Saltmarsh Threat Abatement and Recovery project

Lying along Eyre Peninsula’s 3,292km coastline are areas of Temperate Coastal Saltmarsh under increasing threat of degradation. These saltmarshes are listed as a nationally Threatened Ecological Community. They are a vital part of the Eyre Peninsula’s ecology - protecting our shorelines, acting as blue-carbon sinks and providing important fish nurseries and bird habitat. Find out more in our two-page fact sheet.

Up to June 2023, we supported the four-year Saltmarsh Threat Abatement and Recovery (STAR) project through funding from the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program, to focus on land care actions to help protect and improve these threatened saltmarsh communities along with the threatened Hooded Plover. We undertook activities such as bird monitoring, revegetation, weed management, improving hydrological flows and removing marine debris. See our news pages and watch our video (below) to find out more about what actions we've undertaken during this project.

Monitoring the Hooded Plover

During the STAR project, we focused on actions that would help Hooded Plovers. Hooded Plovers are one of Australia’s top 20 threatened fauna species. These birds live on our beautiful beaches but are at risk from a range of threats. Find out more about how beach-goers can help protect Hooded Plovers.

We worked with BirdLife Australia volunteers to monitor key nesting territories along our coast. Hooded Plovers nest on our beaches between August and April, laying their eggs in a shallow scrape on the upper beach above the high tide mark. This leaves them susceptible to a variety of disturbances, including off-leash dogs, vehicles driving on the beach, introduced predators, such as cats and foxes and native predators such as gulls and ravens.

Through our monitoring, we were able to prioritise targeted intervention work to help improve Hooded Plover survival along our coast. We are thrilled that targeted interventions at 25 priority Hooded Plover nesting territories on Eyre Peninsula – from Ceduna to Cowell – has resulted in increased success for the survival of these threatened birds. Find out more.

We also undertook winter inland surveys to find out more about their behaviour during non-breeding season.