ForestrySA’s Second Valley Forest Reserve benefits from Commonwealth Funding

The mystery of the Southern brown bandicoot in one of ForestrySA’s native forest reserves within Second Valley Forest Reserve may be solved soon thanks to help from grant funding received from the Australian Government. ForestrySA has now received $600,000 over six years through the Clean Energy Future Biodiversity Fund, and this spring students from Urrbrae TAFE Conservation & Land Management course will assist ForestrySA in a biological survey to hopefully find the elusive bandicoot. Source: Timberbiz
The bandicoot is known to inhabit the Second Valley Forest from diggings seen in the soil however the animal has never actually been seen, and it is one of the many species of national conservation significance that will benefit from this grant funding.
Second Valley Forest Reserve is located on the Fleurieu Peninsula and consists of 3,754 hectares of mainly pine plantation that supplies the local timber market. However, within the plantation estate there is 689 hectares of native forest which is managed for conservation of biodiversity. These native forest areas support diverse habitats and plants and animals that are regarded as being endangered at a national level and many species are found nowhere else in the world.
Fleurieu Peninsula Swamps occupy 162 hectares within the native forest area. These swamps are classed at a national level as a critically endangered ecological community as there are only small areas remaining. They act as natural filters for sediment and nutrient run-off and are also an important storage site for water that can be critical for stream flow during drought conditions. The swamps also support the extremely rare Mount Lofty Ranges Southern-emu wren. It is estimated that only about 800 of these shy birds survive. ForestrySA has been involved in the Mount Lofty Ranges Southern Emu-wren and Fleurieu Peninsula Swamps Recovery Program since 1999 in an effort to protect this important habitat and threatened species.
The $600,000 grant will be used to consolidate and expand work already undertaken by ForestrySA through their annual land management program. ForestrySA Conservation Planner, Jackie Crampton said that “the grant funding will allow us to increase our efforts for weed and feral animal control. Some areas within the forest are steep and inaccessible and it is very expensive to control weeds in such challenging terrain which can even involve abseiling down cliffs”.
The project will involve partnerships with other Agencies and community organisations including Rural Solutions SA, who will assist with project planning and monitoring, Urrbrae
TAFE students, the local Natural Resources Management Board and volunteers from ForestrySA’s Friends of the Forest program.