greater Gliders already! 🐹🌳
Here we have a Glossy Black-Cockatoo. They feed exclusively on Casuarina and Allocasuarina species. Because of this dependence on certain feed trees as well as eucalypt hollow bearing trees for nests, the species is listed as vulnerable in NSW. This week, joined by our work experience extraordinare from @bomaderryhigh, @leo.howard06, we were lucky enough to hear and see a #glossyblackcockatoo overhead, then track down the remnants of the seeds they’d been chewing on! 📷 @jameslidsey post by @leo.howard06
Celebrating National Eucalypt Day with some staff captured favourites 📸 Including Eucalyptus subcrenulata, Eucalyptus pauciflora, Eucalyptus haematoma and others 🍃 Spot the sneaky Flame Robin in the last picture 🐦 #nationaleucalyptday #eucalyptus
The team have been busy checking nest boxes this week. Some of the residents seemed to be caught off guard by our visit 👀 1. Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps) 2. Brown Antechinus (Antechinus stuartii) 3. Sugar Glider (Petaurus breviceps) 4. Common Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula)
Today marks ‘World Wildlife Day’ and the 2022 theme is “Recovering key species for ecosystem restoration”. 🌏 With the aim to draw attention to the conservation status of some of the most critically endangered species of wild fauna and flora, we think it is time to talk about the critically endangered Rhodamnia Rubescens (Scrub Turpentine) and its plight against the highly destructive fungus known as Myrtle Rust (see the brown spots on the leaves pictured). 🍂 It is not just Scrub Turpentine that is susceptible to this fungus, but the entire Myrtaceae family – including some of your favourite eucalypts, bottlebrush, tea tree, paperbark and lily pilly. The Myrtaceae plant family dominates many major Australian ecosystems – infection of seedlings and young plants is known to hinder reproduction and in the longer term may reduce genetic diversity, and in turn structure and function of these ecosystems. ⚠️ Research into the prevention and treatment of myrtle rust is therefore critical (eradication is often regarded as not possible due to its spreading via spores).If you want to learn more about what is being done in this area, check out this podcast episode by The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney: 🔬🌿 https://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/Science/Branch-Out/battling-a-plant-disease-pandemic To learn how to avoid spreading myrtle rust in bushland, check out this resource: https://agriculture.vic.gov.au/biosecurity/plant-diseases/shrub-and-tree-diseases/myrtle-rust/avoid-spreading-myrtle-rust-in-bushland
We are celebrating World Wetlands Day on 2 February to raise awareness of the values and benefits provided by these landscapes, and to promote their conservation – more than than 64% of the world’s wetlands have disappeared since 1900. Read on the learn why this is a problem. 💦🌱🌏 Firstly, what is a wetland? A wetland is an area that is subject to permanent or temporary inundation, which holds static water or slows flows to support unique plant and animal life adapted to these conditions. Nearly 20 per cent of Australia’s bird species depend on different types of wetlands for different parts of their life cycle! A wetland can take the form of a freshwater or saline lake, a swamp or shallow waters of estuaries, bays and inlets – even a river according to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Healthy wetlands contribute to ecosystem resilience, help to provide clean water, can reduce the impacts of flooding and storms, and provide carbon storage. Wetlands also present recreational, tourism and job opportunities. If we do not care for and maintain biodiverse wetlands, we stand to lose so much. To get involved in caring for your local wetlands, try contacting your state government, local Natural Resource Management group, Catchment Management Authority or non-government organisations for opportunities. #worldwetlandsday #combcrestedjacana #blackneckedstork #litoriafallax #doublebandedplover #mangrove #aplinewetland #australianpelican #floodplain
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our friends, family, clients, and colleagues from the team at Lodge Environmental. We've taken a look back at a few highlights from the year captured by our awesome ecologists! See you in 2022!
It's #AustralianPollinatorWeek ! What makes a good #pollinator ? The species must collect pollen from one flower and deposit it on the stigma of another 🌻 Can you spot the pollen grains being carried by the insect species on these electron micrographs? 🔬🐞🐝 #scanningelectronmicroscopy
Our team has been busy in the field these past few weeks with spring surveys in full swing, but it hardly feels like work when the views are this good 🌾
Here’s some recent film shots from @jameslidsey taken across Box Gum Woodland land. There’s a mixture of protection mechanisms at play on these sites: private land conservation agreements and future biodiversity stewardship sites. These mechanisms will make sure threatened species like the Flame Robin have homes protected in perpetuity and disused old farms are managed back to biodiverse woodlands 🤙
The team has been having a blast checking over 300 nest boxes on private property this week! 🏠🌿 A few of the residents were home and said 'hi' 🖐️👀 Most were out for the day and some forgot to tidy up before they left! 🕸️🧹 Swipe all the way >>>>
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Lodge Environmental is a nature positive environmental consultancy shaping sustainable futures