Lights, Camera, Action:Turning the spotlight on our role in conservation
Not at all, say the scientists and environmentalists. There is much we can do to help, as individuals and groups who live in cities and towns.
With our help, these endangered ringtail possums can find a haven in our urban gardens. Many of our iconic fauna – from cockatoos to koalas and owls – have found homes in our city parks and town green spaces. And those wilder green spaces also host many of our native plant species. With the help of councils, industry groups and community volunteers all across Australia, we can and are making a positive difference.
Environmental writers at The Conversation suggest five actions city and town folk can take to help out:
1. Small Can Be a Big Help
A small pond, a nature strip, a tree or two, a garden bed can host a range of little critters and the plants and hidey holes they need to thrive. As the writers note, “Researchers found that a collection of small, urban grassland reserves supported more native plants, and rarer species, than just a few large reserves.”
2. Embrace the “In-between” Spaces
Backyards, road verges with vegetation, school yards and rooftops, can offer welcoming environments – even for critically endangered species like the ringtail possum. If we look around, we can find ways to make more space for nature here and there.
3. Designing Places for Nature
Tree hollows, piles of rocks and rotting logs that offer shelter to many smaller denizens may be as hard to find as urban rentals, but we can provide nesting boxes, insect hotels and lizard lounges. Even leaving a bit of scrubby mess in a corner of the garden can give little birds and other creatures welcome shelter.
4. Creating Connections
A number of councils are setting up environmental corridors across dangerous roads and concrete deserts. So too community groups have come up with inventive solutions, such as “rope bridges for western Sydney’s sugar gliders and tunnels for Melbourne’s bandicoots to forested bridges for Brisbane’s bush birds. Some gardeners in Bunbury even built their own backyard “possum bridges” to help the endangered western ringtail possum in their neighbourhoods.”
5. Power to the People
Where locals are aware of the need to foster the rich variety of species in their neighbourhood and take action together, they can really make a big, positive difference – to both the wild life and to community spirit.
For links to the sources and more information, read the article in The Conversation here:
Contributed by Wendy Morgan