Grassy woodland conservation

A team effort in helping manage our endangered communities

Grassy woodland conservation

A team effort in helping manage our endangered communities

Making a Difference -

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The issue

Central Tablelands Landcare operates in the tablelands of NSW around the cities of Orange and Bathurst. Our Landcare district is largely cleared for agricultural and urban uses and consists of a scattering of isolated patches of native vegetation in poor condition. The result being that there are two Endangered Ecological Communities locally - the grassy white box gum woodlands and the tableland grassy woodlands. Conservation actions that improve the condition and extent of these locally endangered grassy woodlands have been a focus of Central Tablelands Landcare for the past 5 years. To this end, we have successfully attracted over $500,000 of funding to complete work on these woodlands and we continue to seek funds and partnerships that will help us achieve this goal.

The solution

Work by Central Tablelands Landcare to better improve and enhance our local grassy woodlands has been a team effort. We have worked with a range of project partners to source funding (Central Tablelands LLS, Biodiveristy Fund and Environmental Trust) and undertake works in a range of sites across the central tablelands district. Project partners to date include Western NSW Local Health Division, TAFE Western, Central Tablelands Local Land Services, Skillset, project participants including landholders and Bathurst and Orange councils, as well as our broader Landcare membership and the Central Tablelands Landcare management committee.

Our projects have included a range of actions including education to support of program participants and on-ground works. Educational activities have focused on a range of topics from local plant identification, seed collection to revegetation techniques. Through offering a range of projects which have differing project standards Central Tablelands Landcare has also been able to offer a range of on-ground projects that appeal to a broader range of landholders / land managers within our region.

The impact

With an annual focus on the conservation and protection of our grassy woodlands over the past 5 years Central Tablelands Landcare has achieved impressive project outputs which are summarised below.

18 Kgs of local native seed collected or purchased for our box gum community seedbank; 20 students completed Cert III CLM, with 5 going onto complete Diploma CLM; 30 teaching days plus 20+ workshops / field days / bus trips on plant ID, propagation and seed collection etc; 25,000 plants grown by commercial growers for projects from local seed; 10,000 trees grown from local seed by our Green Army Team and Landcare volunteers in our Landcare community nursery; 80+ ha revegetation – 35,000+ plants and 10kg seed planted; and a further 8,000 plants grown and 10 nestboxes made to be planted / installed in 2017.