Funding worth $699,951 for the conservation of New England's woodlands, and the local Dynamic Lagoons, was announced by member for Northern Tablelands and Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall on Wednesday morning.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
He said the projects would be undertaken by teams led by ecosystem rehabilitation lecturers Dr Tim Paine and Dr Debbie Bower, who had successfully applied for the funds last year.
Because Australian plants and animals are adapted to wet and dry cycles, they need those wet and dry cycles to survive.
- Dr Debbie Bower
"I congratulate them on their success and it's great to see the State Government once again partnering with the UNE to further research our region," he said.
"The revegetation program will focus on managing the viability and genetic integrity of threatened woodlands and forests in New England.
"A key part of the Dynamic Lagoons project will be establishing an evidence-based public engagement and education program to raise awareness of the importance of the wetlands."
ALSO READ:
Dr Bower said she group had received $350,000 to look at Dynamic Lagoons, many of which were on private property and could not be looked after without the participation of local landowners and the whole community.
"The lagoons are all around our local area. Dangars Lagoon, Mother of Ducks, Racecourse Lagoon, Little Llangothlin and Llangothlin are some of the public ones where you can go along and see some water birds," she said.
"They are also ephemeral wetlands, so they are wet and then they dry and it's very important that we look after them when they are dry.
"Because Australian plants and animals are adapted to wet and dry cycles, they need those wet and dry cycles to survive. To lay their eggs and for their eggs to hatch and get dispersal. These lagoons are really important for the functions and services that biodiversity can provide."
UNE would be working with Local Land Services to educate people about the lagoons, and best restoration practice research would be undertaken.
... once they are a metre tall you can send the cows back in.
- Dr Timothy Paine
Dr Timothy Paine's group received the other half of the funding to restore and conserve two Northern Tablelands ecological communities.
"They are some of the remnant woodlands that used to be much more prevalent up here," he said.
"The idea is that, we know how to plant trees. We can rip paddocks, do weed control and tube plant - but it is expensive. So, our objective is to find more cost effective ways to do that. To make it easier for farmers, graziers and local landholders to revegetate their land.
"Our objective is to get trees to, say, one metre tall. Because once they are a metre tall you can send the cows back in. You can graze again and at that point the trees can fend for themselves.
Dr Paine said they were not trying to grow trees, just saplings. Another important step of the project would be to establish a genetically screened seed orchard from the two threatened ecological communities.
