T R U S T f o r N AT U R E 2 0 1 1 - 1 2
K e y conservation achie v ements The Trust supports and develops its core conservation services through a number of associated activities and approaches. The achievements of these activities and approaches are set out in this section. Conservation planning This year the Trust undertook significant conservation planning. The major strategic project was the Trust’s investment in the development of a Statewide Conservation Plan for private land in Victoria, using State Government conservation-planning approaches and datasets, to provide an overarching framework for the Trust’s future conservation programs across the state. The Trust also prepared its first bioregional conservation strategy for private land. This was undertaken in the Riverina bioregion as part of the National Reserve System’s1 Protected Areas on Private Land Program and included management guidelines for each of the major ecosystems found on private land in the Riverina. At the landscape-scale, the Trust prepared a Conservation Strategy for the Caring for our Country Buloke Woodlands protection and connectivity project in the Wimmera. And finally, at the most local scale, the Trust developed a cross-property conservation plan for one of the target areas within the Buloke Woodlands project area. Each of these finer-scale planning documents are underpinned by the Statewide Conservation Plan and statewide datasets, providing the Trust with a strong foundation for future conservation planning at all scales. The Conservation Measures Partnership’s Conservation Action Planning approach was trialled in 2011-12. Further staff training in this methodology will occur in the latter half of 2012. Ecologically significant area protection
In 2011-12, Trust for Nature registered 73 covenants (excluding eight offset covenants) that contribute to an increase in the National Reserve System by more than 3,200ha. Altogether, covenants were registered in 20 of Victoria’s 28 bioregions. Approximately two-thirds of this protected land was located in bioregions that are rated high-priority for protection under one or more of the National Reserve System criteria. The majority of these new covenants also contributed significantly to increased protection of under-represented ecosystems: of the 156 different ecological vegetation classes protected under covenant, 81 per cent are classified as rare or threatened and 46 per cent as endangered. For details of the Trust’s protection activities in 2011-12, see Table 10, or visit the Annual Report section of the Trust for Nature website:
Landscape connections Increasingly, the Trust is involved in projects which aim to improve biodiversity and restore connectivity at the landscape-scale. Trust for Nature continued its involvement in Habitat 141 with strategic and on ground input to deliver the project’s landscape vision - ‘to connect the oceans with the outback’ through two landscape projects, including the ongoing Caring for our Country funded Buloke Woodlands project in the Wimmera. Additionally, the Trust obtained Caring for our Country funding to implement a landscape corridor and habitat restoration project on Neds Corner Station and nearby properties. This project has the aim of improving the long-term viability of the nationally threatened Regent Parrot and associated threatened ecosystems (see ’Linking landscapes’). In north-central and north-eastern Victoria, Trust for Nature actively participated in a range of landscape connection projects with partners through its involvement with Great Eastern Ranges, Central Victorian Biolink project, Connecting Country and the newly-formed Strathbogie Ranges and Kara Kara Conservation Management Networks.
Linking landscapes In Victoria’s north-west, Trust for Nature’s Neds Corner Station provides habitat for the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cmwlth) listed Regent Parrot (Polytelis anthopeplus monarchoides). These birds rely on tree canopy cover to travel between their River Red Gum breeding sites and mallee woodland feeding sites, but over the last 100 years these habitats have been extensively cleared and fragmented. With funding support from the Australian Government’s Caring for our Country initiative, Trust for Nature is restoring tree cover and managing existing patches of mallee woodland habitat to increase and improve the vegetation links in the landscape for this highly mobile parrot. Over the past year, 15km of direct seeding has been completed, 182ha of former cropping land removed from production, and rabbit control carried out over 100km of the project area. The outcomes of different management methods are being evaluated to shape future management actions on the property.
For details of the Trust’s landscape-scale activities in 2011-12, visit the Annual Report section of the Trust for Nature website: www.trustfornature.org.au
www.trustfornature.org.au
The National Reserve System is Australia’s network of protected areas. For more information, visit: www.environment.gov.au/parks/nrs/index.html
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Annual Report 2011-12
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