Habitat tree conservation

Habitat tree: “A standing live or dead tree providing ecological niches (microhabitats) such as cavities, bark pockets, large dead branches, epiphytes, cracks, sap runs, trunk rot and root substrate for fungi and soil biota.”

Researchers say around 300 species of native Australian animals rely on tree hollows for their survival. 13% of terrestrial amphibians need hollows in trees. 10% of our reptiles, 15% of native birds and a whopping 31% of our mammals make use of tree hollows for breeding, refuge or protection (Gibbons and Lindenmayer). Close to 100 species of our threatened wildlife are hollow-dependant.

The Gang-gang Cockatoo, now threatened, is hollow dependant

Our iconic eucalypt species are great at forming hollows but many take over one hundred years to form significant cavities. Large old trees are better at sequestering carbon too. Consequently, our oldest trees and our dead trees are the most valuable trees.

Our state and federal governments recognize the values habitat trees provide to forest biodiversity. The Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act lists the loss of hollow-bearing trees as a threatening process. The ‘loss of hollow-bearing trees in native forests and woodlands due to ecologically unsustainable forestry practices’ is listed as a key threatening process by the Australian Government’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

Healthy urban tree cover should include old and dead trees too. Yes, old and dead trees can present an unacceptable risk in some urban situations but it should be obligatory for urban planners to take this into account and not allow development to encroach too close to such important ecological components. Conservation of habitat trees should be an integral part of local government tree policies.

It’s time we stopped cutting down our old and dead trees!