For those people who are fortunate enough to own a property containing precious box-ironbark habitat, there are a number of key steps that can be taken to help conserve the vegetation and the wildlife that use it. The retention, restoration and re-creation of box-ironbark habitat will play a central role in the future of this fragmented and depleted ecosystem, and the wildlife that depend on it. The most important actions are listed below:
• Protect remnant vegetation by installing fencing to control domestic stock.
• Encourage the natural regeneration of trees, understorey shrubs, native grasses, herbs
and forbs.
• Preserve and enhance native vegetation along creeks and gullies, by fencing and
re-plan ting.
• Re-plant 'missing' vegetation layers, e.g. understorey at sites that only contain trees,
using species that are locally indigenous and of local provenance.
• Increase habitat area by planting or direct-seeding at cleared sites, using species that
are locally indigenous and of local provenance.
• Link existing patches of vegetation by planting 'corridors' or 'stepping-stones'.
• Retain areas of fallen timber.
• Preserve large living and dead trees, especially those that contain hollows and crevices.
• Revegetate dam banks with understorey, especially shrubs with prickly foliage.
• Enhance dams for wildlife by planting edges with aquatic and semi-aquatic plants
such as sedges, rushes and grasses.
• Control feral predators (and domestic cats and dogs).
• Control weeds and invasive plants.
• Install nest-boxes of a variety of different designs for use by a variety of different
species, in areas where there are few large trees and a lack of natural hollows (but
monitor usage of boxes to avoid harbouring pests such as starlings or feral bees).
• Avoid, as much as possible, disturbance to areas of surface rocks, logs and leaf-litter.
• Limit the use of barbed wire on the top strands offences in woodland areas.
• Take care with fire hazard reduction by limiting burning to paddock boundaries.
• Establish a species list of plants and animals on your property, and report animal
sightings, especially of threatened or significant species, to the Atlas of Victorian
Wildlife or the Atlas of Australian Birds.
The above list of key steps that can be taken to conserve habitats for wildlife has been reproduced from the book, Wildlife of the Box-Ironbark Country, with the kind permission of the author Chris Tzaros and CSIRO publishing.
The agencies shown can assist landholders with advice on maintaining sustainable practices while also helping to conserve biodiversity on their properties. See also the links below.
North Central Catchment Management Authority
Wildlife of the Box-Ironbark Country
The Bush Broker Programme
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Trust For Nature
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Australian Bush Heritage
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North Central Catchment Management Authority
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