Changing project focus during times of drought, fires and COVID-19
The Riverina Highlands Landcare Network planted 3,325 tubestock helping to restore 4.5ha of Grassy White Box Woodlands.
In 2019, the Riverina Highlands Landcare Network (RHLN) received a Jaramas Landcare Grant for a project to construct native tree corridors to provide future shade and shelter for livestock and habitat for native species. However, the impact of drought, bushfire damage and COVID-19, meant that the project focus needed to shift to best support the landholders, predominantly graziers, heavily impacted by these multiple difficulties.
Instead, following consultation with Landcare Australia, a majority of the grant funds were used to plant 3,325 tubestock plantings on Landcare Australia funded sites and 65 paddock trees to replace plantings and paddock lost in the drought and bushfire. To achieve maximum results, the RHLN worked with 15 local landholders.
The re-focused project resulted in restoring 4.5ha of Grassy White Box Woodlands (an endangered EEC), providing habitat for various woodland birds, including Superb Parrot, Brown Tree Creeper and the Diamond Firetail and increasing connectivity for native fauna such as woodland bird species and small marsupials such as gliders and possums.
The Riverina Highlands Landcare Network has now also received a 2020 Jaramas Landcare Grant for a project to further help Tumut landholders restore paddock trees to burnt grazing areas.
The Harden-Murrumburrah Landcare Group in NSW also received a 2020 Jaramas Foundation Landcare Grant for a project to build on their 2019 grant project to use soil moisture data in landholder management decisions. This year, are installing two more probes to complete their moisture probe network and implementing new software on their website to automatically provide data, interpretation, forecast to landholders.
