Dell
Conservation Reserve.
Details.
Reserve Name: Dell Conservation Reserve.
Area: 41.29ha.
Location: Shire of York Western Australia
Reserve: R424
Management: River Conservation Society Inc.
Vegetation Assemblages: Medium woodland; Marri and Wandoo
Waterways: Horons Brook.
Soil Types: Deep sandy gravel and loamy gravel, pale deep sand, grey deep sandy duplex & gravelly pale deep sand.
History.
The purpose of Dell Reserve was officially changed in 2004 from “Traveller’s Watering and Resting” place to “Landscape Protection and Conservation” and vested in the River Conservation Society (R.C.S.). The reserve was named after John Dell, a local ecologist and member of the R.C.S.
The Gordon Reid Foundation funded fencing on Dell Reserve in 2004/05.
The reserve supports a range of habitats from laterite breakaways to open groundwater soaks and therefore a variety of vegetation assemblages including Banksia woodlands, sand plain heath, wandoo (Eucalyptus wandoo sp.) woodlands, jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) woodlands and groundwater dependent Melaleuca thickets and sedge lands.
Secondary salinity is a threat to the reserve in the downstream sections of Horons Brook. Therefore further grants from Lotteries West were secured in 2009 to sink groundwater monitoring bores across the reserve to monitor the progress of salinity in the groundwater and groundwater depths in the various habitats which are thought to be critical for the existence of some of the vegetation assemblages.
Dell Reserve is joined to the Wandoo National Park and Mundaring State Forest forming part of a huge tract of remnant vegetation in the region. The reserve offers exceptionally good frog habitat despite the secondary salinity problems.
