Mistletoe Roadshow
Partnering with Birdlife Australia to deliver a series of Mistletoe workshops across the Central West and Central Tablelands.
Capacity building - LEP23 - 005_RLC
The issue
Birdlife Australia have just developed a new Mistletoe Propagation Manual for Eastern Australia. In an effort to help promote the new manual across the Central West and Central Tablelands regions, we planned a Mistletoe Roadshow series of events.
The solution
The Mistletoe Roadshow featured workshops in Mudgee, Bathurst, Grenfell, Wellington, Narromine and Mendooran.
We partnered with a range of organisations to deliver the roadshow including: Watershed Landcare, Central Tablelands Landcare, Weddin Landcare, Mid Macquarie Landcare, Three Rivers Landcare, Central West and Central Tablelands Local Land Services, Biodiversity Conservation Trust and Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water.
The impact
Over 70 people across the 2 regions attended the workshops to learn about mistletoes and take their fabulous mistletoe propagation skills out into the world.
Learnings
Mistletoes (Indigenous name: Wiburugil) are a keystone species that increase biodiversity across landscapes.
Birds feed on Mistletoe flowers, they use them as nesting sites, get micronutrients from the dense leaves, feed on the leaf lerps AND the dead material dropped by Mistletoe plants that accumulates on the ground increases insect numbers for birds and other species to feed on.
The stomata on Mistletoe leaves stay open transpiring constantly, so they are like Mother Nature's coolroom!
In our region we get:
- Box Mistletoe (found on 110 host box eucalypt species),
- Needleleaf Mistletoe (found on Casuarina’s)
- Grey Mistletoe (on Grey Box, and Acacias in Weeping Myall woodlands) and
- Kurrajong Mistletoe (which is actually insect pollinated - has teeny tiny flowers!).
Regent Honeyeaters and Painted Honeyeaters LOVE mistletoe. To help save these species and extend their range again, it’s important to have corridors of mistletoe across the region.
Key facts
- Mistletoes are a keystone species that increase ecosystem biodiversity.
- Regent Honeyeaters and other species need to have healthy corridors of Mistletoes.
- Mistletoes can be repopulated using new propagation techniques developed by Birdlife Australia.