Macleay Coastal Floodplain Rainforest Remnant Restoration Project
Macleay Coastal Floodplain Rainforest Remnant Restoration Project focuses on supporting landholders on the coastal floodplain to conserve and restore rare and threatened rainforest ecological communities. This projects activities mainly have a scope for excluding livestock via fencing and then supporting patch integrity via community planting days to reduce edge effects and then manage recruitment and planting establishment through bush regeneration activities.
Self sustenance - NSWLP-025-001
The issue
The Macleay Coastal Floodplain has experienced significant clearing and agricultural development since European settlement. A major plant community that inhabited this area was the Lowland Subtropical Rainforest on the Floodplain of the NSW North Coast Bioregion, which, through mapping projections and ground truthing surveys, was found to be at less than 1% of its original extent. A local bush regenerator invited Macleay Landcare and NCLLS staff to meet a landholder interested in conserving a viable remnant on their property. Macleay Landcare worked with NCLLS to procure funding to support the restoration and conservation of the remnant rainforest within their tenure.
The solution
Macleay Landcare delivered through endorsements made from NCLLS stock exclusion fencing to the remnant. This will allow recruitment within the patch, which likely has not occurred for decades. This was assisted by landcare led community planting days to fill in gaps and thin parts of the remnant improving patch integrity and reducing edge effect potential. We are in the stages of managing planting and recruitment establishment through bush regeneration activities from volunteers and contractors.
The impact
We have successfully reduced the senescing trajectory of this remnant and improved its integrity into the future. It is Macleay Landcare's current priority to ensure these intrinsic and natural heritage values are not lost in the Macleay by engaging with local communities, landholders and partners.