Biodiversity in High Country Urban Communities
NESAC and Walcha Council have received a $2 Million Grant from the NSW Environmental Trust to confront the degradation of riparian and urban bushland and the fragmented network of responses by institutional and community players, and urban use of waste, water and energy.
The facilitation of consistent community involvement in urban bushland regeneration in foru Council areas will result in substantial improvement and access to the natural environment.
The development of an 'infrastructure of collaboration' across Councils, Landcare, educational institutions, and non-government organisations will ensure more effective use of resources, the transfer of knowledge, and integrated monitoring and reporting. Engaging many stakeholders and the broader community will lead to greater proportion of the community keen to pursue sustainable futures.
The sites of the project will include the urban creek lands and bushlands of Armidale, Urall and Walcha. Urandangie creek (down stream of township of Guyra, feeding into the Malpas Dan - water supply for Armidale city). Private lands in 4 urban centres, Guyra, Armidale, Uralla and Walcha.
Environmental sustainability issues that will be addressed by this project are:
- Fragmanetation of habitat including urban remnants of an endangered ecological community in Armidale;
- Waste Management, Unsustainable use of resouces;
- Fragmentation of community effort;
The objectives of the project are to:
- Improve the ecological health or urban riparian and bush lands;
- Improve the effectiveness of Councils and community effort toward environmental rehabilitation through improved integration, collaboration and greater knowledge transfer between Councils and stakeholders;
- Monitor, evaluate and implement improvement in approaches to rehabilitation of urban areas;
- Increase long-term participation in urban ecosystem rehabilitation targeting community volunteerism and investment from private and government sources;
- Improve resource use efficiency.
Contact details
Guyra Shire Council
Tel: 02 6770 7100
Fax: 02 6779 1221
http://www.guyra.nsw.gov.au
council@guyra.nsw.gov.au
