Stepping Stones – A Great Sydney Project Creating Wildlife Habitat

We are lucky in Australia to have some great areas of natural bush adjoining our towns and cities, which are home to our own unique plants and animals. But as our cities grow, these spaces are increasingly being developed, pushing our wildlife into smaller and smaller areas. Enlightened councils are ensuring that there are enough areas of natural bush to be kept, to serve as wildlife corridors. And you can play your part in enlarging these corridors, by adding habitat elements to your own garden and surrounds.

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  Habitat garden with water and shelter plants

An innovative group has called these ‘stepping stones’, as they are your own smaller bits that can help to link the larger wildlife homes together. This helps to maintain biodiversity, which keeps our native plants and animal populations healthy. So, if you live in Sydney, you can join in with the award winning Habitat Stepping Stones to do your bit for Aussie wildlife. People with gardens can add a number of the elements of food, water and shelter, and they also encourage renters and apartment dwellers to get involved, as even a balcony can have one or more of their suggestions.

Originally the project kicked off with just the Ku-ring-gai council, but there are now 6 councils in the Sydney area that now participate in Habitat Stepping Stones-

– Ku-ring-gai

– Bankstown

– City of Sydney

– Parramatta

– Pittwater

– The Hills Shire

As more councils join in with this wonderful idea, they will be added in to the site.

If you go to the Stepping Stones website there is a wonderful array of information on creating habitats plus a pledge to sign up to so they can add your place to their map. You can also email them with your local council to be notified when they come on board. Why not give your local council a ring to suggest they might want to get involved?

There is a neat check list of food, water and shelter elements, and a range of low, medium and tall plant varieties to make creating your wildlife stepping stone for your area easy. They have a list of suppliers on their website for plants, water elements, nest boxes and rocks and logs, and some give discounts if you have signed up for the pledge. So what more do you need- get onto their website and join in- http://www.habitatsteppingstones.org.au/

The Habitat Stepping Stones project has been designed and developed by the Australian Research Institute for Environment and Sustainability (ARIES) at Macquarie University.
The project is assisted by the New South Wales Government through its Environmental Trust.