Enhancing seedling survival on former floodplain grazing land in the Capertee Valley,Australia |
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| Authors: | Alex Baumber Huw Evans Richard J. Turner John Merson Bill Dixon David Crust |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, NSW, Australia;2. Central Tablelands Local Land Services, Bowenfels, NSW, Australia;3. Capertee Valley Regent Honeyeater Recovery Group, BirdLife Australia, Lapstone, NSW, Australia;4. Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute, Katoomba, NSW, Australia;5. Greater Sydney Local Land Services, Penrith, NSW, Australia;6. Office of Environment and Heritage, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Mudgee, NSW, Australia |
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| Abstract: | Active revegetation is an essential component of biodiversity conservation for fragmented ecosystems and the species that depend on them. However, key knowledge gaps exist around the most cost‐effective revegetation strategies to employ in different contexts. This article reports on a revegetation trial undertaken in the Capertee Valley of New South Wales, Australia, to assist the conservation of the critically endangered bird, the Regent Honeyeater (Anthochaera phrygia). Seven treatments were compared to assess their cost‐effectiveness for enhancing plant survival at a floodplain site with a history of grazing on introduced pastures. While overall survival rates were low, treatments involving tree guards had higher survival rates and were more cost‐effective than treatments without guards. Weed growth, animal activity and water stress all appeared to play a role in the low survival rates at this site, with enhanced weed control emerging as a priority for future trials at similar sites. |
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| Keywords: | macropods Regent Honeyeater revegetation riparian tree guards weeds and weed control |
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