Local conservation efforts taking flight

Mike Newman has been systematically monitoring woodland bird communities in Clarence for the last decade and regularly covers twenty-nine sites in the Meehan Ranges, around Acton and on the South Arm peninsula.

“I spend twenty minutes at each one, usually early in the morning when the birds are active,” Mr Newman said.

“I try to get to them once a month and collect the information very methodically so it will stand up to scientific scrutiny and be taken seriously.”

Mr Newman, who has been interested in birds since he was four years old, said there were significant threats to vulnerable bird species.

“If we have a lot of isolated patches of woodland, the birds can’t relocate when they’re under stress,” he said.

“We can plant vegetation corridors, but we need to make sure those plantings are effective and at the moment we don’t do much to measure how useful the restoration is.

“The other major pressure on birds is a drying climate.

“We recently had three years of La Niña, and we could see an immediate response in bird populations as the increase in rainfall improved conditions.”

Mr Newman said he applauded the Clarence Council’s recent efforts to restore native grasslands at Marion Bay and hoped it would commit to ongoing maintenance.

“The most important thing is to identify the problems early, try to find the causes and see what we can do to fix them,” Mr Newman said.

“Feral cat control and domestic cat management is an example, as well as education on behaviour that benefits wildlife.

“In order to succeed, all of this needs buy-in at the local council and community level.”

Mike Newman has been chosen by Clarence Climate Action as this month’s Climate Champion.