WHILE the Australian Conservation Foundation has raised over $500,000 to investigate illegal clearing and other nefarious activity for its Save Our Big Backyard campaign, an upcoming Zoom meeting featuring former Kings Park scientist Kingsley Dixon shows even a clever balcony garden can help arrest Australia’s shocking extinction rate.

The Zoom meeting on March 8 from 7pm will be about “wilding” Perth’s suburbs.

Dr Dixon reckons suburban gardens could be a Noah’s arc for WA’s most endangered native plants.

Some species such as the nine Darwinia that exist only in the Stirling Range National Park near Mt Barker are susceptible to extinction through events such as major fires, but could be safeguarded through specimens grown in the city.

While Dr Dixon says growing them from seeds can be tricky (one of his team’s greatest scientific achievements was isolating the chemical in smoke that triggers germination in many seeds), grafting could make the job easier.

The meeting will also feature a 20-minute presentation from National Resource Management communications manager Sabian Wilde.

NRM is setting up a website to help Perth residents grow and develop WA’s unique natural environment in their own courtyards, gardens and remaining bushlands., helping to create corridors for native species to move freely through urban areas.

To join the Zoom meeting log onto https://acf.zoom. us/j/91461618666 at 7pm on March 8.