Birdy barometer
One in four woodland-dependant birds are listed as threatened, and their populations are declining. Monitoring sheds light on how we can protect them.
Just 45 minutes south of Canberra, this unique reserve is home to some of Australia’s most threatened temperate ecosystems.
Around 300 hectares of this property had been cleared for farming, so Scottsdale is often a hub of volunteer activity, as teams of volunteers work to support a project restoring natural vegetation to the cleared area.
Scottsdale protects endangered box-gum grassy box woodlands and temperate grasslands. It also harbours many rare birds, animals, fish and reptiles.
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Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos at Scottsdale Reserve. Photo by Jiri Lochman / Lochman Transparencies.
Scottsdale’s home to a remnant of Australia’s last ice age, the Silver-leafed Mountain Gum. Adapted to a time when this part of the world was much drier and colder, just 10 populations of this little mallee tree are thought to exist in Australia, and it's vulnerable to extinction.
Wrapped around Scottsdale’s northern and western flanks is the Murrumbidgee River, which cascades over natural rock weirs and through deep tree-fringed pools. The Upper Murrumbidgee Demonstration Reach is a partnership supporting the recovery of native fish in the river.
All this is protected thanks to our generous supporters.
What Scottsdale Reserve protects
Animals: Rosenberg’s Monitor (vulnerable in NSW), Speckled Warbler (vulnerable in NSW), Diamond Firetail (nationally vulnerable), Hooded Robin (nationally endangered), Macquarie Perch (nationally endangered), Murray Cod (nationally vulnerable) and Brown Treecreeper (vulnerable in NSW).
Plants: Hoary Sunray (nationally endangered), Curved Rice Flower, Button Wrinklewort (nationally endangered), Silky Swainson-pea (vulnerable in NSW), Silver-leafed Mountain Gum (nationally vulnerable).
Vegetation communities: White Box-Yellow Box-Blakely’s Red Gum Grassy Woodland (nationally critically endangered), Monaro Tableland Cool Temperate Grassy Woodland (critically endangered in NSW), Tablelands Frost Hollow Grassy Woodlands, Natural Temperate Grassland of the Southern Tablelands of NSW and the ACT (nationally endangered).
What we’re doing
Restoring an entire ecosystem is a tricky business, but at Scottsdale we hope to do just that by helping natural regeneration along, by replanting key species of the precious yellow box woodland.
A project aiming to restore 300 hectares of woodland is being carried out, and we’ve jointly funded it with the Australian Government.
How do we create an environment that favours native plants when the soil has a long history of fertiliser, grazing and cultivation? African Lovegrass is a major headache. One successful strategy we’ve used has been removing the top 10cm of nutrient-enriched topsoil. We then direct seed with a mix of native trees and shrubs.
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Revegetation works at Scottsdale Reserve. Photo by Bee Stephens.
Upper Murrumbidgee Demonstration Reach
The Upper Murrumbidgee Demonstration Reach (UMDR) has been established to demonstrate ways of supporting the recovery of native fish. Amongst its projects are carp control research and willow reduction measures.
Carp control
Carp are one of the world’s most invasive species and research we’re involved in has the potential to inform targeted carp removal on a much broader scale.
Not much was known about their movements and where they aggregated in the context of this upland riverine system. The project involved tagging fish and tracking their movements with acoustic telemetry. They were also lured, trapped and removed from a section of the river to learn more about their population structure.
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Murrumbidgee River at Scottsdale Reserve. Photo by Wybe Reyenga.
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Platypus. Photo Barry Baker.
Reducing the impact of Willow trees
Willow infestation is a major issue for native fish habitats – it can block out native plants, alter stream flows, cause flooding and reduce water quality. The UMDR works to control young emerging willows with volunteers in kayaks cutting back and removing the plants before they can establish.
Following the bushfires of 2020 UMDR volunteers have also focussed on stabilising the river banks with revegetation to prevent further erosion and sedimentary run-off that affects the water quality.
Volunteers – the spirit of Scottsdale
It would be no understatement to say that volunteers have made Scottsdale the place it is today.
In one year alone they clocked up nearly 1,000 working days helping with revegetation, tackling weeds and feral animals, carrying out survey work, looking after infrastructure, mapping and closing rabbit warrens, and more.
The majority are locals who care deeply about their patch of bush, but they also come from further afield.
The volunteer-run nursery on Scottsdale is a case in point, with volunteers regularly on site to tend to the seedlings and grasses such as Bulbine Lilies, Chocolate Nodding Lily, Bursaria, Sheoak, and Poa, which are grown from seed.
Our podcast, Big Sky Country, featured the following episode on the volunteers of Scottsdale.
Cultural values
Scottsdale is within the traditional lands of the Ngambri and Ngarigo people. It was also part of a trade route with the neighbouring Yuin people.
We’ve worked with the Traditional Custodians to carry out cultural heritage surveys, unearthing artefacts, including stone axes and tool-making materials, so we can ensure important sites are protected.
The purchase of Scottsdale was made possible with funds from the Commonwealth’s National Reserve System Program, as well as our generous supporters.
