Climate Action Australia Project #24808

Rewilding the Desert: saving threatened species

by Conservation Volunteers Australia

Rewilding the Desert: saving threatened species

Project Report | Mar 18, 2019
FAUNA TRAPPING PROGRAM EXPANSION

By Ben Holmes | Project Leader

Mitchell's Short-tailed Snake

As we have reported in the past a key component of the Rewilding the Desert Program is to better understand the current state of the local ecosystem and the fauna species that reside in the region via the Rewilding the Desert Monitoring Project. To date our fauna survey program has centred around Conservation Volunteers Australia’s two predator-proof sanctuaries, the Little Desert Nature Lodge and the Malleefowl Sanctuary with 36 sites both on and adjoining these properties.

This year however, working with our local partners Parks Victoria and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (the Department) we survey 72 sites across the Little Desert Landscape (see map). The Parks Victoria project was aiming to assess the impact of invasive predators (the Red fox and feral cat) on native fauna, and; the Departments project was investigating the impact of fire on native fauna, Although, these projects had different purposes we implemented the same methodology as the Rewilding the Desert Monitoring Project. This means that the we can share our data across the various project giving, everyone more data and information to help us better understand the status of the local ecosystem and its fauna and the influence key ecological drivers, like fire and predation, have on the ecosystem.

Across the projects:

- 72 sites were trapped

- 9120 traps were checked

- 30 different species of animals were captured

- 1335 individual animals were captured, and

- Engaged over 50 volunteers!

In 2019, the Rewilding the Desert Monitoring Program will move to an annual fauna survey, instead of biannually. We will also work with Park Victoria and the Department to repeat the 2018 surveys and continue building our understanding of the Little Desert ecosystem.

As always, I would like to say thank you to our amazing supporters and donors. Without your support we cannot continue this critical project and help conserve Australia’s weird, wonderful and highly threatened native wildlife.

Ben Holmes

Volunteers last project supper

Map of Surveyed areas

Western Pygmy Possum held by Ellie

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Nov 12, 2018
New Rewilding Infrastructure Complete

By Ben Holmes | Manager Rewilding

Rewilding Project Aviary

New Rewilding Infrastructure Complete

Late last year we were received a grant from the Victorian State Government’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning to redevelop our wildlife education and captive breeding facility. We are proud to announce that this redevelopment is now complete, and we have accommodation to house a suite of locally extinct, nationally threatened species.

In this project we have:

- Constructed 180m meters of new fencing

- Created 8 new enclosures

- Developed 400m of new walking track

- Engaged 46 volunteers who contributed 1,130 hours of their time

The next step is the fun bit, finding some animals to come and live in them! We look forward to this critical milestone, and to bringing these animals back to the region for the first time in over 100 years. Along with contributing to a national network of predator proof facilities and help prevent these species from becoming extinct.

To accompany the new experience, we also developed a number of high-quality wildlife education and interpretive experiences to help improve the knowledge and awareness of biodiversity and wildlife conservation issues. By highlighting the plight of these locally extinct native species and housing them in our safe havens at the Little Desert Nature Lodge, we will create a rare and unique chance for the community and visitors to see, experience and connect with, our cryptic threatened species and thereby increase knowledge and awareness of these species and their conservation issues.

Now with this significant milestone completed, we will turn our attention to developing our research and rewilding reintroduction program. However, before reintroductions begin we still need to make some critical upgrades to our external predator proof fences. To make this happen we need your support to buy rolls of wire, netting, fence pins, posts and screws! So please continue to give generously!

To our amazing supporters and donors, we would again like to say thank you! Without your support we cannot continue this critical project and help conserve Australia’s weird, wonderful and highly threatened native wildlife.

Ben Holmes, Manager Rewilding

Rewilding Project Internal Fence

Rewilding Project Volunteers Assisting

Rewilding Project Internal Fence and Gate

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Aug 16, 2018
Creating More Habitat for Rewilding

By Ben Holmes | Program Manager

One objective of the Rewilding the Desert program is to create more habitat for our local native wildlife. At our wonderful Salvana Conservation Reserve we are working hard to restore and rehabilitate approximately 400 ha of this property that was historically cleared or modified for agricultural use.

The aim of these revegetation projects is to improve the conservation value of the reserve and the region, and to provide biodiversity and climate change resilience for threatened species like the South-eastern Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo (RTBC) (Calyptorhynchus banksii graptogyne) and the Malleefowl (Leipoa ocellata). The RTBC has a highly specialised diet, feeding exclusively on seeds of Desert and Brown Stringybark’s (Eucalyptus baxteri and E. arenacea), and the Buloke (Allocasuarina leuhmannii). The National Recovery Plan lists a shortage of food as a key threat to the RTBC’s.

In these projects our revegetation works will:

help link the West and Central blocks of the Little Desert National Park to create a 132,000 ha biodiversity corridor by reconnecting fragmented patches of remnant vegetation, benefiting local biodiversity and threatened species alike,
plant Desert Stringybarks for the RTBC’s to feed on in the future; and
help protect the large old Desert Stringybark tree. These large old trees produce prolific amounts of seed and are therefore a critical feeding resource for the birds locally.

At the reserve we have four major revegetation projects currently underway totalling 171 hectares or 422 acres (see map) to help achieve these objectives. This year we:

Targeted 84 ha (208 acres) across three project areas for revegetation. These sites were prepared for planting by slashing and spraying rows between 4m and 10m apart.
Direct seeded 67 ha (165 acres) with a mix of native species. This involved towing a specialised machine down the pre-prepared rows that creates a furrow and sows the seed within the furrow.
Planted 9,408 trees and shrubs across the sites with the help of our participants contributing 556 hours of volunteering

Volunteers tree planting at Salvana

Salvana revegetation overview map

RTBC flock flies overhead during planting

Links:

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