Adopt your patch now

Do you know of a special patch which needs protecting? Would your group like to work on a special patch to help protect it?
Condamine Alliance’s Adopt a Patch program is now open for expressions of interest until September 30.
Groups and individual landholders from across the Condamine catchment are again being offered the opportunity to participate in this program aimed at improving the condition and connectivity of habitat for native plants and wildlife in the catchment.
Successful applicants will be offered assistance ranging from the provision of information and expert advice on management issues unique to their individual patches, through to funding for the purchase of specialist equipment or materials for conservation based on ground works.
Condamine Alliance’s manager – biodiversity Jayne Thorpe said, “This program is about providing much needed support for community members who manage habitat areas in the Condamine catchment.
“We are providing oppor-tunities for people who care about the landscape to work; we aim to connect the energy and motivation of our community groups with willing land managers.”
Funding is open to all landholders and volunteer groups. However, it will be targeted on the management of nationally endangered vegetation communities, including Brigalow (Acacia harpophylla dominant and co-dominant), Natural grasslands on basalt and fine-textured alluvial plains of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, Semi-evergreen vine thickets of the Brigalow Belt (North and South) and Nandewar Bioregions, Weeping Myall Woodlands and White Box-Yellow Box-Blakely’s Red Gum Grassy Woodland and Derived Native Grassland.
Habitat for nationally threatened species will also be targeted, as well as habitat threatened by serious environmental weeds, including blackberry (Rubus fruticosus aggregate), Chilean needle grass (Nasella neesiana) and parthenium (Parthenium hysterophorus).
All applications will be assessed on an individual basis, with funding targeted at works that will deliver the highest biodiversity values within the identified priority areas.
With much of the region’s biodiversity values contained outside the protected area estate, landholders and community groups throughout the catch-ment undertake extensive management activities every year to maintain and improve the biodiversity values located on both public and private land.
It is also anticipated that this program will provide excellent opportunities for landholders to engage with volunteers and groups to enlist help with the ongoing management of high value privately owned patches.
Groups and individuals interested in participating in the Adopt a Patch program can get more information and download an application form from the Condamine Alliance website www.condaminealliance.com.au/programs/adopt-a-patch or they can contact the Adopt a Patch project coordinator Dawn Heath on 0459 133 132 or email dawnheath@bigpond.com .
The Adopt a Patch project is made possible through funding by the Australian Government’s Caring for Our Country program.