Abhf Autumn Nl 06

Bush Heritage News Autumn 2006 ABN 78 053 639 115 www.bushheritage.org Anchors in the Landscape In this issue Anchors in the Landscape campaign – protecting our natural heritage Working bees Fan Palm Reserve Bush Heritage CEO Doug Humann others it will not. Often, with the outlines Bush Heritage's long- enthusiasm of recent ownership and term goals and an ambitious new significant resources to develop the fundraising campaign already business, a new owner intensifies achieving results for conservation activities on the land.This usually means increased environmental You and I are the guardians of one damage. It may be through residential of the world’s mega-diverse countries. or industrial development, or through The uniqueness of our species, their further loss of native vegetation as land diversity and abundance have been goes under cultivation or irrigation, recognised worldwide as being of or where the establishment of immeasurable value.Also recognised permanent water by sinking bores or have been the rate of extinctions of building dams opens up more land our species, the loss and fragmentation for regular grazing. Every time this of habitats and the decline in Australia’s happens, habitats are damaged or lost environmental health.Alarm bells are and species suffer. ringing, not only in Australia but internationally as well. At present we are seeing a wave of regional extinctions throughout our Scientists from around the nation agricultural lands, and species are have determined that if we are to disappearing from whole districts. effectively conserve Australia’s animals If we are to halt this decline, then and plants we need to protect about we must act, and we must act now! another 22 million hectares of quality habitats (nearly three per cent of * Possingham, H. et al. 2002. Setting Australia’s land surface) in a range Biodiversity Priorities (background paper). See www.dest.gov.au/sectors/science_ * of ecosystems. This is an achievable innovation/publications_resources/profiles/ goal but we need to act immediately, setting_biodiversity_priorities.htm and you and I have a significant role to play. Bush Heritage and its supporters will help to reach this national target and we have already made some major gains in the past few months. However, we must step up our activities because in many regions of Australia time is running out. Every day, properties that have potential for conservation move from one owner to the next. On some of these properties conservation will be a primary or secondary goal, but on From top: The spider orchid Caladenia sp. is one of the many wildflower species protected at Eurardy Reserve, WA. PHOTO: LIBBY SMITH Waterfowl, including wood duck, flock to the wetlands at Cravens Peak Reserve, Qld. PHOTO: WAYNE LAWLER/ECOPIX Blue pincushion Brunonia australis. Blue pincushion among a profusion of wildflowers at Eurardy Reserve, WA. PHOTOS: LIBBY SMITH 1 almost two-thirds of this amount in reserved ecosystems and species that donations and grants, and pledges that urgently need secure habitats. have been committed over three years. The contributions of The Nature Through our partnership with the Conservancy and the Thomas Indigenous Land Corporation we Foundation deserve special mention. have been invited to support The Australian Government, through Aboriginal people in selecting, the Natural Heritage Trust’s National acquiring and managing land of high Reserve System program, has provided conservation value.The acquisition support for the purchase of Cravens of such properties will be funded by Peak Reserve, as well as other the Indigenous Land Fund’s Environmental Acquisition Program Bush Heritage is on a mission. Our reserves that have been acquired or and the land will be owned by aim is to conserve, within the next are currently under negotiation. Aboriginal organisations.The first twenty years, one-third of the land property under consideration is a needed to meet the national 22 million The purchase of our two most recent 41 000 hectare property in South hectare target: that is, seven million properties, Cravens Peak in far-western Australia, proposed for acquisition by hectares, or one per cent of Australia’s Queensland and Eurardy on the the Adnyanathanha people. land area.This equates to an area the Batavia Coast of Western Australia, size of Tasmania. has secured another 260 000 hectares of land.These new reserves protect JOIN THE CAMPAIGN! To achieve the first stage of our important vegetation communities If we are to buy the land and undertake twenty-year plan, we need $20 million. and threatened arid-zone wildlife. the work that we need to do, we must Thus we have launched the Anchors There are at least 900 plant species reach our $20 million target.This in the Landscape campaign.This on Eurardy alone, of which at least no longer seems such a daunting task campaign will enable us to secure 29 are a priority for protection. because of the enthusiasm and key areas of land predominantly in generosity shown by our supporters. our ‘anchor’ regions (see insert), to For the next two years we have an Every gift is bringing us closer manage this land for the long term ambitious land acquisition plan that to completing Stage One of our and also, importantly, to build regional includes buying further large reserves twenty-year plan to protect the conservation initiatives with our in the Gulf Country or Uplands of land and its wildlife. reserve neighbours, local and Queensland and smaller reserves in indigenous communities and other south-west Western Australia and the We have vitally important work key property owners and managers. grassy woodlands of Victoria and to do and we need to do it now if No longer can we be satisfied with New South Wales.A new partnership we are to meet the environmental just working within our reserve with the Nature Foundation of South challenge before us. I am asking for boundaries.We must support and Australia will help us to acquire our your help and hope that you will be encourage others to instigate, or first property in that state.This inspired to assist us however you further develop, conservation acquisition in South Australia is an can.Together we will help to build management on their land. example of how we will continue to sufficient protected habitats to secure take up opportunities outside our our wonderful native species and Twenty million dollars seems like a ‘anchor’ regions when there are real protect our unique natural heritage. vast sum to find but, in just over a benefits for biodiversity.This property We will also pass on to those who year, through the commitment and is sufficiently large to be viable for the follow us a healthier and more generosity of individuals and funding long term, is really important regionally resilient environment.This is the organisations, we have already raised and will help to protect many poorly legacy I want to leave for the future. 2 ‘Before Jacqui and I helped Bush Heritage to buy the Charles Darwin Reserve, we often felt frustrated that we could not stop the habitat destruction that is being undertaken in Australia and around the world. Now that we have helped Bush Heritage to save 68 000 BUSH HERITAGE PRIORITY REGIONS – ANCHORS IN THE LANDSCAPE hectares of land of high conservation value, we believe we have done something In Bush Heritage News, Summer 2005, we explained our strategy for targeting future very special to help the animals and land purchases in five key regions around Australia and our plan to work more actively plants with which we share the planet. with our reserve neighbours to bring a regional approach to land conservation. Our activities will now be focused in south-west Western Australia, the grasslands and ‘Often when I camp out in the huge grassy woodlands of southern Australia, the midlands of Tasmania, the Channel and Gulf quiet wilderness area that is the reserve, country of Queensland and the Northern Territory, and the brigalow belt and Uplands of I think that if Bush Heritage didn't have Queensland. However, we will always remain open to broader opportunities. the resources to save this special place, it might have all been lost and, just slightly, To recap, these regions were selected because they are under immediate threat from a the world would have been a poorer place. factor or factors that we can influence, contain many significant species, can support healthy ecosystems throughout the process of climate change, are located where the ‘I hope Bush Heritage can make you feel establishment of an ‘anchor’ reserve would provide significant benefits for conservation as proud as they have made us feel.’ in the wider community, and build on what we have already achieved. By concentrating our efforts around our ‘anchors’ in the landscape and helping our Chris Darwin, great-great-grandson neighbours and other regional land managers to bring conservation management and of Charles Darwin expertise to their land, the country and its wildlife will see much greater benefits. Facing page, clockwise from top: The Nature Conservancy Australia Country Program Director Kent Wommack (left) ‘The purchase of Cravens Peak … will help to look after the Lake Eyre Basin with Bush Heritage CEO Doug Humann. PHOTO: BUSH HERITAGE Mangles kangaroo paw Anigozanthus manglesii at Eurardy in perpetuity.We’ve got a range of [assets and activities] in this region including Reserve, WA. PHOTO: LIBBY SMITH Conservation Programs Manager Aboriginal culture, grazing, tourism, mining and biodiversity conservation. Bush Paul Foreman and Reserve Manager Jo Rule at Cravens Peak Heritage’s conservation work will complement these and assist with the long-term Reserve, Qld. Zebra finches are colourful residents of Cravens Peak. PHOTOS: WAYNE LAWLER/ECOPIX sustainability of the basin.’ Clockwise from top: Jacqui and Chris Darwin.

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