The announcement signalled the end of round one of the grants process, and in the Bega Valley, successful funding recipients are already putting their money to good use with projects to protect the local koala population.

The Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) and Southern Rivers Catchment Management Authority (CMA) were awarded $1.9million and $2.8million respectively in May this year for projects in the Bega Valley.

The Southern Rivers CMA also received an additional $2.6million for a broader-scale project to “connect, conserve and restore” habitat for koalas and long-nosed potoroos

The OEH’s successful bid was for a “landscape management project to protect, enhance and connect habitat sustaining the last known koala population in NSW Far South Coast forests”.

OEH biodiversity conservation manager for Southern NSW Michael Saxon said the five-year project is “well underway”.

“We were up and running by June,” Mr Saxon said.

“The main stage we’re at now is getting a good handle of the distribution of koalas between Bega and Bermagui.

“We have a number of survey teams, including two Indigenous-led teams thoroughly mapping the home ranges of the Bega Valley koalas.

“That area represents what we believe is the last area where there is evidence of multiple animals breeding.

“In these south-east coastal forests appear to be the last remnants of coastal koalas, which means this is really important.”

Mr Saxon said it is hoped they will have a more complete picture by the end of this year, their target end date, but surveys will still continue after that.

He said there is hope and “very positive signs” the population is recovering.

Another level of koala protection brings in harvest exclusion zones within the area’s state forests.

Mr Saxon said 60 per cent of the koala populations his teams have surveyed were in state forests and areas planned for timber harvest.

As a result, part of the biodiversity funding is being put towards a joint project with Forests NSW to create almost 2800ha of harvest exclusion zones.

“State Forests made a commitment to set aside exclusion areas to protect key habitats for these coastal koalas,” Mr Saxon said.

There is a draft exclusion area, but Mr Saxon said it may need to be “rejigged” as there is evidence of koalas outside of this area so “we’ll have to have a rethink between the two organisations”.

According to Mr Saxon, other interesting projects in the pipeline for the biodiversity team include identifying areas of forest in poor condition that could be rehabilitated.

“These could be areas that have failed to regenerate properly,” he said.

“We will use airborne LIDAR [light detection and ranging], which measures the conditions of the forests, to find areas that might benefit from rehabilitation.”

Mr Saxon said they are in the early stages of that work, which could involve replanting these areas with the particular habitat and tree species key to the koalas’ survival.

“There are also discussions happening between National Parks, the Rural Fire Service and Forestry to come up with ways of fire management in order to achieve the objectives of protecting property and the forest, but also to minimise risk to koalas.

“Should we be considering koalas as a high-value asset in need of similar protection to forest and property?”

Meanwhile, the Southern Rivers CMA is working on the rehabilitation of the Bega River catchment and is currently in discussions with the relevant stakeholders and landowners on how best to proceed. 

A meeting between the various groups responsible was held yesterday to discuss the next stages of where the funding will be utilised.

More in next week’s BDN.