The efforts of a group of landholders near South Gundagai to revegetate their cleared hillsides has been acknowledged with the project receiving an additional grant from Landcare Australia and the Jaramas Foundation.
Over the past 5 years, a dedicated group of landholders in the Tarabandra area have worked together to connect areas of native vegetation across their properties as part of the Tarabandra Rivers to Ridgelines Project.
“The results of the works so far are now so clearly evident” said Dave Elworthy. “There is now a patchwork of tree corridors linking from one property to the next ”.
The project is a partnership between the participating landholders, Riverina Highlands Landcare Network and the Riverina Local Land Services.
This year the$25,000 grant will be used to connect these areas of remnant vegetation through new plantings. These corridors will be a key factor in improving wildlife habitat and will act as ‘stepping stones’ to larger stands of native vegetation across the region.
Funding will also be used to establish paddock trees which are critical feature of the landscape. Research indicates that paddock trees are declining rapidly & most will be lost in less than 40years unless actions are taken to reverse this trend.
Landholders participating in the project will be offered funding to assist with the costs of fencing, site preparation and tree planting.
Locally native plants will be grown by volunteers at the Landcare Nursery in Tumut with a selection of both tubestock for corridor plantings and mature plants for paddock trees.
“These corridors will also help to sub divide large paddocks so that better grazing management can be used as a tool to manage weeds, promote native pastures and prevent overgrazing” said Mr Elworthy.
For further details on this project, please contact David Elworthy on 0418 694 401.