Tweed Shire Council
Tweed Shire Council
Tweed Shire Council
Tweed Shire Council Two years ago, Tweed Shire Council teamed up with neighbouring Byron Shire Council to commence a four-year plan to aid the rapidly declining koala population. Dubbed the Koala Connections project, the initiative puts into action several measures to protect the iconic animal after a series of scientific studies deemed their situation to be “quite perilous.” Scott Hetherington is the Project Manager of Koala Connections. According to him, the origins of the $3.5 million program date back to 2011, when the council commissioned a detailed habitat study of the koalas on the Tweed Coast. “We found that they were in a very low number and in subpopulations that were disconnected from each other,” he recalls. “Realistically, their recovery wasn’t viable without intervention, so we embarked on a multipronged approach to address that, and one of those elements was to secure funding from the Australian Government to do this Koala Connections project.” “At that time, our neighbours in Byron Shire Council had undertaken a very simi-
Tweed Shire Council -lar process, so it became a combined process across the two shires. We managed to secure $2.1M of funding from the Australian Government through their Clean Energy Future Plan Biodiversity Fund, and the project addresses all of the threats we identified in 2011.” Two of the project’s major goals include the planting of 63,000 trees across the two shires and approximately 150 hectares of improved natural regeneration of koala habitat. The project also addresses another key issue − fire. “Bushfires and wildfires are a problem for koalas in this part of the world,” Scott explains. “That said, we do need fire to manage the landscape and ensure that the koala habitat returns. Most of the tree species we’re planting actually need fire to regenerate, so there’s a real big focus on getting that balance right because there can’t be too much or too little fire.” According to Scott, the councils were “very fortunate” to have the funding for the scientific habitat studies, particularly because they identified the location of existing koala
Tweed Shire Council
Tweed Shire Council populations and, more importantly, the areas they needed to focus on to connect those populations by developing more habitat. “Using those studies, we started to approach landholders, both public and private, to inform them of the project and work with them to execute the mass tree-planting in the key parts of the landscape,” he says. “A significant part of the project is working with private landholders who’ve got a real keen interest in koala conservation, but who may not have the resources to actually do anything about it.” “So, we would approach them and say, ‘Thank you so much for being involved. We’ll plant a thousand trees in this particular part of your property, and we’ll maintain them for the first 12 months, at which time they’ll get to the point where they’re looking after themselves to a reasonable degree, and you can look after them beyond that.’ The project itself really requires a whole of community response in that regard.” HELPING AN ICONIC SPECIES
Tweed Shire Council Beyond the tangible on-the-ground benefits of the project, Scott feels that koala conservation recovery is important because the koala is revered across the nation. This has been key in bolstering community involvement − an integral component to the success of the project. “Bringing the community together to help such an iconic species is one those big pictures issues for the project,” he states. “For example, other landholders such as Fire Management, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Rural Fire Service, and the larger rural landholders all have to be on the same page to address that fire issue by working together, which has been quite successful thus far.” “Similarly, the community engagement overall has been tremendous,” he continues. “We’ve had fantastic involvement from landholders as individuals making their property available, and we’ve also had some great contributions from the broader community who have assisted with plantings on public land sites. This project has really been all about the community working together across the
Tweed Shire Council landscape throughout different agencies.” “We’ve actually had more landholders request to be involved than we can actually service with this project. We’re two years into a 4-year project, and we’re starting to look at how we can find resources to get more landholders involved. So, we’ve been just amazed by the community response, and we’ve had such great interest from landholders.” Scott also credits the project’s suppliers and subcontractors for their outstanding contributions, pointing out that the majority of their on-ground works have been executed by companies specialising in re-vegetation and habitat regeneration. “Simply put, we couldn’t have done all of this without the stakeholders, landholders, suppliers, and other government agencies like Byron Shire Council,” he adds. “It is truly remarkable the way they’ve all contributed. Without them, we couldn’t have achieved what we have.” At the 2014 NSW Green Globe Awards BRINGING THE COMMUNITY TOGETHER
Tweed Shire Council − which recognise environmental excellence and best practise throughout New South Wales − the Natural Environment Sustainability Award was bestowed upon the two councils. Scott says he was thrilled to receive the accolade because the Green Globes are widely considered to be the region’s leading environmental awards program. “One of the things that was quite significant about winning the award was the fact that the overall awards program includes a whole range of effective community projects that are all working together towards a more sustainable and healthy future,” he explains. “There were a lot of impressive candidates, so it was great to be included amongst some pretty remarkable winners being recognised for their efforts.” When asked why he felt the Koala Connections project won the award, Scott cites the “reasonably unique and unprecedented scale” they’re operating on in terms of community involvement and teamwork. “One of the important things the judges recognised about the Koala Connections Project was the significance of bringing the community together to address this quite critical issue with koala conservation,” he clarifies. “We’re bringing several layers of government, many areas of the community, and a whole diversity of landholders with different attitudes towards land management together to work for the single purpose of koala recovery.” “Another thing the judges recognised was that true conservation outcomes do need to
Tweed Shire Council start at that regional level, and working with Byron Shire in an area larger than the shire boundaries is critical and worthy of recognition,” he adds. “Fantastic award, fantastic experience, and it was great to be wrapped up in the whole energy of being a finalist and being at the awards ceremony, and receiving that awards recognition from our peers.” Moving forward, Scott says Tweed Shire Council is looking forward to potentially delivering one of the largest scale koala recovery projects in history. He points out that it will allow them to share their lessons and outcomes with others to help them achieve similar results, adding that this isn’t the only crisis involving threatened species in Australia today. “We believe we can do it. We believe we can actually recover the koalas on the Tweed Coast and reach the point where we do have a viable koala population,” Scott proclaims. “We understand it’s a long term arrangement that requires long term commitment, but we believe that by taking the multipronged approach that we have in place − not just dealing with one issue, but addressing all of them in a holistic way that’s supported by science − we can actually pull it off.”
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