Our work with landholders in the Capertee Valley, three hours north west of Sydney, has so far lead to the protection of 16 threatened bird species across four properties in the area, including the nationally endangered regent honeyeater and swift parrot.
The Capertee Valley is the most reliable of only three core breeding areas for the regent honeyeater in south-eastern Australia. With the population of regent honeyeaters in the wild estimated at between 800 and 2000, the protection of known habitat for the bird, like that found in the Capertee Valley, is critical to the species’ long-term survival.
In partnership with the Hawkesbury Nepean Catchment Management Authority, the NCT has been working in this ecologically important area since 2007. So far, four landholders have chosen to protect a total of 120 hectares of high conservation value land through permanent conservation agreements with the NCT. We are currently working with four more landholders to protect another 154 hectares in the area.
All the landholders are involved in the Regent Honeyeater Recovery Project. As well as providing sanctuary for threatened birds, all eight properties contain habitat for a range of other threatened animals and plants and most of the properties contain the Endangered Ecological Community Box Gum Woodland. Four of the eight properties are within 2 km of each other, helping to form a protected corridor between Gardens of Stone National Park and other vegetated private property and Crown lands, including the recently declared Capertee National Park, the 800th reserve in NSW.
NCT’s Regional Manager for Central NSW, Dave Crooks, said, “The landholders in the Capertee Valley who have chosen to protect their land with conservation agreements are ensuring that the amazing natural assets of their properties, and of the area as a whole, are protected for generations to come.”
