Bold large scale plan to save habitat and native animals in Fitz-Stirling

An ambitious new restoration project launched in the Fitz-Stirling this week will be the biggest fauna recovery program involving private landholders in the region’s history. The Bush Heritage plan spans 37,000ha and involves 17 private landholders in a five-year project to bring back native animals. It aims to manage pests and predators in the area to improve habitat conditions in the global biodiversity hotspot — one of two hotspots of its kind in Australia. The Fitz-Stirling is located between the Stirling Range National Park and the Fitzgerald National Park. Bush Heritage’s Healthy Landscape manager Alex Hams said the project was unique in its scale and approach. “A multi-tenure project across a large area involving private landholders is really unique,” he said. “Lotterywest funding has allowed us to put in a really consistent long-term effort across a large area. “Some of the monitoring will determine if this approach is effective and if we can demonstrate the benefits. It is a model that could be applied in a number of areas around Australia.” The Bush Heritage project is focusing on the Corackerup and Peniup Nature Reserves. The recently built Michael Tichbon field station on the Red Moort Reserve will be used for the research. “It is an integrated project because cats, foxes and rabbits are all interrelated, and if we only control one we don't get the impact that we need because one of the other species will exploit the situation,” Mr Hams said. “We will be working with the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions who do baiting in the reserves, and the local landholders, expanding that range of predator control. “We have approached all of the farmers within the target area and every single one of them has signed on.” Mr Hams said if the project was effective, they could consider introduced threatened species such as the red-tailed phascogale. “We have put a lot of resources and focus on that Fitz-Stirling area because it is a really important landscape floristically, but also the fauna,” he said. “Because of the fragmentation of that landscape and the bush within that landscape has been so extensive over the past 60-70 years, we want to try recover some of those areas.”