Habitat for Nature Conservation

Plants and animals need food, water, shelter, oxygen, light and other resources to survive and reproduce.

These resources provide the basic elements of habitats. They sustain and help protect life from 'bad' weather, predators, disease and other threats.

To conserve our native plants and animals, it is essential we:

• protect and manage enough habitat to allow native plant and animal populations to live and grow.
• Programs to achieve this include purchasing and managing nature reserves, and advising landholders who want to protect remnants of native bushland.
• increase the amount of 'life resources' in habitats where there are not enough to allow populations to live and grow. To achieve this, the department carries out a wide range of work including revegetation to expand and protect resources for plants and animals, such as planting 'corridors' to connect isolated areas of bushland.

Revegetation

Revegetation is an important tool for nature conservation, including:

• buffering remnants of native bushland against wind-blown farm fertiliser, herbicides and weed seeds;
• creating completely new habitat. For example, where woodland habitat for birds is short, we can increase the area of woodland by planting more trees, preferably with an understorey of shrubs
• connecting patches of bushland so that a particular target animal can move more easily between the two areas, increasing access to resources and mates.

In agricultural areas, revegetation can also be used to protect and create other land uses. For example, farmers may use revegetation to:

• stop a salt scald spreading
• help control wind or water erosion
• create protected areas for domestic stock.

The innovative use of local native plants helps conserve existing biodiversity values but can also create production opportunities that would otherwise be overlooked.

Tools and tips for revegetation

• Introduction to site preparation 1.64 MB — techniques, choices of equipment and timing of works.
• Revegetation site preparation for machine and hand planting281.05 KB — ripping and mound ploughing, with examples and recommendations for particular soil types.
• Seedling quality648.24 KB —  physical quality of seedlings, seedling tray and cell design, planting techniques and the genetic quality of seedlings.
• Soil ripping for revegetation establishment377.78 KB — a ripper that provides twelve improvements on current ripping implements used in the wheatbelt.
• Multi-tyned ripper906.74 KB —  professional engineering drawings used for the manufacture of the multi-tyned ripper.

Case studies

• Increased woodland viability 529.78 KB
  Connecting two isolated woodlands achieved a total woodland area greater than 50 hectares. This woodland now meets the requirements for a reproductive unit of a vulnerable woodland bird species.
• Mallet Ridge (breakaway) revegetation 344.68 KB
  Using a local species, revegetation with a commercially prospective species can provide important water and nature conservation benefits.
• Alley farming with oil mallee eucalypts 245.37 KB
  Revegetation with oil mallees contributes to recharge control, as well as potential mallee products and integration of mallees with a mixed farming.
• Corridor – mixed species across the landscape 372.59 KB
  This 100 metre wide corridor creates a linkage between a shire road reserve and a 60 hectare york gum remnant, using local native species suited to soil type and landform.
• Breakaway Nature Strip266.25 KB
  Building onto an existing remnant to increase the habitat size, using local native species planted in a scattered and random pattern.
• Breakaway Revegetation 343.63 KB
• Increasing the size of the remnant vegetation above a breakaway using tube stock and direct seeding, forming a corridor linking two nature reserves.
• York Gum Jam Remnant Expansion 266.26 KB
  A 15 hectare revegetation site connects patches of york gum jam woodland and scattered granite outcrops, and incorporates sandalwood seed planting into Acacia acuminata patches.
• Buffer zone along neighbouring remnant bush 299.21 KB
  A 100 metre buffer zone protecting a 125 hectare remnant consisting of local native species, alternating tube stock with direct seeding.