A consortium of 5 Landcare groups (Lachlandcare, Mid Lachlan Landcare, Hovells Creek Landcare, Boorowa Community Landcare and Upper Lachlan Landcare) partnering with Cowra Woodland Birds, Greening Australia and NPWS have been working to protect the iconic and endangered Superb Parrot. The SOSP group received $400k from the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) through the NSW Government’s Saving Our Species (SoS) program. Over the last 3 years the groups have been delivering on-ground protection and restoration of important habitat for the threatened Superb Parrot, and will continue to do so into 2021.
The project was launched with a workshop in August 2018 and a field day was held as a follow-up in October. Landholders heard what is being done to save the species and learnt how to count individual parrots on their land and how to protect living and large, dead, hollow-bearing eucalypt trees that provide nest sites for superb parrots.
The SOSP group provided funding to support farmers to plant new paddock trees and shrubs and restore woodlands to increase future habitat and landscape connectivity for superb parrots from small patches through to whole of paddock revegetation actions. HCLG members planted twelve paddock trees on each of two properties where Superb Parrots have been seen and a third landholder is in the process putting in 1800m of fencing around a gully to protect known Superb Parrot habitat. The landholders have been working closely with Damon Oliver from the Department of Planning, Industry and the Environment to monitor and report on the number of birds on their property since the beginning of the project.
The SOSP also provided funding for roadside signage to educate the public about the parrot.
This community-based project adds to the work already being done by farmers and Landcare groups who have planted hundreds of thousands of trees and shrubs in paddocks, along fence lines and creeks and rivers and will help a range of other threatened woodland birds.
Links to media articles:
https://landcarensw.org.au/birds-of-a-feather/
