Habitat Enhancement Ross Road Park

Camphor Laurel treatment / habitat creation

The first element of the project was to prevent environmental weed trees (Camphor laurels) from reproducing whilst at the same time preserving their structure to maintain riparian bank stability, erosion control, and habitat value.

The work involved removing the canopy and poisoning the trunks of the mature Camphor laurels. These trees are considered Category 3 Restricted Matter under the Biosecurity Act 2014.

Habitec arborists reduced the trees and then created multiple carved hollows within the reduced limbs to accommodate local wildlife species. To encourage the recolonisation by the local native species to the hollows in the tree structure, several Ficus watkinsiana (native Strangler figs) were planted.

Waterbody habitat enhancement

The goal of the second element of this project was to provide resources such as hunting, wing-drying, and resting points for birds that live in the naturalized dams on site, including Great Cormorants, Yellow-billed Spoonbills, Azure Kingfishers, and Great Egrets. Prior to the undertaking of this project, there were no such resources in these water bodies for these birds.

To achieve this, we installed two bird roost poles. Both roost poles were made of reclaimed Eucalyptus pilularis trees.