Two conservation organisations have launched a plan aiming to conserve a vital ecosystem in the west of the region.
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Bush Heritage Australia and Trust for Nature’s plan outlines seven conservation targets pertaining to key biodiversity features in an area surrounding Wedderburn, Dunolly and the Kara Kara National Park.
“We’re here in this part of the world because the grassy woodland community is one of Australia’s most threatened,” Bush Heritage Australia healthy landscapes manager Glen Norris said.
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Grassy woodlands are one of the focus areas of the plan, the community having been largely decimated since European arrival.
The plan also focuses on healthy woodlands, hollow-dependent fauna (such as sugar gliders and Brush-tailed phascogales), watercourses, threatened orchids, declining flora, ground-dwelling fauna (including the Malleefowl, Painted Button-Quail and Bush Stone-curlew), and Aboriginal cultural heritage.
Mr Norris said the plan outlined threat mitigation and amelioration works, including weed removal and fire management.
On a bigger scale, he said, the plan aimed to reconnect remnants of bush in the landscape, creating bush corridors and increasing the chance of success when it came to conservation.
Mr Norris said the plan took a “biocultural” approach to land management, recognising the Dja Dja Wurrung people as the traditional owners of the land.
Conserving the environmental values of the land was, he said, undertaken in a manner that paid respect to cultural heritage.
Also key to the plan is collaboration.
The organisations work with the Dja Dja Wurrung community, with the plan outlining the need for two-way knowledge and community education.
While Bush Heritage Australia has acquired land in the area for conservation, private landowners can also play a role.
They collaborate with such grassroots groups as the Kara Kara Conservation Management Network, and other agencies, such as government departments and catchment management authorities.
“Collaboratively, we can achieve much more than working in isolation,” Mr Norris said.
Natalie Croxon
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
Reporter at the Illawarra Mercury, mostly covering social affairs. Previously of the Bendigo Advertiser, Northern Daily Leader and Quirindi Advocate. Our Watch award winner.
