Environmental groups impacted by the past summer’s bushfires will receive grants from Landcare Australia. Photo: Supplied.
Fire affected communities will receive the majority of Landcare Australia’s bushfire recovery grants in the current round of funding to help with rehabilitation of waterways, bushland and wildlife.
Deua Rivercare’s Deua River Post Fire Recovery project will receive $14,900 to establish sediment entering the river in southeast NSW. Using funds from Landcare Australia, environmental group Deua Rivercare will work with local contractors to erect sediment and erosion control, with priority locations to protect platypus habitat.
“We will also focus on treating weed species that have regenerated prolifically as a result of the fires,” said Deau Rivercare coordinator Alison Walsh.
Eurobodalla Landcare network’s McKenzies Beach Landcare group will receive $14,500 for the Protecting Pretty Point Post Fire project. The money will purchase propagating equipment, plants and tree guards to replace vegetation unlikely to regenerate, including feed trees which provided food and habitat for endangered species in the area. The group will also put up nesting boxes to provide habitat during the recovery period and to ensure weeds such as asparagus fern and blackberry are controlled.
Michelago & District Landcare Group will receive a grant of $1460 for a project that addresses threats to people and wildlife. The group will use the grant for supplementary planting to provide understorey habitat and prevent erosion.
Holbrook Landcare project officer Kylie Durant (left) with Juliet Cullen (right) from Mountain Landcare. Photo: Supplied.
The Snowy River Interstate Landcare Committee (SRILC) will receive $15,000 for its Healing our Landscape project. SRILC coordinator Mark Chaplin said feedback from community members in Bombala showed a strong desire to promote life, regenerate their local environment, and support natural processes after vast areas were burnt in the past summer’s bushfires.
Participants will be supported to install nest box and refuge structures for arboreal mammals – animals which spend the majority of their lives in trees – micro bats and birds in their immediate environment. They’ll also be provided with native plants for planting in conjunction with nest and refuge structures.
The Upper Murrumbidgee Demonstration Reach partnership’s project to protect streambanks and water quality from erosion in the upper Murrumbidgee River will receive a Landcare Australia grant of $14,450. In February, the Clear Range bushfire swept through the Bumbalong Valley, burning to the Murrumbidgee River and parts of the instream river corridor, where the local environmental group had established an erosion project. The fire completely burnt the wooden parts of the riverbank’s retaining wall, leaving the bank bare and unstable.
“Funds from the Landcare Australia bushfire grant will enable us to use the large fallen timber material, now onsite, to re-establish erosion works and protect the streambank that is at risk of being washed away,” said Upper Murrumbidgee Demonstration Reach partnership facilitator Anita Brademann.
“Plantings and seeding of sterile rye corn will occur to hasten stabilisation. This will help protect the bank and provide habitat for several threatened species of cod.”
Details of Landcare Australia grants are available on the organisation’s website. Applications for grants can also be made on the site.
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