MEMBER for Northern Tablelands Adam Marshall has today announced an injection of $96,000 of State Government funding to assist Citizens Wildlife Corridor Armidale (CWC) in their efforts to restore and rehabilitate koala habitats in the region.
Mr Marshall met with representative from the group in Armidale late last week to discuss their plans, which will see 11,290 native tree seedlings planted on 18 sites throughout the Northern Tablelands.
“This grant is part of a $4.5 million NSW Government program to fund a broad range of organisations to undertake projects than enhance the environment and sustainability of NSW,” Mr Marshall said.
“This year the NSW Environmental Restoration and Rehabilitation Grants Program was highly competitive with only 57 successful applicants so I’d like to commend the Citizens Wildlife Corridors committee on their successful application and wish them well in their work to restore these important koala habitats.
“The project will rehabilitate and revegetate 18 sites on 11 properties in and around the Dangar Falls, Mount Duval and the University of New England koala corridor east and north of Armidale.”
Mr Marshall said the seedlings planted would include many of the species of trees the koala feed from. Additionally, about 5.5 kilometres of fencing will be constructed to manage a total of 28 hectares of revegetated corridor links.
“It’s an excellent project which will be run in partnership with Southern New England Landcare (SNELC) – both groups are highly regarded for the quality and success of past projects and I’m delighted the State Government has recognised the value of their latest project as way to manage rural lands that support koalas and other native animals,” he said.
Armidale Citizens Wildlife Corridors President Struan Ferguson said they were very excited to have received the grant and would be working closely with Southern New England Land Care over the next two years to implement the program.
“Its great news and testament to the fact that our organisations have been doing excellent work in the region in the field of restoration and rehabilitation,” Ms Ferguson said.