16 May 2023
The storms of June 2021 resulted in the loss of many large trees across the Hepburn Shire and surrounding area, resulting in large gaps in the canopy that will not regrow for many years.
ERA, in partnership with Hepburn Shire Council, DEECA and the local community, is creating and installing wildlife rope canopy bridges to key storm damaged areas in the Wombat State Forest (see here).
We have recently started installing our wildlife rope bridges built by community volunteers. We’ve re-connected more than 50m of storm damaged forest canopy – and lots more to come! We have also installed wildlife cameras at each rope bridge to see who is using them.
These rope bridges are a temporary measure while the canopy grows back and are not meant to last forever. As such, we are able to use a natural, biodegradable rope, and they will be attached to suitable standing trees in the environment. Finding the perfect position to install the bridges is proving tricky, as we are attaching to trees, and need attachment points and a workable distance. We also need to focus on animal ecology if the bridges are to be any use!
This location shown in the photo ticked most of our boxes. It is adjacent to a beautiful habitat tree with lots of hollows (out of shot), there is emergent vegetation that will eventually fill the canopy gaps, and remaining vegetation to the right.
If you or your group are interesting in volunteering time to make some lengths of rope bridge for this project, please contact the Storm Recovery Team at Hepburn Shire Council on 03 5348 2306.
