Restoring Habitat To Save The Regent Honeyeater
Endangered Species To Be Protected (Click On Images To Enlarge)
What Can Exetel/You Do To Help The Regent Honeyeater
There are only approximately 1,500 Regent Honeyeaters still existing in Australia. Exetel has finalised an agreement to provide funds to one organisation involved in this project:
http://www.absa.asn.au/regent/regentprofile.htmlThese funds will allow this dedicated group of volunteers to more rapidly proceed with the work they have been doing for the past 10+ years.
Exetel, on behalf of you and all other Exetel broadband customers will use a 'pool of money' generated from providing 50 cents per customer per month to be used on this and other similar projects should there be enough money to fund similar research programs.
As well as the money that Exetel will donate on your behalf you may like to donate a further amount of money yourself by authorizing Exetel to add your donation to the monthly debit for your broadband service. You can do this by selecting the project you wish to support and the amount of money you would like to donate monthly from the drop down on the left hand side of this page. You can start/stop donating at any time of your choosing.
The Problem To Be Addressed
The NSW Parks And Wildlife Service data on the Regent Honeyeater may be found here:
http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/PDFs/tsprofile_regent_honeyeater.pdf
The Regent Honeyeater (Xanthomyza phrygia) is a medium sized bird of extraordinary beauty that has been driven almost to the brink of extinction by indiscriminate land clearing.
It has no close relatives and is the only member of its genus and on genetic evidence it’s likely closest ‘relative’ is the wattlebird group, genus Anthochaera.
When European settlers first arrived in Australia, Regent Honeyeaters were common and widespread throughout the box-ironbark country of southeastern Australia, from about 100km north of Brisbane through sub-coastal and central New South Wales, Victoria inland of the ranges, and as far west as the Adelaide Hills. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, flowering eucalypt forests attracted immense flocks of thousands of birds.
With the onset of broad acre clearing of its favoured box-ironbark habitat, however, the Regent Honeyeater declined rapidly. It is now extinct in South Australia and effectively so in western Victoria; it is a rare temporary visitor to the country around Bendigo (where it was once common) and to Gippsland (where it was a regular visitor), and in most years only a handful of birds are seen in eastern Victoria — four-fifths of sightings are from just three locations: Chiltern, the Killawarra, and the Reef Hills. Queensland now sees only irregular sightings of a small number of birds.
Significant breeding populations remain only in New South Wales, primarily around the Capertee Valley northwest of Sydney on the inland slopes of the Blue Mountains and in the Bundarra-Barraba area north of Tamworth. Breeding is also reported from the country straddling the Murray River between Albury and Chiltern, and occasionally from other areas in particularly good seasons.
The Plan That Exetel/Exetel Customers Will Fund
Site Descriptions and Values
All sites are on the lower slopes or alluvial flats, where the fertile soils will produce the highest nectar flows from our planted trees. This is a focused attempt to redress a serious lack of quality habitat for Regent Honeyeaters and other threatened species.
The best of their former habitat was in fact the best potential farmland, so of course it was the most heavily cleared. That has left us today with generally poor quality habitat on dry rocky ridges, and to make matters worse, there is extreme competition between species for the food resources that are available. The shyer species are simply losing out to more aggressive birds like Noisy Miners.
Regents are certainly a challenging species to re-establish, but we have solid research results showing that our work to boost the vegetation density is already providing safe cover, with better feeding and breeding opportunities.
As well as caring for the Regents, we think holistically, to make sure our restoration works provide good habitat for the other threatened species as well. To be specific:
| McVean’s planting strip beside Grant Rd | Rare Grey-crowned Babblers are nesting on this site & the adjoining roadside. This project will add 40m width to the roadside habitat, providing the birds with dense habitat to shelter from aggressive competitors. |
| Moore’s eroding creek | This project will make a strategic habitat link between our 2 largest bush areas. It will assist rare Squirrel Gliders & Brush-tailed Phascogales as they search for new food resources & breeding mates. |
| Richards’ eroding creek | This adjoining site will add to the same habitat link. The fertile soils on both sites will provide richer food resources & greatly assist wildlife breeding success. The reduced erosion will also benefit water quality. |
| Thrum’s vegetated creek line | The existing vegetation on this site is already providing excellent habitat due to the fertile soils. The project will strengthen an older fence to ensure the habitat remains protected from farm livestock. |
| Gartland’s vegetated creek line | The existing vegetation on this highly fertile site is limited to a single eucalyptus species. This project will add a diverse range of indigenous trees & shrubs to increase the food resources available across the whole year. |
| Scott’s planting strip beside Greta Rd | This project will widen one of our most important habitat roadsides. The increased food & shelter will benefit Grey-crowned Babblers, Squirrel Gliders & Brush-tailed Phascogales living in the roadside trees. |
Work Outputs
| Fencing | Site area | Seedlings | |
| McVean’s planting strip beside Grant Rd | 574m | 2.2 ha | 1,760 |
| Moore’s eroding creek | 1,920m | 5.0ha | 3,920 |
| Richards’ eroding creek | 524m | 5.0ha | 3,600 |
| Thrum’s vegetated creek line | 750m | 1.75ha | Nil |
| Gartland’s eroding creek | 996m | 2.0ha | 1,360 |
| Scott’s planting strip beside Greta Rd | 1,500m | 3.3ha | 2,640 |
| Totals | 6,264m | 15.35ha | 13,280 |
Budget Items
| Removal of pine trees at McVean’s & poplars at Murphy’s | $2,000 |
| Seedlings to increase planting density on our sites | $4,000 |
| 2 li cardboard tree guards | $3,000 |
| Site preparation eg ripping, spraying, burning off, slashing | $1,500 |
| Contribution to fencing materials | $6,000 |
| Contract post ramming | $1,500 |
| Contract fencing to assist landholders w/o skills & equip | $2,000 |
| Mistletoe removal to save old habitat trees | $5,000 |
| Total Sponsorship sought in 2008 | $25,000 |
Budget Rationale
The McVean site was planted with pine trees by the previous landholders, but most of the trees have died in the past 2 dry summers. We will remove them and replant with indigenous trees and shrubs to enhance the existing roadside vegetation. This will create a major stretch of wide roadside vegetation up to 80m wide, in a part of the district that currently has no large bush blocks. It will therefore become a crucial “habitat node” in the otherwise narrow network of roadsides.
Murphy’s creek has great value as a biolink between 3 important roadside habitats. We have already revegetated almost 840m along the creek, but a dense thicket of poplars prevents our progress with planting the final section. Removing the poplars will enable us to plant indigenous trees and shrubs to produce another 240m of highly productive riparian habitat.
Government grants for conservation plantings have decreased by almost 40% in the past 2 years, as government expenditure has shifted to drought & bush fire relief. This is despite well-established ecological knowledge that such open habitat will mainly only benefit the common species. Extra funds will ensure the planting density is high enough to create safe shelter for our shy rare birds, and also assist us with site preparations like ripping, spraying, slashing, burning off.
Government fencing grants have also decreased, just at the time when landholders can least afford to shoulder extra expenses. Extra funds will ensure our fences are designed strongly enough to protect the sites for the long term. The funds will also provide contract assistance for people who don’t have the necessary skills or equipment for the job.
Mistletoe removal by tree climbers and cherry pickers will save struggling old trees from certain death. These mature trees are the backbone of the remaining habitat and are too valuable to lose. We prune the mistletoe to give rapid health improvements, & replant the missing understorey shrubs to restore the natural control mechanisms in the long term.
Financial Arrangements
Regent Honeyeater Project is included on the Register of Environmental Organisations and has Deductible Gift Recipient Status under the Australian Taxation Act. This means that all monies provided can be treated by you as a Tax Deductible Donation.
References
Project Updates
Progress reports by the Project manager for this and other Exetel sponsored projects can be found here:
http://forum.exetel.com.au/viewforum.php?f=323&sid=7921f33759cf99130d18660f0b5ebc49
