Haddon Rig Station, a farm producing cotton and wool in Central West New South Wales, has joined the initiative. The first farm in the Macquarie Valley region to take part in The Biodiversity Project, Haddon Rig Station is also the first participating property to focus on protecting native wetlands.
With various long-established partnerships in place to monitor environmental change and ensure that on-farm activities are enhancing biodiversity, Olivia is excited about what The Biodiversity Project will mean for the future of the farm and the wildlife it supports.
Haddon Rig, Country Road and Landcare Australia partnered together and planted 2,000 native trees on the farm’s natural marshland. It’s an area that receives a lot of migratory birds and protected species, so they wanted to reforest the area with local native species and fence it off so that it was protected from non-native species such as feral pigs, which cause damage.
Taking place on 1.1 kilometres of floodplain habitat along the Wemabung Creek, the project will support biodiversity by revegetating 24 hectares of seasonal marshland known as Wilga Wetland. Planting comprises a mix of shrubs, understory and canopy species to increase vegetation within the marshland, thereby also improving habitat for wildlife, including pollinators, smaller birds and micro bats, which feed on insects and potential pests.
“Projects like The Biodiversity Project with Country Road are integral because a lot of the time you don’t have the resources to do it by yourself. There are some years where cashflow is so tight you can’t do much, even if you want to. So, it’s great to have actors on the ground who are benefiting from what we’re doing and who are in the supply chain, who are happy to encourage and help deliver those projects as well.” – Olivia Falkiner
Words have been adapted from content by Country Road. Read more here.
