Bush Heritage News www.bushheritage.org.au Winter 2007 In this issue Reconnecting habitats, Revegetation in WA, Map of Bush Heritage reserves, Restoration of Carnarvon grasslands, Scottsdale Reserve launch Reconnecting native habitats – putting the jigsaw puzzle back together Bush Heritage CEO Doug Humann teeming with life. Across the red centre they have been drained, and rivers have and Beyond the Boundaries you would have seen rolling sand dunes been choked by dams and excessive Coordinator Stuart Cowell have laced with the tracks of myriad small, water extraction. busy animals, and arid shrublands and contributed to this article Now 70 per cent of the pieces of this rocky plains carved by ancient rivers. magnificent jigsaw are either missing Can you imagine Australia as a giant Golden grasslands and woodlands or damaged. In the worst affected jigsaw puzzle made up of millions brimming with wildlife would have regions, just a scattering of small isolated of pieces? Two hundred years ago, if spanned the eastern side of the continent pieces remain. A look at the map of the you had been looking down at the puzzle from north to south. Gondwana Link region (see Page 2) from above, the picture would have illustrates the point graphically. been quite spectacular. You would have Over the past two hundred years we have seen majestic forests fringing the edges effectively been taking the pieces out Putting key pieces back into this jigsaw with green and great rivers spilling into of this great landscape puzzle. Habitats is now a priority if we are to avert the the sea. In the far north, deeply etched have disappeared piece by piece and massive extinction of species that is escarpments would have plunged with them the animals and plants they predicted to occur as the effects of down into vast woodlands and wetlands supported. Wetlands have vanished as climate change intensify. Clockwise from top: Scottsdale Reserve, another piece of the jigsaw puzzle restored. PHOTO: JIRI LOCHMAN/ LOCHMAN TRANSPARENCIES Yellow daisies at Chereninup Creek Reserve, WA. PHOTO: BARBARA MADDEN Hooded robin, a key species at Nardoo Hills reserves, Vic. PHOTO: GRAEME CHAPMAN Native hibiscus Alyogyne huegelii at Chereninup Creek Reserve, WA. PHOTO: BARBARA MADDEN Winter 2007 1 restoration program, Kosciuszko to Coast. This will become a partnership of massive proportions as we work with hundreds of individual land-owners and local and regional authorities to reconnect habitats from the Australian Alps to the east coast, a distance of over 100 kilometres. Gondwana Link in Western Australia is the most advanced of the Beyond the Boundaries programs. Several of the property acquisitions here have also received support from the Australian Government’s National Reserve System Gondwana Link region Programme. Our key partners are Greening Australia (WA), The Wilderness Society, The Nature Conservancy, Friends of the Fitzgerald River National Park and the Fitzgerald Biosphere Group. Progress is steady and we are already It has been estimated that the effect extend through different altitudes and seeing real benefits for many species on a habitat of every one-degree rise in across latitudes is vital. (see Pages 4 to 5). temperature caused by global warming will be equivalent to its having moved Beyond the Boundaries New reserve in Western Australia 100 kilometres north. With less rainfall The Bush Heritage Beyond the The most recent piece to go back into and more frequent and intense fires Boundaries program is working on the Gondwana Link part of our puzzle is predicted for much of the south of the many fronts to do just that. This is a Peniup Creek Reserve. Bush Heritage continent, and an increased risk of program of partnerships and of building supporters who responded so generously intense cyclones and extreme rainfall up and working on regional conservation to the Thomas Challenge (Bush Heritage over the north, animals and plants will be strategies with other groups, agencies News, Autumn 2007) have made a major forced to move to find new habitats and and individuals to achieve what none contribution to the protection of this vital the food and shelter that they need. of us could alone. The Australian property. It has been purchased jointly Government’s very successful National with Greening Australia (WA). Many animals, trapped in habitat ‘islands’ Reserve System Programme will surrounded by seas of cleared land, will probably play a part by assisting with the Peniup Creek Reserve covers 2409 have nowhere to go. Both regional and acquisition of key properties, as it has hectares and protects the largest area national extinction rates are set to soar. with the recent purchase of Scottsdale of intact bushland (890 hectares) that Reserve south of Canberra (see Bush remains at the eastern end of the Stirling Rebuilding the connections between Heritage News, Summer 2007). Range to Fitzgerald River section of these islands of habitat is probably the Gondwana Link. It now safeguards intact most important action we can take, and The acquistion of Scottsdale Reserve woodland, mallee-heath and stream-side ensuring that these habitat pathways is the start of another major landscape vegetation and a section of Peniup Creek From left: Grey kangaroo at Nardoo Hills Reserve, Vic. PHOTO: JAMES COWIE Flowering heathland, Monjebup Reserve, WA. PHOTO: JIRI LOCHMAN/LOCHMAN TRANSPARENCIES Brown treecreeper. 2 Bush Heritage News PHOTO: GRAEME CHAPMAN that is in excellent condition. This new Kosciuszko to Coast has the Nardoo Hills reserves reserve establishes a direct connection support of the New South Wales with Peniup Nature Reserve. Government, which used the launch of Scottsdale Reserve to announce Significantly, at least five key species a bigger plan, Alps to Atherton. or communities targeted for special This ambitious project aims to attention in the Gondwana Link create a wildlife corridor over a Functional Landscape Plan occur here. distance of 2800 kilometres to These include yate and mallet/moort allow species to move in response woodlands, Tammar and black-gloved to changes in climate. The state wallabies, creeks and freshwater government has committed $7 million systems. The threatened red-tailed for Stage 1 to support private land- phascogale has been recorded in the holders to undertake land-care works past and probably hangs on in the and sign up to voluntary conservation she-oak thickets. There is also habitat agreements. Changes to planning suitable for eighteen threatened species, laws will also ensure that existing including the elusive dibbler. habitat connections are not broken purchase, the chain of linked reserves Much of the recently cleared land is by any new developments. now extends for more than eight regenerating naturally. The extent of the Scottsdale Reserve was purchased area needing active replanting is currently kilometres along the Nardoo Hills. with support from The Vincent Fairfax being assessed. Once restored, this new The gently undulating and dissected hills Family Foundation, private donors bushland will strengthen and expand the of the new block add significantly to the honouring the lives of Dr Peter developing habitat corridor. area of mallee and endangered plains Barrer and Helen Rickards, and the New reserve in Victoria grassy woodland that is protected. The Australian Government’s National healthy woodlands and box–ironbark Reserve System Programme. While projects such as Gondwana Link forests contain numerous old hollow- and Kosciuszko to Coast make headlines bearing trees, essential nesting and and generate national interest, other resting sites for many native animals Bush Heritage projects quietly continue agencies, Indigenous groups, regional and birds. The threatened hooded robin, to reinstate other pieces in our jigsaw. authorities and individuals to meet the diamond firetail, brown treecreeper, challenges that our native plants and In the past few weeks, another piece, black-chinned honeyeater and tree animals will face as a result of global the third, has been added in the Nardoo goanna have already been recorded. warming. Working principally in our five Hills in Victoria. Our thanks to the R E In this region Bush Heritage is working anchor regions, we are helping to put Ross Trust and Bush Heritage supporters closely with the local Wedderburn the pieces back into the fragmented who have funded the acquisition of Conservation Management Network. It jigsaw that is Australia, and to restore this strategically placed 216 hectare provides strong community-based support pathways of native habitats for animals property. It connects the southern end for conservation initiatives in the area. and plants to move through as they need of the current Bush Heritage Nardoo to. Our progress is steady but the task Hills reserves to the otherwise isolated Throughout Australia, Bush Heritage is immense. The support provided by Woosang block of the Wychitella Nature is teaming up with conservation and people such as you is critical to what Conservation Reserve. With this latest research organisations, government we can achieve. From left: Threatened Corackerup moort Eucalyptus vesiculosa at Monjebup Reserve, WA. Monjebup Reserve, WA. PHOTOS: JIRI LOCHMAN/LOCHMAN TRANSPARENCIES Winter 2007 3 Rebuilding the bush in south-west Western Australia Bush Heritage Beyond the Boundaries of this region by protecting and carbon dioxide. Many of the young Coordinator Stuart Cowell provides reconnecting native habitats across the plants – melaleucas, eucalypts,