The Coal River Valley Project aims to increase both biodiversity and production on a number of planting sites within the Coal River Valley Landscape.
The Coal River Valley South East Tasmania Project was designed to facilitate sustainable management of natural and production systems across the landscape of south-east Tasmania. By generating long-term benefits for agricultural production and biodiversity assets with increasing education and awareness, we aimed to address future challenges presented by climate change.
As part of this project, Landcare Tasmania and planted over 8000 plants across 18 project sites and 11 grant recipients.
There were 10 events held to support the delivery of landscape restoration projects. These covered best practices ecological restoration, integrated pest management, dung beetles release, native seed propagation and feral cat management, to provided local businesses and landholders with the tools, knowledge and networks needed to implement sustainable management practices and make their land more productive.
This project aimed to include the wider community and reflect community interest in the Coal River Valley. We engaged with stakeholders from the agricultural sector including the viticulture, horticultural, livestock and cropping industries.
Coal River Valley Field day at Ripple Farm © Huon Douglas
Key Themes
The project is organised around 6 activity themes:
- Planting and Remnant Protection: Landholders revegetate with threes, shrubs and grasses in over 3 km of shelterbelts and over 1.3 ha of riparian and other areas. Fencing is established in order to protect the plantings from grazing and browsing.
- Feral Cat Management: A specialist has set cat traps on multiple properties and conducted workshops training landowners in setting up traps and the humane handling of trapped animals. This has enable them to continue trapping on their properties into the future. The locations for these activities are areas with high production values impacted by the effects of feral cat related issues such as toxoplasmosis.
- Seed collection: Landholders and local community groups, with the support of Landcare Tasmania, have collected seed from native species in the area. These seeds will then be stored to build up a seedbank for local provenance plants, from which nurseries can draw for future revegetation works in the area.
- Integrated Pest Management (IPM): IPM has been highlighted by local groups in the past and is now being implemented through some of our shelterbelt installations. Technical specialists are supporting the design of plantings on several sites including three vineyards and intensive cropping areas to host beneficial insects.
- Dung Beetle Release: A specialist will breed a species of dung beetle that is new to Tasmania, and release them on three sites. These areas will be monitored throughout the project. Three training sessions will be held for interested community groups and landholders, to enable them to implement management practices that support dung beetle populations and also establish their own breeding colonies to reduce runoff of nutrients to waterways, reduce issues of flystrike associated with surface dung, and improve soil structure and condition.
- Training and Best Practice: On four field days, we will invite farmers and landholders to visit some of the sites where activities have been carried out. Specialists will explain each activity, answer questions and hand out information and contact details. It is intended that the training sessions will provide the basis for uptake by attendees of the management practices demonstrated by the project. We will also explore under vine mulching and water efficiency in vineyards as part of these
This project is part of our Landscape Restoration Program, which aims to bring together several members working on common issues, to gain a greater long-term benefit at a landscape scale. Funded by the Tasmanian State Government's Landcare Action Grants.
