Hills & Fleurieu Landscape Board are delivering a large-scale revegetation project in partnership with the state government and local landowners to transform former sheep paddocks into native closed shrubland vegetation. Funded by the Australian Government, the project will provide critical habitat for threatened heathland birds like the endangered Western Beautiful Firetail and the nationally endangered Mount Lofty Ranges Southern Emu-Wren. Habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation are driving Mount Lofty Ranges’ woodland birds like these closer to extinction.
The project’s habitat restoration uses a two-step approach, keeping costs relatively low and fast-tracking revegetation growth in a short timeframe. This involves direct seeding of fast-growing native plants species in the first year followed up by infill planting of tubestock seedlings to achieve diversity and the dense vegetation structure, without tall trees, that defines heathland habitat.
