BIODIVERSITY FUND ROUND ONE
TAS
Applicant Name
Project Title
Project Description
Department of
Primary Industries
Parks Water and
Environment
Tyenna River
Crown land
reserve
rehabilitation and
revegetation
project
Completing the
riparian
biodiversity
corridor in the
Leven River,
Gunns Plains
Reinstatement of naturally occurring plant species to enhance habitat for endangered
species and rehabilitate degraded pasture land and river banks; remove Weeds of
National Significance; to better develop an understanding of cooperation between
volunteers, visitors and PWS through field days. This 3ha site is on the southern bank of
the Tyenna River, adjacent to the Mt Field National Park.
GREENING
AUSTRALIA (TAS)
LTD
GREENING
AUSTRALIA (TAS)
LTD
Protecting
biodiversity and
carbon storage in
the Tasmanian
midlands hotspot
The project will restore a 7 km section of the Leven River, Gunns Plains. The Leven River is
the last remaining large, unprotected, unregulated river in Tasmania. Gunns Plains is the
only high intensity agricultural area in the catchment; contains non-native vegetation and
is surrounded by high value conservation habitat under the National Reserve System.
Rehabilitating Gunns Plains is critical to:
- Re-connecting well functioning native ecosystems.
- Restoring native waterway habitat on already cleared land that is occupied by nonnative vegetation.
- Reducing and preventing the spread of invasive species.
This will be achieved by removing the non-native vegetation (incl. willow and blackberry)
and replacing with local native species.
A partnership of the Tasmanian Land Conservancy, Bush Heritage Aust, Greening Aust,
NRM North, TFGA, DPIPWE and UTAS, guided by the Conservation Action Plan for the
Midlands Biodiversity Hotspot, to protect, enhance, buffer and connect native vegetation
remnants for landscape-scale connectivity. We will:
• Establish biodiverse plantings to buffer and connect remnants to reach critical patch size
for woodland bird and vulnerable marsupial habitat
• Conduct patch-scale restoration in degraded remnants to enhance habitat quality
• Manage threats to biodiversity
• Establish management agreements with landholders
• Monitor the effect of these actions
• Build and demonstrate a business model for farmers
• Generate 16,250 tCO2e over 25 yrs
Funding Length
(years)
1
Funding Total ($)
9,000
3
244,000
5
2,242,000
GUNNS LIMITED
Jillian Weston
Enhance
biodiversity,
carbon storage
and social
outcomes in
plantation forestry
In partnership with local community stakeholders, Gunns Limited has commissioned a
native vegetation management plan for an area of freehold land totalling 2,100 hectares
in the catchment of the George River, North East Tasmania. Key issues identified through
this process were a loss of native vegetation and fragmentation of habitat, discontinuous
and inadequate stream side reserves, weed invasion and loss of potential threatened
species habitat.
Protecting,
enhancing and
restoring riparian
habitat
Implementation of this project seeks to address these issues and enhance broad
environmental and social outcomes, including biodiversity, showcasing an example of
industrial plantation management in harmony with community and natural values.
Ongoing control of invasive introduced species, willow, blackberry, ragwort and hemlock
and continued revegetation with mixed endemic species to improve connections between
native remnant vegetation across public and private land in the fragmented rural
landscape of Tasmania.
John Gerard
Thompson
Revegetation of
threatened
eucalyptus
viminalis wet
forest, Gunns
Plains
King Island Natural
Resource
Management
Group Inc.
Securing carbon
and building
resilience to
climate change on
King Island
This requires securing the riparian zone from livestock with a permanent electrified fence
to create a wildlife corridor from remnant native forest on my land to the Lilydale Falls
Reserve adjacent. To facilitate continued control of invasive species, the purchase of a
designated spray unit would enable the landowner to carry out maintenance of this
wildlife corridor using non-residual, eco friendly chemicals recently developed for riparian
use.
The project aims to preserve and enhance the conservation value of threatened
eucalyptus viminalis wet forest on an 18 hectare property. 4 hectares of degraded, weedinfested pasture between remnant stands of forest will be planted with natives grown
from locally-sourced seed and cuttings. 1.3 hectares of existing forest on the margins with
under storey weed infestation will also be restored. Innovative methods for accelerated
revegetation and weed eradication will be developed. Infilling the gaps in the forest will
expand the wildlife corridor that runs along the southern escarpment of the Gunns Plains
valley. Invasive weed eradication on the property will prevent the spread of these weeds
onto adjoining properties.
This project aims to increase carbon storage through assisting landholders to improve
biodiversity on King Island (KI) through: Enhancing and establishing native ecosystems and
wetlands adjacent to a Ramsar site; Restoring waterway habitat; Improving connectivity;
and Managing threats to native vegetation.
This will be achieved through fencing, revegetation and weed management. The sites
have been chosen for their capacity for long-term carbon storage; potential to extend
work, thus increasing connectivity and resilience to climate change; and value for money.
Knowledge about carbon storage and value of biodiverse habitats, and capacity of
landholders in protecting and enhancing native vegetation will be increased.
2
6
409,000
1
12,000
6
38,000
3
171,900
Northern
Tasmanian Natural
Resource
Management
Association Inc.
Engaging with
rural lifestyle
landholders to
increase
biodiversity
Northern
Tasmanian Natural
Resource
Management
Association Inc.
Biodiversity
connectivity in an
irrigation
landscape
Philip Collier
Improving
management of
threatened plant
species by means
of disturbance
SOUTHERN
MIDLANDS
COUNCIL
Linking
revegetation,
remnant
restoration and
ecosystem
management
priorities
Small, non commercial lifestyle land holdings (<100ha) are proliferating throughout the
Northern NRM region. The change from larger agricultural properties comes with it,
landholders with varying land management experience. This has led to a fragmented
landscape with increased invasive species threats. This project will deliver a modified
property management planning program to clusters of landholders who will identify their
goals and aspirations, an assessment of the natural values of their property, developing
an action plan that identifies NRM opportunities and undertaking revegetation and
rehabilitation of vegetation on a catchment scale to maximise connectivity.
While Tasmania has large areas of native vegetation, it has extensive agricultural land
from the Northern Midlands to the Dorset municipalities. Expansion of dam infrastructure
and increasing agricultural intensification under centre-pivot irrigation further threaten
remnant native vegetation in a landscape with minimal connectivity for many native
animals. This project will identify suitable corridors to link large forests bordering the
target areas, and work with farmers to re-vegetate suitable patches, such as pivot corners
and riparian areas, to serve as future stepping stones facilitating biodiversity connectivity
at a subcatchment/local landscape scale across cleared and intensively managed
agricultural landscapes.
Disturbance, mainly by burning, is essential to manage populations of many of the 11
threatened plant species on our property. Such disturbance also creates opportunities for
pasture species to establish quickly as weeds, some of which may (1) crowd out
threatened species and/or (2) increase the fertility of our impoverished soil, further
favouring weedy species. This project will (1) add to knowledge about how better to
manage our threatened species through disturbance; (2) add to knowledge about how to
minimise threats from pasture plants that are not widely studied as weeds because they
are welcome in many rural situations; and thereby (3) significantly improve "business as
usual" management activities.
This project, in Tasmania’s Midlands and Derwent Valley lowland grazing districts, will
deliver 100 ha of cost-effective, biodiverse plantings where maximum ecological benefit
will be achieved. Using the CfOC-funded Regional Ecosystem Model (REM) proven
framework, chosen revegetation sites will lead to restoration of landscape function and
reinstatement of connectivity.
Innovative design of revegetation sites will result in perennial native grassland
interspersed with copses of native trees and shrubs, recreating the predominant
woodland structure of the original vegetation. Local farmers will provide native seed for
the project and future revegetation projects.
Connected native bushland remnants will also be protected under the project.
3
3
411,000
3
481,000
6
99,000
3
766,400
Southern Regional
Natural Resource
Management
Association
Connecting and
restoring
threatened
vegetation
communities and
habitat
TASMANIAN
LANDCARE
ASSOCIATION INC
Funding onground action for
biodiversity and
carbon capture in
Tasmania
THE
UNDERSTOREY
NETWORK INC
Using local
provenance native
plants to
revegetate sites
across Tasmania
This pilot project aims to restore, buffer and connect threatened vegetation communities
on 15 farms on North Bruny Island. This fragmented rural landscape is located in an
important coastal catchment - part of a biodiversity linkage with high conservation values
(Mountain to Marine) prioritised for connectivity in 2009.
Landholders, whose properties represent over 75% of the landscape, will undertake
biodiverse revegetation and restoration to connect targeted remnants with NRM South,
Understorey Network (USN), Conservation Volunteers Australia (CVA) and Kingborough
Council. This partnership will engage the wider community with a vision to deliver large
scale conservation, connectivity and carbon sequestration across the Island.
Landcare Tasmania will deliver a state-wide devolved grants program to landowners &
care groups for projects that store & protect biodiverse carbon in critical conservation
landscapes. In partnership with the State Govt’s Private Land Conservation Program
(PLCP), Landcare Tasmania will use spatial data & expert knowledge to identify & fund
projects with conservation landholders including 660 conservation covenant owners &
811 Land for Wildlife property owners. With the support of 200 community care groups,
we will deliver projects that directly align with Biodiversity Fund objectives & significantly
enhance carbon & biodiversity in high conservation value areas. Significant in-kind
investment will be levered from landholder partners.
The native vegetation of Tasmania has been significantly modified and reduced, resulting
in threatened species and ecological communities, degraded condition and fragmented
landscapes. The Understorey Network coordinates a volunteer growers’ scheme, whereby
members grow native plants from locally collected seed, to be used in revegetation
projects around the state. 70 project sites, averaging 0.4 hectares, will be matched with
volunteers, who will propagate and grow approximately 30,000 plants. The revegetation
sites will improve the condition of native vegetation and connectivity within the
landscape.
4
3
500,000
4
1,736,800
3
42,000