00:06Deep in the Namadji Wilderness, alpine high country on the ACT-NSW border, where boggy
00:14wetlands soak up rainfall like a sponge, an intricate system of streams, tributaries and
00:21rivers delivering water to the capital.
00:25Completed in 1915, the outline of the ACT follows the geography of a natural water catchment,
00:32a landscape formed over millennia, now struggling to keep pace with global warming.
00:38We see it day in day out, the impacts of climate change.
00:42These things aren't happening elsewhere, they're not far off, they're happening in our own backyard.
00:46During Australia's black summer, wetlands were scorched.
00:50The dirt burnt in 2020, we could see it, stand there, watch it.
00:55And then when it rained, all that sediment flowed into the system and that has an impact on the
01:01drinking water quality.
01:02As fires become more intense and more frequent, the environment has less time to recover, gradually
01:09delivering less water of lower quality.
01:12We can expect over time that those systems will go extinct if climate change keeps on
01:19the trajectory that it's on today.
01:21A few kilometres downstream, the Kota River gathers pace, fed by wetlands made up of bogs
01:27and fens, the ecosystem's green kidneys.
01:31It'll go through the peat and through the sphagnum, it'll get filtered on its way down
01:36to the river so the water that would be entering the river would be beautiful and clean.
01:41As with melting glaciers or bleached coral, the wetlands are showing the effects of climate
01:47change.
01:48Some patches of sphagnum moss, vital to the system, have been burned and lost forever.
01:53The bigger picture is to try and build the resilience in these ecosystems such that they
01:58can look after themselves in the event of another fire.
02:02Rangers are now applying first aid.
02:05Shade sales create a favourable microclimate, giving the sphagnum a chance to regrow more
02:10quickly.
02:11The mantra for us is that we always just want to leave the place better, in better condition
02:16than what it was when we started.
02:20We really want people to understand that while it impacts out in the Maggi National Park,
02:25they may not see those impacts, it actually has a direct link back to when they turn the
02:29tap on at home.
02:30Protecting the Maggi to preserve the capital's water.
02:34T
02:38You
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