Promoting healthy habitats on farms

Why habitat health is important

Many forest and grassy woodlands are slowly declining in condition. This is due to grazing management practices that don’t allow natural regeneration of new trees and shrubs. This affects biodiversity, soil health, and farm productivity.

Healthy habitat supports:

• wildlife
• improves soil stability
• helps maintain ecosystem services such as pollination and pest control.

By improving the condition of habitat on your property, you can support both biodiversity and sustainable agricultural production.

There are a range of management actions you can take to improve the habitat areas on your property.

Here’s how you can get started:

• Learn how to recognise habitat features.
• Assess the health of your bushland and other habitat features.
• Create a management plan to protect or improve habitat features. 

What a healthy habitat looks like 

Habitats with good understorey diversity provide shelter and food for:

• marsupials
• birds
• reptiles
• frogs and more.

Dense leaf litter and coverage also provides habitat for a range of insects. These insects form a large part of both soil and ecosystem health, including food for birds and lizards.

The greater the diversity of native plant and animal species, the ‘healthier’ the habitat.

Characteristics of a healthy habitat include:

• a diversity of native overstorey, understorey and groundcover plants, reflective of the original vegetation community
• old, large trees (dead or alive) with hollows  
• regenerating native trees, shrubs and groundcovers
• a ground layer dominated by native perennial plants
• areas that are largely free of weeds and introduced grasses
• healthy vegetation (no signs of dieback, heavy mistletoe infestations, insect attack or overgrazing)
• fallen timber, woody debris and leaf litter
• a diversity of native animal species using the habitat
• little or no evidence of feral animals or over-abundant macropods (kangaroos)
• little or no evidence of land degradation impacting the habitat site
• the area is being actively managed for habitat purposes.

These characteristics typically relate to vegetation communities with an overstorey layer. When assessing the condition of native grasslands and shrublands, some of these features may not naturally be present. 

Assessing habitat condition

Moderately healthy landscapes

If your site has most of these features, then it is in good condition. It is likely to support a diversity of wildlife. 

Protect and manage these areas to prevent future degradation. Your farm plan should consider strategies to maintain and protect habitat features.

Steps you can take:

• fence to exclude or manage stock
• protect paddock trees and patches of remnant vegetation
• control weeds and check for pests
• use rotational grazing with long rest periods to allow regeneration.

To identify local vegetation communities, use the TreesNearMe app

Learn more about local wildlife and their habitat requirements.   

Partially healthy landscapes

If your site has some of these features, it is likely that it has had a moderate amount of disturbance in the past. 

Take action to prevent further deterioration.

Steps you can take:

• remove degrading influences (such as overgrazing or weeds)
• allow time for natural regeneration
• use fencing or rotational grazing to control grazing pressure
• if the site shows no signs of recovery, consider assisted regeneration or targeted revegetation.

Poor or degraded landscapes

If your site has very few of these features, it is likely that it has had a high level of disturbance in the past and has very few habitat features remaining. 

Remaining habitat features may be critical to native animals. You should protect what remains to prevent further loss. The site may not be easily regenerated, but intervention now is preferable to revegetating a totally cleared site. Focus on protecting and enhancing existing habitat before creating new areas.

Other landscape features

Other habitat features can put a greater value and priority on preserving an area.

These features are not signs of healthy habitat, but add significant ecological value.

Habitat and landscape features of value include:

• rocks, caves or cliffs
• features that support threatened species
• remnants of threatened ecological communities
• a water source (river, creek dam or wetland). 

If you have these on your property, consider them high-priority areas for protection.

Protecting and enhancing habitat on your property

There are some simple ways that you can protect and enhance biodiversity and habitat for wildlife on your property. This may even improve the productivity and value of your property. 

You may not be able to make all of these habitat improvements on your property. However, even by doing a few of the actions, you will help to protect and enhance critical habitat in your area.  

Protect existing habitat

• Preserve any existing native vegetation, dead or alive, especially large trees with hollows.
• Avoid firewood collection or restrict it. If tidying up timber, move logs to a revegetated area on your property. Consider planting a firewood patch of fast-growing black wattle. It will support bird life whilst it grows, provides hot burning wood and can replenish itself with the right management.
• Avoid high-intensity fires. If you need to do hazard reduction burning use low-intensity patch burns. Limit the size and frequency of these burns. This will have less impact on native vegetation and habitat than high-intensity fires.

Support regeneration and revegetation

• Encourage natural regeneration by controlling grazing pressure in habitat areas. Temporary or permanent fencing may help to achieve this. Only graze areas for short periods after native plants have flowered and set seed so they can reproduce.
• Don’t use fertilisers in regenerating areas. Phosphorus can kill perennial native grasses and forbs, allowing weeds to invade. Avoid overuse of chemicals as well.
• Supplement natural regeneration with revegetation, where necessary. Strategically revegetate cleared areas or enhance components of existing remnant vegetation, such as the understorey layer. Try to mimic the original vegetation type and restore as many original habitat components as possible.
• Consider planting wildlife corridors to link larger remnant areas. This allows wildlife movement across the landscape.
• Control invasive plants and animals and over-abundant kangaroo populations. 

Manage water resources

• Carefully manage natural waterbodies and riparian areas. Control stock access to these areas, establish ‘buffer zones’ of vegetation around them and don’t alter natural waterflows. 

Create more habitat features

• Introduce artificial habitat, such as nest boxes, which can be used to re-create habitat. Nest boxes must be carefully designed to meet the specific needs of native species and to discourage pest species from inhabiting them. 

Plan for long-term habitat and property management

• Develop a property plan that sets aside some areas for habitat conservation while leaving others for production. Try to connect habitat areas on your property and look for opportunities where conservation and production can coincide.
• Consider habitat when planning agricultural activities such as grazing, ploughing, spraying and burning so that not all of the property is disturbed at once.

Local Land Services can help you to assess habitat and plan management activities. Project funding may also be available to help you to protect and enhance habitat on your property.