Revegetation project to plant thousands of seedlings to help black cockatoos

About 12,500 seedlings will be planted in the Karnup, Coolup, Waroona and Yarloop areas this winter in a bid to help WA’s iconic Black-Cockatoos.

The plantings are part of BirdLife Australia’s Alcoa Community Black-Cockatoo Recovery Project, which aims to provide more habitat and increase our knowledge of the endangered and threatened Black-Cockatoo species.

About 2,200 seedlings were planted last year and another 10,000 will be planted next year as part of the partnership with bauxite miner and alumina producer, which is funded by the company’s global charity the Alcoa Foundation.

About 20 artificial hollows have also been installed across the partnership area, which stretches along the cost from Kwinana down to Mandurah, east to Jarrahdale and Dwellingup and south to the Waroona-Harvey area.

Several community planting days will be held during this winter planting season including two days at West Coolup on June 30 and July 1 and another in Yarloop on July 18. People can get involved by contacting carnabys@birdlife.org.au

The planting activities in the Yarloop area are designed to help replace Black-Cockatoo food and nest trees lost during the 2016 bushfires in the area.

PIC: Carnaby's black cockatoo by Georgina Steytler.

BirdLife Australia’s Black-Cockatoo Project Coordinator Adam Peck urged people to get involved in the community planting days.
“It’s great to see people out and active at these events after being cooped up due to COVID-19,” Adam said. “I think people are really keen to be involved and help our cockies survive and thrive in this area”.

Mr Peck said much of the area covered by the partnership with Alcoa was cleared with small, fragmented pockets of bush.

“Research shows that Black-Cockatoos do best when habitat is connected, so one aim is to rebuild connections in the landscape to allow birds to forage efficiently and take shelter when needed,” Adam said. “For this reason, the sites have been carefully selected to form linkages between places like Buller and Nine Mile Lake Nature Reserves and the Darling Scarp.”

Private landowners are supporting the revegetation efforts by allowing some of the planting to occur their properties.

Alcoa Corporate Affairs Director Jodie Read said the company was proud to be able to support this project through the Alcoa Foundation.

“This partnership builds on work Alcoa has done over many years to better understand and protect biodiversity, including threatened species like Black-Cockatoos, in and around the areas where we operate. It is a great way for us to support the local community to plant trees and help restore the local environment” Jodie said.