Building Biodiversity on Croppers and Boggy Creeks

Funding Source: Victorian Government – Biodiversity Onground Action Grant

Timeline: July 2018 – October 2021

Funding received: $47 920 (exc. GST)


Project description

Our project aims to protect remnant paddock trees and enhance and expand habitat for native fauna along Croppers Creek in North East Victoria. We will establish a habitat corridor and restore understorey vegetation through four properties along 2.5km of waterway to link up with similar sites over 3.2km long established in 2008-2010.

Outcomes

The objective of our project was to protect remnant vegetation from the Plains Grassy Woodland vegetation community and improve the condition of riparian habitat for threatened woodland bird species along the Croppers Creek and Boggy Creek. Both waterways are tributaries of the Ovens catchment in North East Victoria.

This project has allowed engagement with landholders on six properties along these two creeks, covering a total site area of 12ha. Works at the sites included 5.1km of fencing to protect large old paddock trees in the riparian zone and revegetation using direct seeding (3.5km of seeded area) and hand planting of over 4000 tubestock to establish an indigenous shrub layer back into the landscape.

As part of the project, funding was also received to plant 100 new paddock trees in our catchment. Members quickly took advantage of the chance to plant more paddock trees, with all of these large wire guards and trees being allocated to members and planted in just over five weeks!

The environmental values of the two creek systems has been improved through:
– Direct protection of large remnant paddock trees by fencing to exclude stock from the riparian zones. Stock exclusion will reduce direct impacts on tree health (grazing, rubbing, compaction, defacation at the tree base) and will directly improve water quality through a reduction in erosion, sedimentation of the waterway and reduction in nutrients entering the creeks.
– Fencing is used to exclude stock from these sensitive areas to allow us to re-establish the native vegetation that has been lost along the creek. This included a diverse list of medium and large shrubs, to provide for pollen and nectar for the woodland birds in our landscape. Aquatic vegetation was quick to respond in both cover and diversity once stock were excluded from the waterways.
– Weed control of both woody and non-woody weeds in the riparian zone. This included control of large patches of Blackberry and spot spraying of invasive pasture species that would inhibit the success of our revegetation efforts. This included spot spraying where hand planting and spraying of strips to enable direct seeding to be completed.

The project was a fantastic collaborative effort between Landcare and the Victorian Landmate Program, who were able to provide labour assistance in the planting of over 2000 shrubs across the two largest sites in the program. Land managers, Landcare staff and the Landmate crews worked side by side to layout and plant the sites together during winter 2019. Unfortunately we were unable to use their services during 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid restrictions. However we are very thankful for the support from this wonderful service and have developed a great working relationship moving forward for future projects.

The gallery below provides a selection of images from the project. Please click on the photos below to read the captions.

Please get in touch if you would like further information about this project by calling Sally Day on 0437 136 162 or emailing sally.day@gretalandcare.org.au.

 

This grant is funded by the State Government of Victoria, through the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) Biodiversity Onground Action Grant program.