Healthy landscapes
The Healthy Landscapes project will deliver threat abatement and habitat enhancement activities within priority areas of NSW that will focus on expanding travelling stock route biodiversity values onto private land and restoring health to degraded riparian and riverine systems.
The health of our environment is under increasing strain and will be further stretched by the expected increases in droughts, floods, bushfires and other climatic changes. In NSW:
- five major ecosystems are at imminent risk of collapse
- the number of species at risk of extinction is continuing to rise
- native vegetation is under increasing pressure from fragmentation, invasive species, altered fire regimes, changing land use and land availability, overgrazing and climate change
- waterways are under pressure from riparian vegetation clearing, diffuse source water pollution, and invasive species
- the capacity of soils to sustain a range of productive land uses and support natural ecosystems in the long term is at risk from declining soil condition across the state.
Why are healthy landscapes important?
A healthy environment is vital to the productivity of our agriculture sector, the wellbeing of our rural and urban communities, and the connection of Aboriginal people to culture and Country.
The purpose of the Healthy Landscapes project is to engage with land managers, community and key partners to facilitate incentives and capacity building events. We hope to engage land managers to adopt new practices and implement actions that ensure the restoration and improved condition and extent of habitat in targeted landscapes.
What threatened species and parts of the environment are being protected?
Some of the species, areas and ecological communities specifically being protected include:
- Box gum grassy woodland communities
- Riparian zones
- Squirrel glider
- Dollar bird
- Great glossy black cockatoo
- Brown tree creeper
- Turquoise parrot
- Swift parrot
- Purple copper butterfly
How is Local Land Services protecting threatened species?
Our natural resource management services support and enable land managers to better manage these natural resources - avoiding or reversing their decline, and maintaining land uses that are sustainable and productive.
Outcomes:
- native vegetation is being restored and rehabilitated and habitat quality, connectivity and biodiversity is being enhanced.
- waterway health is being improved and soil erosion stabilised resulting in improved water quality outcomes.
- threats to the landscape are being managed.