Protecting Native Flora
Protecting Native Flora
Redlands Hill Reserve, biodiversity
Taking Action -
LLCI017-005
The issue
Corowa District Landcare (CDL), became involved in the rehabilitation and management of Redlands Hill Reserve in partnership with Federation Council, in 1998. The Reserve is located 11km north-west of Corowa on one of the highest hills in the region with an elevation of 197m. It was declared a flora and fauna reserve in 1999, and consists of 61ha (150 acres) of Grey Box Grassy Woodland, which is listed as an Endangered Ecological Community. The Reserve has a very diverse selection of native plant species, some of which are rare to the region and only known to occur on the Reserve.
CDL members were concerned that some of the rare plant species maybe lost to the region if there was a fire on the Reserve or as a result of pressure from over grazing from pest animals and kangaroos. The Reserve has been used as a native seed collection site for many years but many of the small, rare groundcover plants had not been collected and are vulnerable to the risk of fire, disease and grazing
The solution
CDL have hosted a number of awareness raising events at Redlands Hill Nature Reserve, an example of such an event is a Native Plant Identification workshop held in October 2016, with Martin Driver, Project Officer from the Australian Network for Plant Conservation. The workshop was funded through support from Murray Local Land Services, Regional Capacity Building Program.
To ensure the diversity of the Reserve is preserved, CDL worked with Seed Services staff from Murray Local Land Service and formed a partnership with Wirraminna Environmental Education Centre to expand their existing native Seed Production Area (SPA) at Burrumbuttock. This would enable the SPA to be able to accommodate plants grown from seed from the Reserve.
The project included CDL hosting a seed collection day at Redlands Hill Reserve for the purpose of collecting seed from a range of groundcover species. Natasha Lappin (Seed Services Officer Murray LLS) provided guidance on the day with volunteers from both CDL and Wirraminna collecting the seed. The volunteers spent time to clean the seed, which was then sent to a local nursery to grow into tubestock and in August 2017 they planted the seedlings into the newly constructed seed production area. The project was enabled by CDL assisting with costs to grow the plants and expand the SPA, along with a grant Wirraminna received from Murray Local Land Services, to further fund the expansion to Wirraminna’s existing SPA.
The impact
Through this partnership with Wirraminna Environmental Education Centre and Murray Local Land Services, Corowa District Landcare can ensure the security of Redlands Hill Reserve’s native plant species and their genetics for the future as the SPA plants will provide a valuable seed supply going forward.
Key facts
- Redlands Hill Nature Reserve is a high conservation value remnant woodland,
- Seed Production Areas - Security of local native plant species and their genetics.
- Partnerships