A new strategy to help guide the protection, restoration and management of ACT’s woodland areas for the next decade has been released by the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate (EPSDD).
The EPSDD said the ACT Native Woodland Conservation Strategy identified how it would manage threats, work with the community, safeguard threatened species and undertake research.
“Protecting and improving the conditions of woodland habitats is vital to the ACT’s native wildlife including the critically endangered superb parrot and vulnerable little eagles,” the Directorate said.
“Many cultural sites important to Traditional Custodians are also located in woodlands, and we know Canberrans value woodland areas for recreation, exercise and wellbeing,” it said.
The Directorate said that about 70 per cent of the ACT’s 79,000 hectares of woodlands were managed and protected by the ACT Parks and Conservation Service and community groups.
It said the new strategy replaced the current Lowland Woodland Conservation Strategy, which had guided significant progress in the protection, restoration and management of woodlands since 2004.
The EPSDD also released a five-year Protecting and Connecting Box-Gum Woodlands in the ACT project to complement the new strategy.
“It will help land managers to improve woodlands with more revegetation, pest and weed control, fencing and strategic grazing,” the Directorate said.
The 201-page Strategy can be accessed on the YourSay website at this PS News link.
