Hope Trees: Planting for the Future of Koalas
By Dr Jane Barker
How can you not love koalas? Seriously, how can you not love koalas? I can’t imagine a world where there are no wild koalas. The world is watching us at the moment, and if we can’t save the most iconic animal in Australia, then we can’t save anything. - Linda Sparrow
Bangalow Koalas
The President of Bangalow Koalas, Linda Sparrow, was awarded the Australian Geographic Society Conservationist of the Year Award 2022. Linda leads a grassroots conservation movement to create and restore koala habitat in the NSW Northern Rivers region.
Bangalow Koalas is a community organisation that aims to establish a wildlife corridor for koalas and other native fauna which will connect existing habitat, allowing koalas to live and move around safely, and to re-establish a landscape where they can thrive. Koalas are solitary animals living within a network of overlapping home ranges, which allows contact between individuals for mating.
Threats to Koalas
The koala, an iconic animal unique to Australia, is facing a number of threats to its survival, with the greatest danger being the loss of its habitat. Loss of habitat is not only about dietary needs, but it also disrupts overlapping home ranges and the way koalas live in their landscape.
While there is no longer a problem with hunting koalas for their fur, which led to the death of tens of thousands of koalas up until 1933, today our koalas face not only habitat loss, but also the threat of climate change, predators, death caused by motor vehicles and diseases.
Following the 2019 bushfires, koalas were declared an endangered species in NSW, QLD and ACT in 2022. The NSW Government has set a goal to double the number of koalas by 2050.
How it all started
Linda describes how the group was formed in 2016 when a neighbour telephoned asking for help to to save some 30-year-old Eucalypts trees he was concerned may be felled.
It started trying to protect that 400 metre stretch of trees and it just grew from there. I had no idea back then in 2016 that I would be doing what I’m doing today.
In the years since the group started with their vision of creating a wildlife corridor extending from Bangalow west towards Tenterfield, south towards Grafton and north towards the Queensland border, it has become a reality.
500,000 Trees by 2025
While funded by the Commonwealth, NSW government, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and several other organisations, Bangalow Koalas have always been a community organisation. Their first community planting, funded by Byron Shire Council, attracted 85 planters. Since then, landowners have consistently reached out wanting to have koala trees planted on their land.
Bangalow Koalas have set themselves a goal of planting 500,000 trees by 2025, 90,000 trees per year, to achieve this aim. They have planted 270,000 trees in 99 plantings on 74 properties across six shires. Community engagement is vital to their work, and community plantings are held six to eight times a year. These plantings are very popular, and people of all ages, from children upwards, get involved.
On one occasion, we had 170 people to plant 2,600 trees, and they had them in the ground in 45 minutes.
Children: The Future Protectors
Linda sees educating young people as being vital because they are the future protectors of koalas. To that end, she visits local primary schools dressed in a koala suit, teaching children all about koalas and their needs. Children are taught how to identify and access help for a sick koala and of the threat to koalas from vehicular accidents and dogs, and how to protect them.
site selection
Choosing sites for plantings is essential and each property needs to be assessed. Plantings have to form a corridor which links existing koala habitats. Appropriate trees are grown in local nurseries, and consideration is given to the commitment of landowners to long-term maintenance and fencing, the presence or absence of koalas living nearby, and the nature of the land itself.
I have a brains trust including environmentalists, ecologists and bush regenerators who support the group in these decisions. This year we received specific funding for Indigenous rangers who are assisting in planting and maintenance.
planting Hope Trees
Linda calls the trees ‘hope trees’ because they bring hope for koalas, hope for the children who are our future, and hope for individuals. She says she was humbled by receiving the Australian Geographic Society Conservationist of the Year Award 2022:
It proves that we can all make a difference. You just have to be determined. You have to be passionate and you have to be committed. You as an individual can make a difference and then you can encourage people to join in. We’ve been approached by a whole lot of different community groups across the East Coast from up in Queensland, down in Victoria and New South Wales who want to do what we do.
Eucalyptus VARIETies
The koala is supremely well adapted to their environment and is one of the few species which has managed to exploit the foliage of Eucalypt trees which dominate Australia’s modern forest. Koalas eat between 500 and 800 grams of Eucalypt leaves a day. Their caecum and hind gut have adapted to break down these leaves with the help of unique microbiomes which are specific to the types of Eucalypts they feed from. Koala trees in Victoria will be quite different from those in the Northern Rivers.
Bangalow Koalas choose trees which are native to the environment they are planting on and will plant rainforest species as well as eucalypts in rainforest areas to form habitat for other species.
It benefits many native species like gliders and possums, glossy black cockatoos and all the different birdlife and the bees, as well as the ground dwelling animals. It benefits everything. We’re trying to recreate forests. Major flooding in 2022 affected 10 of the plantings, some were under water for months. While there has been some recovery, Bangalow Koalas has infilled to replace losses with flood recovery funding.
The NSW Government publishes a map of the types of Eucalypts koalas feed from in different geographic areas. Linda follows the advice of this website but says there are White Gums which come from outside of the area which they plant because to koalas they are “like chocolate”.
Evidence of Success
Planting the right trees in the right environments with the right maintenance means for the most part these plantings are thriving. Linda likes to stand on a high point on the farm Bangalow Koalas first planted on and where they had several subsequent plantings.
From here I can see the different plantings at different stages. It is exciting that koala scats and tree scratching are evidence that koalas are already feeding from the established trees. Not only this, but koalas have been sighted in the plantings - leaving no doubt that these plantings were needed.
Saving the Iconic Koala
Koalas have been around for 24 million years, which is around the same time as the earliest Eucalypt pollen fossils. It is likely in evolutionary terms that the koalas specialised adaptation to surviving and thriving on Eucalyptus leaves, at a time when Eucalypts were becoming the dominant flora in Australia, contributed to their survival, but they cannot survive without Eucalyptus trees.
Koalas are highly specialised arboreal folivores who are innately gentle, according to Steve Phillips, a specialised koala ecologist who has worked with koalas for 40 years. They are an iconic Australian marsupial that is unique to Australia and found nowhere else in the world.
Let us imagine ‘hope trees’ flourishing across the East Coast, healthy koala populations expanding and the wildlife corridor creating a habitat for all kinds of flora and fauna. Determined, passionate and committed - that describes Linda herself, a wonderful role model and ambassador for koala conservation not only in the Northern Rivers but across Australia.
So let's all do our part to ensure that koalas thrive for generations to come.
support Bangalow koalas
How can you help? You can make a donation, become a landowner committed to koala tree planting, or get involved in community plantings. To support the work of Bangalow Koalas, visit their website.
Urgent Appeal for Funding
My name is Linda Sparrow, President of Bangalow Koalas. I am writing to ask for your help so we can continue to plant trees to save koalas.
Bangalow Koalas has planted over 270,000 trees throughout the Northern Rivers of NSW to create wildlife corridors for koalas and many other species. We call them ‘hope trees’. Hope for koalas and hope for us all - especially our children - that real change is not only possible, it’s happening.
We’re on track to plant 500,000 trees by 2025 but we need to secure funding to allow us to continue to employ an admin/ecologist for two days a week. The majority of grants we secure do not include funding for this important role. A generous donor has provided funding to date but the money runs out soon.
$40,000 will secure this role for one year.
Bangalow Koalas has a proven collaborative methodology that encourages the community, landholders and businesses to get on board to restore habitat.
The goal is to create an extensive wildlife corridor that connects existing sections of fragmented koala habitat with new habitat. This involves planting alongside existing koala corridors to enhance and expand current habitat and creating a connection to new corridors, thereby encouraging koalas out of urban areas away from the threat of car strikes and attack by dogs.
Long term, Bangalow Koalas’ goal is to extend the corridor westward, forming a linkage of habitat from Byron Bay/Bangalow out towards Tenterfield and south towards Grafton, allowing koalas to move more safely across the landscape.
At the same time, Bangalow Koalas aims to create an open-source e-learning platform (Networked Community Action) that will help community groups across Australia replicate our success.
Our hands-on community-based response to the climate crisis is working. But we need to keep going. There’s still 230,000 ‘hope trees’ get in the ground by 2025.
Linda Sparrow
president@bangalowkoalas.com.au
Mobile - 0411 491 991
AWARDS
2019 NSW Landcare Awards
Winner 2020 & 2022 Byron Shire Environmental Project of the Year Award
Winner 2020 & 2022 Byron Shire Environmental Citizen of the Year
Finalist 2020 & 2022 NSW Environmental Citizen of the Year
Byron Shire Council 2020 Sustainability Award
Australian Geographic Society Conservationist of the Year Award 2022
Saving the East Coast Koala: In this series, we will explore what is being done in the Northern Rivers region to give hope to the East Coast koala population and talk to people and local organisations who are passionate about koalas and work in different ways fighting for their survival.