After 18 years of work, Lismore finally develops koala plan

IT TOOK 18 years but Lismore Council’s Koala Plan of Management is now a reality.

Mimi O'Reilly 9, and Samuel Roberts 8, from Tregeagle public school at the launch of the Koala plan of Management at Tregeagle. Picture: Doug Eaton

IT TOOK 18 years but Lismore Council's Koala Plan of Management is now a reality.

An official launch ceremony was held yesterday at Paul and Debbie Chapman's macadamia farm at Tregeagle.

Council's ecologist Dr Damien Licari said there were two main components to the plan; a regulatory component that looks at limiting the effects humans are having on koalas and also engaging the community at all levels to get trees planted.

Friends of the Koala president Lorraine Vass congratulated Lismore for being only the fourth council in NSW to adopt a Koala Plan of Management, and thanked the State Government for offering funding incentives to get on board.

She said five of the six councils in the Northern Rivers are now developing plans.

"The bigger the landscape scale for koala management and conservation the better," she said.

"We need partnerships for vegetation planting because connectivity is what it is all about."

Council has established a Koala Implementation Group - with representatives from Friends of the Koala, rural landholders and experts in bush regeneration and koala ecology - to oversee and guide on-ground actions and identify priority areas for restoration works.

There are about 20 landowners in the Tregeagle area involved in regeneration work and council has a list of 60 landowners wishing to undertake tree planting programs and will call for expressions of interest as funding becomes available.

Mayor Jenny Dowell said the plan of management only covers the south-east part of the Lismore LGA, but there were people from Rosebank Coraki at the launch who were keen to see it extended to other areas.