New reports from the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate (EPSDD) have found that good management of the Territory’s Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby and the Brindabella Midge Orchid was helping to prevent either of their extinctions.
Minister for the Environment, Rebecca Vassarotti said the EPSDD’s five-year implementation progress reports showed the Territory’s action plans were improving the chances of survival for Canberra’s mammal emblem and the unique orchid.
“We want to make Canberra a refuge for plants, animals and ecological communities devastated by climate change, habitat loss, bushfires and urban sprawl,” Ms Vassarotti said.
“While the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby is the ACT’s mammal emblem, it hasn’t been seen in the wild in the ACT for more than 60 years, so we are aiming to return this species into the landscape where it belongs,” she said.
“Our Southern Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby Recovery Team is currently undertaking a breeding program which is specifically designed to improve the wallabies’ genetic robustness.”
Ms Vassarotti said a 120-hectare, predator-free enclosure was under construction at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve where it would sustain up to 200 Rock-wallabies.
“We are also conducting research to better understand the animals and their environment so we can reintroduce wallabies from this population into the wild with a better chance of survival,” the Minister said.
She said the conservation objective for the Brindabella Midge Orchid was the maintenance of a viable, wild population of the species.
“This critically endangered orchid is only found in a single site located in Namadgi National Park, which is why we need to protect this species before we lose it forever,” Ms Vassarotti said
“Our rangers on the ground are managing the threats to the species’ habitat while our conservation researchers are monitoring the orchid and habitat conditions,” she said.
The six-page Brindabella Midge Orchid Action Plan Implementation Progress Report can be accessed at this PS News link and the 10-page Brush-Tailed Rock-Wallaby Action Plan Implementation Progress Report at this link.
