Farmers in the Northern Agricultural Region (NAR) have put in a huge effort to protect native vegetation areas on their farms, including protecting habitat where the endangered Carnaby’s Cockatoo is found.
As a result, some 847hectares of priority bushland have been protected on private land. Almost $400,000 was distributed to 12 farmers, who erected 84km of fencing during the project.
Almost 70 per cent of the 7.5 million hectares of the region are privately owned and only a tiny percentage of this area is still natural bushland.
According to Jennifer Bairstow, who managed the Priority Woodlands Program, it is vital that such remnant bushland is protected and rehabilitated if WA’s native animals and plants are to survive.
The Priority Woodlands program, which has just come to an end, was a Northern Agricultural Catchments Council (NACC) initiative in which farmers were provided with cash incentives and technical assistance to fence and manage valuable areas of native bushland.
NACC, which is funded through the Australian Government’s Caring for our Country program, works with farmers to protect natural assets on privately owned land.
Ms Bairstow explained that farmers received a summary of the type of plants growing on their farm and a contribution towards the cost of fencing material, as well as technical advice on how to manage the remnant into the future. It was then up to the farmer to erect the fence.
Farmers across the region including Chapman Valley, Dandaragan, Three Springs, Walebing, Gillingarra, Badgingarra and New Norcia participated in the program.
“We were able to use existing maps to identify the locations of the remnant vegetation and then went directly the farmers to see if they’d like to be part of the program,” she said. “We were overwhelmed by the response which shows that people really do understand the importance of protecting our biodiversity.”
Ms Bairstow said that it was an incredible effort to get this amount of land protected, given that the project had a very short time frame which meant that fences had to be erected during the heat of summer.
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PICTURES: There are several high quality pictures available to accompany this article.
For further information contact Jackie Gill at NACC on 08 9964 9774
NACC is supported by the Australian Government though Caring for Our Country and by the State Government.