WildScape Your Environment

Wildscaping urban areas is the practice of Wildscaping. You can wildscape your home garden, office, council park or school environment. WildScaping is a practical method to help Australian endangered species survive and can be achieved by doing the following:

Plant Australian native trees that are or once were endemic to your area. Many of our gums can be easily propagated by collecting the flower pods and storing in a paper bag. In a couple of months the seeds will fall out the pods into the bottom of the bag. Plant the seeds in small pots before spring and leave in a sunny position.

Planting in 3-5m corridors along fence lines allows smaller birds shelter from larger territorial birds. Small birds will often not fly in large open areas because of this. Planting dense shrubbery under larger flowering trees allows small and larger birds to get to all the food sources.

Having a water source such as a bird bath or pond will provide much needed water in the hotter months. Birds, especially the young, are very susceptible to heat fatigue and having a pond in a shaded area is ideal.

Wildscaping below the shrubs and trees with rocks and insect attracting native grasses creates a source of food for birds and small reptiles. Rocks can be arranged so shelter for lizards is also available.

Endangered Australian Birds

The Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts has an Action Plan for endangered Australian Birds. The plan provides a national overview of the conservation status of all birds in Australia. Endangered Birds List...

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WildScaper and Wildscaping

During recent decades there has been a growing level of concern about damage to the global environment and the resultant loss of natural habitats, flora and fauna species. Past and present urban developments have been designed to meet human needs with the construction of houses, shops, roads, carparks, factories etc., taking priority over the needs of the environment.

In urban areas many species of native flora and fauna have become isolated from life sustaining habitats as natural wildlife corridors become damaged or lost due to urban developments. This has contributed to the decline of many of our native Australian flora and fauna. To redress this issue, WildScaping has evolved as a means to re-build sustainable wildlife corridors throughout urban landscapes by reinstating natural food and migration corridors where birds and other native fauna can live, feed and move about human settlements in relative safety.

In the early 1980's community orientated natural resource management programs emerged in Australia aiming to engage local communities in the identification, protection and repair of local habitats. Programs such as Landcare focus primarily on rural areas, Coastcare on the coastal zone and the Murray Darling Basin Natural Resource Management program on the river system, ecosystems and adjacent irrigation areas. Communities throughout these areas have been working together to tackle local natural resource management issues and there are opportunities for local communities such as schools to develop and implement on ground Wildscaping projects.

With WildScaper, students can expand their knowledge about the features and needs of our local environment and not only use this information to create dynamic standalone software applications but also consider developing hands on wildscaping projects in their own neighbourhoods.