Crookshanks’ Wildlife Corridor FNPW Extension Flourishing

The West Peak Creek planting of 1000 trees funded by the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife as one part of the proposed seven kilometre wildlife corridor from the Murrumbidgee River in Crookshanks’ River Paddock to Crookshanks’ Peak along Dry Plains Road near Cooma is now complete. At Crookshanks, we are very grateful for funding and assistance from the Foundation, Greening Australia, Rivers of Carbon, volunteers from Upper Snowy Landcare Network and the Biodiversity Conservation Trust, for ongoing support for this broad wildlife corridor.
The tree planting day, 26 April 2022, began at dawn with the arrival of Nicki Taws, a zoologist from Greening Australia. Nicki and Greening Australia were delivering 1000 koala-attracting trees and shrubs that day, for the Peak Creek West riparian area, and another 1000 trees for our Rivers of Carbon Murrumbidgee River planting.
Preparation had included days and days of spot spraying paddocks and tree trenches. The planters were inserting soaked water crystals in the bottom of each hole, and burying each seedling deeply to ensure deep root development. Our friends and volunteers were building 2000 tree guards. John Boyd was cooking up an “as much as you can eat and drink” Crookshanks’ lunch, in gratitude, for this selfless, willingly offered assistance.
After 8 months in the ground, with a strong electric fence protecting them from predators a cold and very slow start to spring and enough rain to keep them growing, we are delighted to announce an at least 85 per cent success rate. We are hoping that some of our volunteers will be young enough to visit our wildlife corridor on a continuing basis, and in twenty years, to admire and study the transformed environment replenished with wallabies, koalas, platypus, rikali, quolls, possums, wombats, echidnas, endangered birds and snakes, and Macquarie perch.