Ginninderra Project Team – Staff spotlight on Jacqui Stol

September 21st, 2017

Many in the local community will recognise Jacqui Stol from her work leading our community planting days at CSIRO Ginninderra. She is also known for her other science engagement and guided ecological tours across the region either with Landcare or other conservation and natural resource management groups.

Jacqui is a Senior Experimental Scientist in the Biodiversity, Ecosystem Knowledge and Services Research Program at CSIRO Land and Water.

Jacqui joined CSIRO in 1990, since then she has managed and worked on a broad range of research projects specialising in vegetation ecology, biodiversity and science communications.

Jacqui uses her ecology and woodlands expertise to coordinate and manage the ecology component underpinning the sustainable development of the Ginninderra project.

A large part of her role is about helping develop the long-term science and the vision for Ginninderra. This involves reviewing and providing advice on key ecological and biodiversity management issues and opportunities.

“This is a fascinating and very wide-ranging role that commenced in 2015 with a number of other CSIRO ecologists to develop the ecological vision and planning for enhancing and maintaining the ecological values of the site, while progressing the broader Ginninderra project objectives,” Jacqui said.

Jacqui’s role also involves many practical and interesting components, including:

  • Undertaking ecological assessments of the native vegetation communities such as the Box Gum Grassy Woodlands, Dry Forest and the Native Grassland,
  • Identifying important plants such as native wildflowers as opposed to the exotic introduced species, and
  • Undertaking surveys for the Little Eagle and woodland birds.

Jacqui is also tasked with identifying opportunities for collaborating and fostering community engagement -including Indigenous communities. Recently, for example, Jacqui has been working with the Ginninderra Catchment Group around community planting days, baseline surveys, and the development and implementation of longer term monitoring of species and habitats.

“My various tasks within the Ginninderra project work synergistically in many ways. A great example of that has been our partnership with the Ginninderra Catchment Group to plant over 3000 native shrubs in two of our woodland areas to provide key bird foraging and nesting habitat and restore the patchy shrubby layer,” Jacqui said.

And finally, as CSIRO is a scientific organisation, Jacqui and her team are developing an ecological and monitoring framework for short and long-term science experimental work. This will help provide new knowledge about the best ways to manage for the continuing longevity of ecological values in a newly developing urban environment like Ginninderra.