Parklands Rangers have enjoyed time with keen students of Environmental Science from Charles Sturt University in recent weeks.

A group of first year students have been on placement with us to fulfil their required practicum hours, and Rangers Dan and Mick have been giving them the full ‘park ranger’ experience. This has involved hands-on learning about a range of the practical day-to-day park maintenance tasks, including one of our most exciting annual jobs; monitoring nest boxes.

The great majority of nest boxes on Parklands managed lands are providing habitat for arboreal mammals such as Squirrel gliders and Phascogales, and our regular monitoring shows that they are doing exactly that.

Students used a pole camera and recorded results to our bespoke data collection app, which will eventually flow through to add to the scientific knowledge collected in the Atlas of Living Australia.

Everyone was delighted to find boxes in use by families of gliders, with multiple records made in Castle Creek and Stringybark reserves as well as Baranduda Regional Park.

Our thanks to Emily, Sarah, Caitlyn, Imogen, and Michaela for your help – it’s heartening to see the enthusiasm of a new generation keen to work with nature.