Private land care crucial for Tweed conservation

TWEED Shire Council is encouraging landowners to engage with its integrated Private Land Conservation Program (PLCP).

A misunderstood and largely unknown land care fact is that 86 per cent of the Tweed shire is on private land and outside the Council’s management scope. Maintaining the habitat on most of the shire’s land in private hands is essential for successful conservation at scale.

The PLCP is a critical element of the Council’s climate change response and future policies and is expected to play an increasingly important role in future biodiversity conservation.

Several sub-programs support landholders in working with the Council on biodiversity maintenance on their properties.

The Biodiversity and River Health Grant Program provides incentives to help conserve terrestrial biodiversity, bushland weed control and maintain waterway health and potable water quality.

The Land for Wildlife Scheme is a voluntary property registration initiative to assist landholders in managing wildlife habitats.

Backyard Habitat for Wildlife supports suburban landholders in managing native habitats in their gardens and small holdings. This includes funding under the Koala Plan of Management, which provides resources to restore or create koala habitat.

Since 2006, the PLCP has awarded 885 restoration grants, restored 750 hectares of habitat, planted over 170,000 trees and rehabilitated 132 km of riverbank.

The 230 landholder members of the Land for Wildlife Scheme have contributed to improved management across 14,180 hectares of land, equating to 21 per cent of the shire’s bushland.

For the time-poor, joining the program is easy to integrate into a busy lifestyle. Joining is free and requires no meetings. Participants receive fact sheets and information, a letterbox or property gate sign, invitations to free workshops and opportunities to network with like-minded community members concerned about the native flora and fauna of the Tweed.

The Backyard Habitat for Wildlife program is largely paper-free to minimise waste, and the website will be the hub of forums, photo sharing and other information. Hard copy registration forms are also available from the Murwillumbah and Tweed Heads Civic Centres.

For more information, contact TSC’s Private Land Conservation Officer, Michael Corke, on (02) 6670 2952 or at [email protected]