Some KKA people recently attended a most informative webinar by Dr Nicola Sockhill – hosted by BirdLife Australia – on the importance of midstorey vegetation for improving biodiversity outcomes, in particular for our small woodland birds.
There has been a lot of focus on canopy trees in the past in conservation, planning, planting for shade and so forth.
The midstorey is the layer of vegetation between the understorey (ground covers, shrubs, small trees etc) and the canopy layer. Many parks consist of lawn and canopy trees – which leads to major biodiversity shortcomings.
The issue is very relevant to the KKA and member friends groups. Our Treasurer and Birdlife Australia Board Member Gillian Jervis talked about the issue during her bird talk at the recent Markham art/planting event. Birdlife Australia is the preeminent bird conservation group in Australia.
You can view the seminar here.
As an added bonus, the seminar launched the recently published Birdlife Australia Noisy Miner Management Guide.
Although it relates mainly to land managers, some of it can be applied in urban/residential settings.
You can access the Guide here.