Littoral rainforest at the edge of Belongil Creek on the site of the North Byron Beach Resort is being restored courtesy of WetlandCare Australia.
With funding from the federal government’s Caring for our Country program, the property is one of 20 wetlands to be restored as part of WetlandCare Australia’s $2.5 million Coastal 20 wetlands restoration project.
So far the group’s bush regeneration team has been working with North Byron Beach Resort to undertake weed control through an area of 11 hectares of this important vegetation community.
WetlandCare Australia project officers also located active fox dens at the site and with the help of the Livestock Health and Pest Authorities were able to undertake control activities. The removal of these predators had an immediate impact as the endangered Pied Oystercatchers, which nest at the nearby Belongil Spit, successfully fledged two chicks for the first time in a number of years.
North Byron Beach Resort will help WetlandCare Australia to maintain the works long term and ensure the continued health of the site.
They will also continue to monitor for fox activity in the area to help protect the important nesting shorebirds of the Belongil Spit, which is critical habitat for these protected species.
Adam Gosling, Coastal 20 project manager for WetlandCare Australia, said the Belongil estuary ‘has significant environmental, recreational and cultural values and is home to many threatened fauna and flora species’.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
