The Footprint 2011 Summer Edition - Eyre Peninsula Natural ...

Caring for our natural resources
Work on woodlands starts on central EP
By Louise Mortimer
Two significant revegetation projects
are underway on Central Eyre
Peninsula as part of a focus on works
that preserve and enhance diversity
in four key assets in the WildEyre
region.
Those assets are sheoak grassy
woodlands, sub-coastal wetlands,
coastal cliffs and rocky shores, and
sandy shores and dune systems.
Individuals from a variety of organisations
have been developing a Conservation
Action Plan (CAP) for a 1.2 million ha
area on West Coast of Eyre Peninsula.
The project has become known as
WildEyre.
The partner organizations include
Eyre Peninsula Natural Resources
Management Board, the Department
for Environment and Natural
Resouces, Greening Australia (SA),
The Wilderness Society (SA) and the
Nature Conservation Society of South
Australia.
Protecting our native animals
As well as helping to reduce
predation of lambs, fox control
assists to protect our vulnerable
native animals, such as this redcapped
plover (right).
EPNRM officer Fred Pickett
photographed the bird between Louth
Bay and Peake Point while undertaking
routine boxthorn and rabbit control.
Other ground nesting shorebirds which
are preyed upon by foxes include the
hooded plover, pied oyster catcher,
sooty oyster catcher, eastern curlew
and masked lapwing.
Inland birds which are also vulnerable
to foxes include mallee fowl, Australian
bustard and the southern stone curlew.
Native rodents, such as Mitchell’s
hopping-mouse, and numerous small
These members are interested in landscape conservation
on E P.
These works are part of the High Priority WildEyre
Conservation Strategies and are being undertaken on
Dakalanta, a property owned by the Australian Wildlife
Conservancy and on Lake Newland Conservation Park.
The sites chosen were the first stage in multi-stage site
restoration plans compiled for these properties in 2009 by
Greening Australia scientists.
The Lake Newland project aims to create a buffer zone
of vegetation to help reduce any effects surrounding land
use may have had on the biodiversity of the system as a
whole.
At Dakalanta, the revegetation project is aimed at restoring
a pastoral lease by improving the quality of vegetation
and filling gaps in the landscape that have historically
been cleared for grazing.
Both projects are focused on revegetation using sheoak
grassy woodland species and were undertaken using
direct seeding.
For more information, contact Louise Mortimer on (08)
8626 1108.
lizards, such as skinks, dragons and geckoes are also
susceptible to predation by foxes.
Contact your local EPNRM officer for information on fox control.
(see back page for details).
EPNRM footprint summer edition 2011 17