Environmental values
Sale Common is one of only two remaining freshwater wetlands in the Gippsland Lakes system, and it provides sheltered feeding, breeding and resting habitat for a large range of waterbirds.
Dowd Morass is a large, brackish wetland that regularly supports rookeries of colonial nesting waterbirds including Australian white ibis, straw-necked ibis, little black and little pied cormorants, royal spoonbills and great egrets.
Heart Morass is also a large brackish wetland, with open expanses providing shallow, feeding habitat for waterbirds including black swans, Eurasian coots and many species of ducks.
Together, the lower Latrobe wetlands function as a diverse and complementary ecological system. Colonial waterbirds breed among swamp paperbark trees at Dowd Morass in spring. Migratory shorebirds feed on the mudflats that are exposed as the wetlands draw down and dry over
summer. Waterfowl and fish-eating birds use open-water habitat at the wetlands year-round. The wetlands also contain vegetation types that are threatened (such as swamp scrub, brackish herbland and aquatic herbland).
Social and economic values
Sale Common, which is located close to the city of Sale, is a state game refuge with extensive walking tracks and boardwalks that provide opportunities for passive recreation including walking, bike riding and observing native plants and animals. Dowd Morass is a state game reserve commonly used for duck hunting. Heart Morass consists
of mostly private landholdings and is also used for duck hunting.