THE City of Greater Geelong is seeking public feedback on a new plan aimed at protecting the hooded plover.<\/p>\n
The draft Hooded Plover Conservation Action Plan 2018-2021 will be open for community comment for the next six weeks, via geelongaustralia.com.au\/yoursay.<\/p>\n
It outlines a series of actions designed to improve the breeding success of the highly threatened bird species, which nest on the beaches along two sections of coastline managed by the city \u2013 one at Breamlea, and the other between Ocean Grove and
\nPoint Lonsdale. The plan\u2019s overall goal is to achieve an annual success rate of at least 0.4 to 0.5 fledglings per breeding pair.<\/p>\n
It sets out to do this by:
\n\u2022 Raising awareness about hooded plovers
\n\u2022 Applying a collaborative, strategic approach towards hooded plover breeding protection
\n\u2022 Supporting BirdLife Australia staff and volunteers, and
\n\u2022 Managing threats to hooded plover breeding efforts.<\/p>\n
The plan is the first of its kind but continues the city\u2019s efforts to protect the iconic birds, dating back to 2006. This included the formation of the Hooded Plover Working Group in 2013, which brought together a range of organisations with an interest in the birds\u2019 conservation.<\/p>\n
The working group features representatives from BirdLife Australia, Friends of the Hooded Plover (Bellarine and Breamlea), Barwon Coast Committee of Management, the Borough of Queenscliffe, Parks Victoria, Barwon Water and the City.<\/p>\n
Chair of the environment and sustainability portfolio Cr Sarah Mansfield said the hooded plover was a special bird that unfortunately had very sensitive breeding grounds that were under threat from human activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is putting their long-term survival as a species at serious risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many very passionate volunteers who try to protect the areas where hooded plovers breed, but I\u2019d like to think we would do as much as we possibly can as a community to preserve them. This plan will help set a unified direction for doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE City of Greater Geelong is seeking public feedback on a new plan aimed at protecting the hooded plover. The draft Hooded Plover Conservation Action Plan 2018-2021 will be open for community comment for the next six weeks, via geelongaustralia.com.au\/yoursay. It outlines a series of actions designed to improve the breeding success of the highly […]<\/p>\n