Restoring Regent Honeyeater Habitat
Mick Callan
Several thousand endemic native trees, shrubs and grasses have been
planted along the Macquarie River within O’Keefe Park to help provide
habitat for the few hundred remaining Regent Honeyeater birds that still
inhabit the Central Tablelands.
Mayor of Bathurst Cr Gary Rush said the major threat to the Regent
Honeyeater is the loss of native woodland and riparian Casuarina Gallery Forests,
with only around 15 per cent of their habitat remaining. The planting works
recently undertaken are part of Council’s Regent Honeyeater habitat
restoration project which is part funded by a grant from the NSW
Environmental Trust.
“This project is an opportunity to restore the riparian habitat along the
river as well as provide habitat for this endangered bird. The project
aims to re-establish the riparian Casuarina Gallery Forest within our waterways,
which naturally existed prior to European land development.
O’Keefe Park has also been planted with local provenance species that will
eventually be used as a seed collection area. More than 300 Eucalypt trees
have been planted in a grid pattern, which in addition to enhancing the
surrounding area, will provide a seed source to propagate trees for future
revegetation projects.
“We’ve had fantastic help from volunteers who took to the park and planted
around 300 native plants at recent community planting days hosted by
Bathurst Regional Council,” Cr Rush said.
You can get involved in the Regent Honeyeater Project or other
environmental programs by attending a community planting day or maintenance
day. The next community tree planting days will be held on 5 June (Jacques Park) and 19 June (Hector Park). For further details visit www.bathurst.nsw.gov.au/treeplanting.