Southern New England Landcare experienced a proud moment this week when an email arrived from the NSW Environmental Trust, acknowledging the great track record we have with the Trust for developing and rolling out exceptional projects in the region. We thank the NSW Environmental Trust for this acknowledgement and have published the email here for all to see...

The Trust acknowledges with pleasure the proud record of Southern New England Landcare (SNEL) in delivering environmental projects in the New England area. SNEL’s first project funded by the Trust, “Improving degraded riparian areas and remediating eroded land” commenced in 2009, and since then SNEL and its groups have been awarded over $450,000 for biodiversity projects in their patch. Typically SNEL projects exceed their targets, and build the capacity of the local community to take action to protect habitat for conservation. Their achievements include:

• Improving degraded riparian areas and remediating eroded land: (2009 - 2012) carried out riparian and soil control works with 7 land managers over 11 sites by fencing and planding more than 10 km of riparian zone. 

• Moths, magpies and marsupials - promoting on farm biodiversity (2013 - 2017) completed works over at 16 sites on 11 properties. The project connected fragmented native vegetation and created more than 17.2 hectares of habitat corridors, planting well over 14,000 seedlings.

• Closing the gap: functional habitat for threatened New England fauna (2015, due for conclusion in November 2019)  Volunteers have already completed well over 2000 hours of work, and carried out planting over 28 hectares at a time when the entire state is in drought. This project is working towards habitat connectivity for threatened woodland birds and other fauna south of Armidale to Uralla on the southern New England Tableland.

• Centennial Avenue Rehabilitation of Dumaresq Creek (2016-2019), SNELandcare supported its sub group Armidale Urban Rivercare Group to deliver a project that planted over 18,050 natives with more than 500 volunteers donating 2320 in-kind hours to rehabilitating 2.4 hectares of urban riparian zones.

The Trust is pleased that volunteers of SNEL are up for another challenge with a grant of almost $100,000 recently awarded for their new project Re-connecting Thunderbolt Country for threatened New England woodland and wetland biodiversity. This project will restore habitat connectivity for threatened fauna and flora around Uralla, Kentucky and Salisbury Plains on southern New England Tableland. Works will be carried out to protect 19 key threatened fauna and 7 key threatened plant species. Landholders will plant 36 hectares of new habitat with 12,000 native trees, shrubs and groundcovers, and remnant native woodland and wetland (18 hectares) will be protected.

The Trust looks forward to working with SNELandcare again and thanks volunteers for their hard work and dedication to the environment. 

Karen Wakely
Grants Administrator, Environmental Trust