We are excited to announce that Land for Wildlife Top End is working with Charles Darwin University to assist with re-vegetation projects around the university Casuarina campus that replenish areas as native wildlife habitat.

Charles Darwin University are in the process of joining Land for Wildlife as an educational member. This is wonderful news that will create a whole range of opportunities for community engagement, educational collaboration and learning as well as of course habitat protection.

The Charles Darwin University campus at Casuarina is in a unique position, nestled into the Casausrina coastal reserve, which covers an area of 13.6 square kms of land. The Casaurina campus is across 2 tenures of land (totaling 58 hectares), the most northerly borders on Mangroves communities of the reserve. The campus includes many university buildings and landscaped gardens but also includes 8 hectares of remnant vegetation. The endangered Black-footed Tree-rats have been recorded in an area of this woodland and research scientists have installed nest boxes to enhance the habitat.

In the wet season, the Green Army assisted with planting 800 trees in areas adjacent to the CDU campus that had been cleared of Coffee Bush by the CDU amenities team. Our Green Army team also watered the plants each week once the rain had stopped, until their graduation in May. Now the amenities staff are keeping the areas watered and weed free.

Included in these trees was also a planting that was carried out by Conservation Land Management students, as part of their “Restore Natural Habitats unit”. The Land for Wildlife coordinator joined students to give a background to the restoration and enhancement program for the Black-footed Tree-rats in Land for Wildlife. Students will continue to care for the plantings they carried out.

More plantings will continue this wet season in previously disturbed areas and a weed management and sustainability on campus plan is being developed by university staff, with consultation with Land for Wildlife.