Reconnecting fractured koala habitat

After planting more than half a million native trees across the Northern Rivers, Bangalow Koalas has launched a new campaign aimed at expanding wildlife corridors and reconnecting fragmented koala habitat.

The organisation’s ‘Give Koala a Way Home’ campaign builds on restoration work that has seen more than 530,000 trees planted across seven Northern Rivers shires since 2019, with the long-term goal of creating connected habitat where koalas and other native wildlife can move more safely through the landscape.

Bangalow Koalas President, Linda Sparrow, said the project had grown far beyond its modest beginnings.

‘From humble, small-scale beginnings, we are now planting hope on a game-changing scale,’ she said.

‘Hope for koalas, hope for the planet and, in the face of climate change, hope for the future for all of us.’

The eastern Australian koala was listed as endangered in 2022, with habitat loss remaining one of the species’ greatest threats. Bangalow Koalas says restoring habitat corridors is one of the most effective ways of reconnecting isolated populations.

The organisation traces its origins to 2016, when a handful of Bangalow residents came together to protect a small stretch of koala habitat on the village’s western edge. Since then, it has grown into one of Australia’s best-known community conservation groups, working with private landholders, Landcare groups, Traditional Owners and volunteers to restore native vegetation across the region.

Ms Sparrow said the project was about more than planting trees.

‘We’re not just connecting and creating a koala wildlife corridor and fragmented habitat, we’re connecting communities,’ she said.

‘Landcare groups, Indigenous communities, schools – they come all the time to do planting.’

The organisation is encouraging residents to support the campaign through donations, volunteering, and tree planting as it works towards its next milestone of reconnecting koala habitat across the Northern Rivers.