On December 10, Kate Smolski, CEO of the NSW Nature Conservation Council (NCC), along with Healthy Ecosystems Program Manager, Waminda Parker, visited the Clarence Valley to look over two projects in which the NCC has been involved.
As
partners with the Clarence Environment Centre (CEC) in the Federally funded
Upper Coldstream Biodiversity Project, they were keen to observe the progress made
during the first year, including weed eradication works undertaken by
contractors across some of the 44 properties signed up for the project, and
results of vertebrate pest monitoring for control programs.
At their
first stop, a 250ha property north of Tucabia, the visitors saw the results of
weed eradication, and learned about the remarkable Eucalypt diversity on the
property which included Yellow Stringybark, the northernmost known occurrence
of the species. In all, 23 tree species from the Myrtaceae family
(including Eucalypts and Apple Gums) have been identified there.
An
internationally recognised biodiversity hotspot, the Clarence Valley LGA is
known to support more than 3,210 plant species, and so far more than a quarter
of those have been identified growing in the Pillar Valley area. In fact the
project surveys, undertaken by CEC volunteers, have added several species to
that list, including two species found on that very property. To date, those
flora surveys have identified several endangered communities, 16 threatened
species, and 89 species protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Act.
The
visitors' second stop was the “Emu Gully” project in Pillar Valley, a CEC bush
regeneration initiative under the Land for Wildlife program. Ms Smolski planted
three trees to launch the “save the endangered Coastal Emu campaign”, which is
hoped to get under way in the new year.
Wholly
undertaken by the landowner and CEC volunteers, that project was partially
funded by the NCC, specifically to assist the survival of the endangered
Coastal Emu population, the aim being to re-vegetate the cleared gully using
trees and shrubs known to be preferred Emu feed species, and create a corridor
for those birds, and other fauna, to move safely through the landscape.
- John Edwards
