Landcare and Midcoast Council along with NSW Land Services provided a workshop on Harmony with Habitat with Mat Bell Senior Ecologist MCC and Scott Meier BARRC Bush Regeneration at the Community Centre 22 November.
Over 45 residents and locals from Hawkes Nest and Newcastle areas attended. Understanding and assessing habitat health was explained by Matt Bell. We live in a very diverse and healthy area, with rare pockets of littoral rainforest and populations of rare and endangered species such as Notable threatened species include koalas, glossy black-cockatoos, squirrel gliders, powerful owls, swift parrots, wallum froglets and white-bellied sea- eagles.
The MCCB Biodiversity Strategy will be available for community consultation from early next year for communities to identify priorities and feedback.
Cumulative acts destroying diversity through clearing, fire and disease are impacting on our wildlife populations. There are some simple things we can do as a community, target asparagus fern which is our biggest threat to the forest, manage the forest areas so it is greener and less chance of severe burning, reduce clearing and replace cleared trees with planting trees and nesting boxes. Not all planting needs to be native, a mix of exotic and native can provide greener spaces in our urban areas.
The habitat of some of the animals is a slow development, for example the glossy black cockatoos require hollows in trees for breeding and old Alo Casuarinas to provide them with food. We need to preserve patches of Alo and plant new ones.
Scott explained simple knowledge that will help us all maintain habitats in our backyard, working with 5 zones, the house, vege zone, fruit trees, a forestry zone including trees that can be used for harvesting and indigenous bush zone. Most house bocks do not include a zone 4 and 5 which is not sustainable however is important for creating wildlife corridors, and adding to the seed of natives that is stored in the ground. During the field trip Scott was able to describe more fully the process of putting nutrients back into the soil through mulching and burning, and growing plants what will provide a greener and cooler environment.
There are many organizations we can work with including, MCC, Land for Wildlife and Landcare who have funding to support projects. The responses from the recent Community Survey were strong and conservation and strategies should be built into the Community Plan.
MidCoast2Tops website, where you can find a gradually growing online resources collection. See this link. https://www.midcoast2tops.org.au/habitat-biodiversity
For anyone interested in an easy way to voluntarily support habitat for wildlife on your place, and join a supportive network of like-minded landholders, please consider joining Land For Wildlife.
For more information, see this link. https://www.cen.org.au/projects/land-for-wildlife
