In 2013 the Clarence Environment Centre
(CEC), local provider of the national Land for Wildlife program, initiated what
has become known as the Emu Gully re-vegetation project. In partnership with a
private landowner near Pillar Valley, the previously cleared, mown gully has
now been landscaped and planted by volunteers, creating a corridor containing
specific feed species for our embattled Coastal Emus as well as other wildlife.
Nine months later shrubs and young
trees, helped by recent rains, are well over head height, and significantly the landowners have recently
reported seeing an emu with 5 chicks. Amid speculation that Emu numbers have
fallen to well below the previous estimate of 100 birds, this is great news
indeed.
However the CEC is not getting too
excited about the chicks at this stage. As Emus lay upwards of 15 eggs there
should be an expectation of at least 10 chicks surviving, but wild dogs, cats,
foxes and feral pigs are having a negative impact on their survival, and
ultimately on the survival of the Coastal Emu.
A further positive note is that, with
land-use changes in the Pillar Valley in the past 30 years, Koalas might
potentially be reintroduced, or naturally disperse back to the area. In 2012
the CEC identified fresh Koala scats and scratches throughout the Sandy
Crossing travelling stock route, near Wants Lane, and botanic surveys have
since revealed considerable tracts of suitable habitat over many properties in the area.
Now, with some help by the National
Parks & Wildlife Foundation under the Private Land Conservation Grants
program, CEC's Land for Wildlife assessor, Peter Turland, has embarked on two
other local projects. One, dubbed Koala Gully, again undertaken largely by the
landowners, is focused on re-establishing a forested corridor with koalas'
preferred feed trees, particularly Forest Red Gum, Grey Gum and Tallowwoods.
The third project, probably
the most ambitious, is aimed at restoring a 2 hectare site with Subtropical
Coastal Floodplain Forest, along river flats adjoining Chaffin Creek that were
previously cleared for agriculture.
Well done Land for
Wildlife, and well done Pete.
- Patricia Edwards
This post was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on Monday 22 September, 2014.
