Woodland birds in the Lower Hunter can look forward to a brighter future thanks to a program aimed at protecting core habitat on private land in the area.
In partnership with Birds Australia (BA), the Nature Conservation Trust, Trust for Nature Victoria and Tasmanian Land Conservancy are delivering the Woodland Birds for Biodiversity (WBfB) covenanting program across three states. The program is being funded through the Australian Government's Caring for our Country initiative. In NSW, the NCT and BA have chosen the Lower Hunter as the focus area for the program.
The Lower Hunter is considered to be a hotspot for woodland birds, with bushland in the area supporting a high diversity of species. This diversity includes several threatened and declining woodland-dependent bird species.
The Lower Hunter is also important for the regent honeyeater, a nationally threatened species that has recently had its status upgraded from Endangered to Critically Endangered in NSW. The Lower Hunter was the site of the last known communal breeding event of the regent honeyeater in 2007, and the largest concentrations of the species (up to 40 birds) have been found there in recent years. Much of the remaining fertile lowland forests in the area that support threatened birds like the regent honeyeater are found on private land.
Through the WBfB program, the NCT will work with private landholders to protect woodland bird habitat in the Quorrobolong Valley and surrounding links with vegetated areas in the vicinity of Ellalong, Quorrobolong, Bow Wow Creek and Richmond Vale. The NCT and BA are offering attractive incentives to landholders in these areas who are interested in entering into a permanent conservation covenant to protect bushland areas on their property that support threatened and declining bird species.
For more information about the program, contact Mick Roderick, NCT Project Officer, on 0421 761 237 or by email. Expressions of interest close 14 January 2011.
