Burrinjuck to Bango
Burrinjuck to Bango
Burrinjuck to Bango Habitat Hops
Capacity to Deliver
The issue
To increase biodiversity in the Southern Tableland’s region by: establishing voluntary land conservation agreements and Tree Plot Plans; installing fencing to protect 23.5 ha of vegetation, including Critically Endangered White Box - Yellow Box - Blakely's Red Gum Grassy Woodland, planting tubestock grown at the Bowning-Bookham Landcare nursery and using direct seeding on appropriate sites.
We are noticing that the prolonged drought is making it difficult to plant tubestock due to dry conditions and that the additional time spent on supplementary feeding on local farms is reducing the capacity that landholders have for undertaking restoration and rehabilitation activities on-farm.
The solution
This NSW Environmental Trust Funded project enabled the several workshops and onground monitoring techniques. Over the June 2019 long weekend 12 volunteers planted 1200 tubestock across several properties however COVID19 in 2020 prevented the repeat of such an exercise.
The engagement of Nola Hancock to assist the group understand the impact of a changing climate on our vegetation has been invaluable. Their input has influenced not only what plants are grown in our nursery but also the general focus of our Landcare group and initiated a wider regional project for the Yass Area to find and grow plants that can adapt to our climate as it changes.
The impact
Of particular note during 2019 and 2020 has been the number of new members that have joined both the Landcare Group and this project who may not have previously participated in conservation or regeneration activities. Some of this may have been due to the ‘over the fence’ effect, seeing how well tubestock has grown despite atrocious condition or the ‘neighbourhood effect’ of earlier participants talking with their friends and neighbours. The incremental expansion of the project is due to the relaxed and approachable way the group works and planting success helps us build a stronger and more environmentally aware community.
Learnings
- increases in membership and involved landholders;
- the annual planning cycle for each property has started to create a pipleline of future project sites;
- Bowning-Bookham Landcare Group has purposefully over-programmed the amount of tree plots to be planted and committed to funding any gap from the Group funds.
- Strong support locally, particularly through Yass FM and sharing of facebook posts by other Landcare and related groups.
Key facts
- 14 participating properties
- 13ha of planting area
- Over 7300 metres of fencing Installed
- Over 5200 tubestock planted
- 2.45 has of direct seeding