Mrs Kirchhoff lost her Wingello home in the NSW Southern Highlands in early January after a bushfire tore through the area.

"Our house was completely flattened," she said.

"It really rocks you."

Mrs Kirchhoff has tried, despite the trauma, to hold onto the positives.

Determined to rebuild, her passion for the environment and natural curiosity inspired her to start tracking the post-fire recovery of her surrounding environment.

It was the remarkable new growth, sprouting from the charred landscape, that encouraged her.

"Going out there and seeing a bit of regeneration happening so quickly I just started snapping photos," she said.

Soon she noticed other people on social media doing the same in fire-affected areas like Port Macquarie.

"It snowballed from personal interest to something more," she said.

The University of New South Wales PhD candidate has now launched the Environment Recovery Project.

Anyone in fire-affected areas of Australia can participate, no matter their scientific knowledge or camera skills.

All people need to do is download a mobile app - available via the global citizen science iNaturalist website - take a photo of a burnt tree, for example, and upload the image to the app.

"The more observations we can collect, the more we will know about the impact of the fires on our environment - particularly in the major bushfire areas in southeastern Australia and right up to Queensland," she said.

"From this we want to get an idea over a really large area what species are reshooting and refeeding and what are not."

President of Port Macquarie community garden The Lost Plot Graeme Evans said it was a great initiative.

Mr Evans said people affected by bushfires should consider replanting Indigenous plants.

"Growing more Indigenous plants is a good idea after bushfires," he said.

"For example, lilly pillys don't burn.

"There are lots of native plants that could be used as fire breaks."

Visit the Environment Recovery Project for more details on Casey Kirchhoff's project, including how to become a citizen scientist.

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