Biodiversity and Natural Icons 69051 South Australia Caring for Our Country Regional NHT 0809 The South Australian Arid Lands Natural Resources Management Board will a) implement in partnership with the community and industry, an ecosystem restoration program in Roxby Downs utilising onground works, applied research and re-introduction of locally extinct species; b) onground recovery actions for key threatened fauna; c) onground recovery actions for key threatened flora; d) strategic feral animal management across three South Australian Natural Resource Management Regions, utilising best management practice techniques to control large verebrate pests (eg. camels, donkeys, horses) and feral carnivores (eg. foxes, cats). $459,800.00 Biodiversity on Bulloo Lakes Queensland Caring for Our Country BP 1213 Feral pigs and cats heavily impact the Bulloo River and Bulloo Lakes High Ecological Value Aquatic Ecosystem (HEVAE) in far South West Qld. Feral pig and cat control falls largely with the individual landholders in the project area when time and resources permit. South West NRM considers this approach as vastly inadequate to seriously control feral animal populations. A coordinated control program for pest animal is urgently required for the conservation of the ecological values of these sites.The program will consist of strategic aerial shooting and baiting at Bulloo Lakes. The remainder of the HEVAE will be aerial and ground baited with 1080 and pig out baits and the invasive animal CRC hog hoppers, a pig-specific alloy bait delivery device $144,000.00 Control of feral animals to protect the nesting sites of the Buff Banded Rail on Cocos-Keeling Islands Caring for Our Country BP NHT 0809 Direction Island has been uninhabited since the Cable Station ceased it's operation around 1965. A proposal has been granted to reintroduce the endangered Buff Banded Rail to the southern atoll via Direction Island as a starting point. The project aims to eradicate feral animals such as cats, rats and chickens to support the initiative of reintroducing the endangered specie of Buff Banded Rail to the Southern Atoll from North Keeling Island; replanting of native tree species on the island; educating the community in taking ownership of the survival of the Buff Banded Rail; and assist local young people with employment and recognition for environmental protection. $14,250.00
Restoring 100,000 ha of tropical woodlands by establishing herbivore free area Northern Territory Biodiversity Fund Round 1 There is a well documented, continuing and catastrophic decline in the abundance of small mammals across northern Australia due to the interaction of altered fire regimes, feral cats and introduced large herbivores. AWC intends to reverse this decline over a 100,000 ha area of Wongalara Sanctuary by reducing the frequency and extent of late dry season fires and by removing the impacts of large introduced herbivores. This approach has successfully reversed the decline of small mammals at AWC's Mornington Sanctuary (Kimberley). As Wongalara is immediately adjacent to Arnhem Land, successful restoration of ecosystem function here will be immediately relevant to management of an additional 9.7million ha that is continuing to suffer declines. $171,600.00 Riparian Vegetation Protection on the Rocky River NSW New South Wales Caring for Our Country Community Action Grants 0910 This project will address a significant threat to the biodiversity and habitat values within the riparian area of the Rocky River, and its tributaries. This threat is the invasion of Cats Claw Creeper, which is spreading across native vegetation along the river, often choking and killing large trees and shrubs. Many of these trees that have been killed have then been washed out of the river bank during flood events leaving large areas vulnerable to erosion. The Cats Claw Creeper is reducing the availability of large habitat trees along the river and flowering food trees such as bottlebrush, reducing the habitat values in the riaprian zone. $19,863.64 Saving EPBC listed species by controlling introduced predators Western Australia Caring for Our Country BP 1213 The impact of feral cat predation has increased on the south coast of WA following years of large scale fox control. This project will continue aerial baiting trials to reduce the threat of predation by feral cats and foxes in key conservation reserves, reducing critical threats to over 300,000ha of key habitat of 18 EPBC listed fauna species including the Critically Endangered Gilbert's Potoroo and the Endangered Western Ground Parrot. Monitoring and evaluation will be based upon a MERI framework to demonstrate the efficacy of feral cat control methods and the effect that implementation of these management activities has on the recovery of EPBC listed fauna species $92,000.00