Focus on restoring critically endangered ecological community
A five-year project focusing on enhancing and restoring remnants of a critically endangered ecological community in western Eyre Peninsula is now underway.
Vegetation monitoring and bird surveying are the first activities taking place at high priority sites under the new Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board’s Drooping Sheoak Grassy Woodland on Calcrete project. The project aims to enhance and restore remnants of this critically endangered ecological community and return this woodland ecosystem to other calcrete areas of the EP with historical distribution.
The project is funded by the Australian Government Natural Heritage Trust and delivered by the Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board, a member of the Commonwealth Regional Delivery Partners panel.
Drooping Sheoak (Allocasuarina verticillata) occurs on shallow, calcareous soils east and south of Ceduna with high priority remnant areas around Streaky Bay, Lake Newland, Elliston and Sheringa. Prior to European settlement, this woodland community covered vast areas of the Eyre Peninsula and was the second most dominant vegetation type after mallee. However with European settlement came clearing for cropping, domestic stock grazing and boom-bust cycles of kangaroo populations, all of which has seen the distribution of this critically endangered community reduce drastically.
This has led to the decline or localised extinction of numerous native animals on Eyre Peninsula including the Greater bilby, Brush-tailed bettong, Tammar wallaby, bandicoots and Diamond Firetail bird.
Eyre Peninsula Landscape Board’s Western District Team Leader Libby Hunt says the Drooping Sheoak Grassy Woodland community not only provides an important habitat for many species but it also helps to minimise erosion problems.
“The Sheoak Grassy Woodland community is such a valuable ecosystem for many areas around western Eyre Peninsula,” Ms Hunt says.
“Today the community continues to be under further threat from invasive species such as rabbits, ongoing grazing, wildfire and the impacts of climate change.
“With now only 3% of the Drooping Sheoak Grassy Woodland community remaining, this new project will see restoration works occur at priority sites across a 700,000 hectare area on the Eyre Peninsula.
“We will work with key land managers to manage total grazing pressure including feral herbivores such as goats and deer, undertake environmental weed control and revegetation activities.
”Throughout the project we will also engage local community such as schools, community groups and landholders with workshops and on-ground works opportunities, to increase knowledge of sheoak grassy woodlands including how to undertake conservation restoration actions.”
For further information about the project please see our sheoak project page or contact: Libby Hunt, Western District Team Leader on: 0437 701 810 or email: libby.hunt@sa.gov.au.
