Environmental Projects

The Numinbah Nature Links project, funded by the NSW Environmental Trust with Council support, will restore degraded bushland on 25 hectares of private land within the Pat Smiths Creek and Couchy Creek catchments, Numinbah.

The project area is part of a regional fauna corridor linking the World Heritage-listed Springbrook National Park and Numinbah Nature Reserve with Wollumbin National Park. These reserves are internationally recognised for their outstanding biodiversity, including rare and threatened species that are either unique to the area or have restricted ranges elsewhere.

These reserves are known as climate change refugia. Evidence suggests that their climates have remained relatively moist and stable for thousands of years. During hot, dry times, many species of native plants and animals retreat to refugia from surrounding areas to escape less hospitable conditions, dispersing to re-colonise these areas when conditions become favourable again.

Core reserves are protected by surrounding native habitat on private land. Unfortunately, private land habitat is being degraded by weeds including Lantana, Camphor Laurel and Giant Devil’s Fig. Weed infestations pose an immediate threat to the structure, health and resilience of core habitat areas.

The Numinbah Nature Links project will address this problem by helping six landholders control invasive weeds. It will build landholders’ plant identification and weed control technique skills and help them more effectively manage native habitat, protect threatened species and conserve biodiversity.

Community education is an important element of the project. A podcast highlighting the Tweed’s high level of biodiversity will be developed as an educational tool. An information day in late 2016 will describe the national park gazettal process and the environmental auditing behind World Heritage Listing of some of our local parks. A weed workshop is planned as well as a rainforest tour.

To ensure the project has strong technical support, Council has partnered with the Office of Environment and Heritage, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Local Land Services, Far North Coast Weeds, Tweed Landcare and bush regenerators. A steering committee comprising representatives from each organisation will act as an advisory body and will help to resolve issues that might arise.

Further information about the Numinbah Nature Links project is available by contacting Michael Corke, Project Officer – Biodiversity, on (02) 6670 2595 or mcorke@tweed.nsw.gov.au

Council and the Tweed Byron Aboriginal Land Council are working together, and with the community, on a three-year project to protect native fauna on the Fingal Peninsula.

The Working Together to Protect Threatened Fauna on Fingal Peninsula project aims to curb feral cat and fox predation on threatened fauna on the headland, and improve breeding success for threatened species such as:

• Bush Stone-curlews
• Beach Stone-curlews
• Pied Oyster Catchers
• Little Terns

The project will also include an emphasis on responsible pet ownership, to reduce the impact on feral animals and domestic pets on threatened fauna.

• Fingal residents with registered pets will be encouraged to make a commitment to a Fingal Wildlife Friendly Pets program that will be created.
• An awareness campaign will inform pet owners visiting the area about ways to reduce the impact of their pets on local threatened fauna.

Focus group

A focus group representing various sections of Fingal Head and broader Tweed community has been formed as part of public engagement for the project.

The focus group:

• provides guidance and expert advice
• guides the development of educational programs
• supports the implementation of project initiatives

The focus group comprises delegates of:

• Tweed Shire Council
• Tweed Byron Local Aboriginal Land Council
• BirdLife Northern Rivers
• Crown Lands (Grafton)
• Fingal Head Coastcare Inc.
• Fingal Head Community Association Inc.
• Fingal Head Public School
• Office of Environment and Heritage
• North Coast Local Land Services
• Tweed Coast Holiday Parks
• Fingal Head Rovers Surf Life Saving Club
• a resident delegate (a position remains open for an additional resident delegate)

Community activities

Community involvement in the project so far have included a community workshop at the public school and a public survey to identify Bush Stone-curlew activity in the area.

Project type: Threatened species recovery/ecological restoration
Value: $100,000
Date of commencement: September 2013
Date of completion: August 2016
Key stakeholders: Council, the Office of Environment and Heritage, NSW Environmental Trust, Tweed Landcare Inc. local bush regenerators and the local community.

The project, made possible by a $100, 000 grant from the NSW Environmental Trust (the Trust), aims to mitigate weed threats to threatened species within the southern part of the Shire from the Burringbar hinterland to the coast. Eight properties will be selected within this region on the basis of conservation values. Site action plans will guide implementation of management actions designed to arrest the decline of threatened species at each property. The project contributes to the NSW Priorities Action Statement developed by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage as a key strategy for ensuring conservation of threatened species, ecological communities, endangered populations and key threatening processes in NSW. The location of threatened species will be included on Council's mapping layers and will be added to the NSW Atlas of Wildlife database. Annual project reports will be provided to the Trust. Stakeholder involvement and community and landholder education is a central element of the project.

Project type: Threatened species recovery/ecological restoration
Date of commencement: April 2011
Date of completion: March 2014
Key stakeholders: Council, the Office of Environment and Heritage, NSW Environmental Trust, Tweed Landcare Inc. local bush regenerators and the local community.

Made possible by a $100,000 grant from the NSW Environmental Trust (the Trust), this project is implementing the priority actions to conserve threatened species and mitigate threatening processes in Bilambil, Duroby and Marshalls Creeks. These priority implementation areas form part of critical climate change corridors linking the coast with the hinterland. Actions include the preparation of site action plans for participating properties, restoration and expansion of habitat, control of occurrences of highly invasive weeds, stakeholder involvement and community and landholder education. The project contributes to the NSW Priorities Action Statement developed by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage.

Project type: Threatened species recovery/ecological restoration
Date of commencement: May 2013
Date of completion: October 2013
Key stakeholders: Council, Great Eastern Ranges Alliance, NSW Environmental Trust, Earth Learning Inc. local bush regenerators and the local community.

The project was made possible by a $25,000 devolved grant from the NSW Environmental Trust.

Ecological restoration of 27 hectares of riparian land across seven properties on the Upper Rous River has mitigated weed threats to biodiversity within a key Border Ranges Connectivity Priority Area. Significant reductions in the abundance and distribution of a range of weeds including Tobacco bush, Lantana and Madeira vine have been achieved across the project area and in-fill planting of 300 native plants in more degraded areas has helped boost the connectivity of riparian vegetation. Seven threatened species were recorded within the project area and threatened species data will be included on Council mapping and reported to the NSW Atlas of Wildlife.

Landholders have received weed control training and are now better equipped to manage weeds on their properties. Council will provide ongoing technical support for landholders and further funding via its Biodiversity Grants Program (1.76mB PDF) to ensure long-term site maintenance.

Project type: Threatened Species recovery/ecological restoration
Value: $246,668.00
Date of commencement: June 2012
Date of completion: June 2015

Key stakeholders: NSW Environmental Trust; local landholders; Koala Beach Wildlife and Habitat Management Committee; NSW Office of Environment and Heritage; NSW Local Land Services; Biosecurity Queensland; and Gold Coast City Council.

Tweed Shire Council and the NSW Environmental Trust are jointly funding an invasive species control project that is bringing together landholders/managers from across multiple tenures to collectively manage ecologically significant invasive species.

The five invasive species that this project is targeting are: European red foxes, feral dogs and feral/roaming cats cane toads, and Indian mynas.

This project aims to:

• Provide tools and training for participating landholders to implement control measures on their property.
• Coordinate on-ground, cross tenure, control works at strategic sites.
• Provide community education to reduce the number of invasive animals released in Tweed Shire, such as cats and dogs.

It is hoped that the control measures undertaken through this project will assist in protecting important ecosystems and threatened species including coastal Koala populations, ground-dwelling mammals, gliders, ground-nesting birds, shorebirds and turtles.

The program is aiming to establish models of control that can be applied at other priority sites in Tweed Shire, and shared with other government bodies and community groups.