Campaign raising funds for native bird

THE Ballarat Wildlife Park had a special visitor who was promoting the protection of native bird, the Tawny Frogmouth.

Colleen Fillippa, founder and director of Fifteen Trees was at the park visiting their Tawny’s and raising awareness for the Trees for Tawny Campaign.

Fifteen Trees is a social enterprise based in central Victoria and Ms Fillippa is on a mission to plant 600 trees in Victoria and Tasmania as Tawny habitat.

“Fifteen Trees is actually 15 years old this year, so we were established in 2009, and I guess I started it because I wanted to do something for the environment,” she said.

“I was a long-time teacher in the classroom teaching biology and science, also active with my local Landcare group, but I wanted to step out of the classroom and find something that was a bit more tangible.”

Each year the organisation focuses on a different animal and this year the Tawny Frogmouth was chosen.

“This year we are going to raise funds for revegetation projects for the Tawny Frogmouth,” said Ms Fillippa.

“It’s going to take time, it’s going to take probably 10 to 15 years for these trees to get up, but we have to start planting now for the future.”

Ballarat Wildlife Park bird keeper Noak McKenzie said this is an important initiative.

“One of the biggest threats to the Tawny Frogmouth is habitat loss and trees being cut down for land clearing or deforestation,” he said.

“Colleen’s initiative is really, really good to help plant more trees to give Tawnys more habitats to live in.”

Each stringybark tree will cost the organisation $10, so Ms Fillippa is looking for $6000 in total, and any extra money will go towards tree guards.

Donations close on Tuesday 23 April and so far, more than $3000 has been raised.

To make a donation to the cause visit bit.ly/4aW82lq

The Tawny Frogmouth is a native Australian bird. Photo: MIRIAM LITWIN