Helping Post Bushfire Communities Recover
Helping Post Bushfire Communities Recover
Shoalhaven Landcare shared in the stories and experiences of the Black Summer bushfire survivors and supported bushfire on-ground recovery actions.
Community Participation -
LP029-002
The issue
Immediately after the 2019-20 bushfires impacted property owners were faced with the reality of the loss of property, vegetation, assets, and even animals. Despite this personal loss and the exhausting journey ahead of them to rebuild their assets and livelihoods, many bushfire impacted property owners were also equally devastated about the fire's impacts on native wildlife and vegetation on their properties. Shoalhaven Landcare quickly realised that supporting our local community to care for impacted wildlife and bushland was a top priority.
The solution
Shoalhaven Landcare were successful in securing funding from several sources including, the Greater Eastern Ranges (GER), WIRES, Landcare Australia, Local Land Services, and NSW Resilience, to implement bushfire recovery activities. The various funded activities included:
- Property assessments, weed control and advice
- Opportunities to participate in working bees and workshops - learning from and reconnecting our community
- Coordinating and purchasing native plants for revegetation where needed (supplied by our project partners Milton Rural Landcare)
- Installation of alternative habitat for small ground-dwelling marsupials and Broad-headed snakes and nest boxes for parrots, gliders and possums
- Pest control for feral cats, foxes and deer.
- Bird surveys with our project partners Birdlife Shoalhaven
The impact
Since the 2019-20 bushfires, a major focus of Shoalhaven Landcare has been to support bushfire impacted property owners to assist vegetation regeneration and native wildlife on their properties. It has become very obvious that bushfire recovery will be a long, slow process.
One of the main things we realised through the delivery of these works was the importance of simply talking to our bushfire impacted property owners about their experiences and what is important to them on their properties. It was so gratifying to also be able to follow up those discussions with actions and assistance to alleviate some of those post bushfire challenges. Some of the actions that provided the greatest assistance to landowners included, plant identification, weed management, and bush regeneration, removal of pest species predating on the vulnerable and exposed local fauna and linking the broader community offering assistance up with those in need.
Key facts
- Shoalhaven Landcare delivered a range of recovery actions to bushfire impacted land owners
- Talking to impacted landowners and assisting with actions that were important to them was key
- Connecting landowners to the broader community who could provide assistance was inspiring