Let's Start with a Property Management Plan

Where do you start if you would like to regenerate habitat on your own private property? What if I don’t know the first thing about it?

If these questions resonate with you then I can honestly say, that’s exactly where I was only 4 years ago. I knew that I wanted to regenerate habitat, and I knew a few important native animals that were using the property, and I didn’t know much more at all.

I cannot recommend highly enough the benefit you will gain by having a professional assess your property and develop a property management plan. This was the first activity that I had completed and I constantly return to this document. I often simply provide the entire document to funding bodies and professionals that is convenient and gives them a comprehensive answer to questions before they even ask them.

Knowing your property is the first step in working to regenerate the ecosystem.

This plan may include surveying flora and fauna, or flora alone. This plan forms the cornerstone of all that will happen with the property afterwards. It will inform, not only the current situation, but will inform how to move forward in eradicating weeds and maintenance of the habitat.

A property management plan may contain sections such as:

• Aims and objectives

• Site description

• Topography and soils

• Vegetation description

• Ecological values and connectivity

• Climate change corridor status

• Weeds

• Management issues

• Work zones

• Recommendations and guidelines

• Monitoring and reporting

• Maps showing locality, topography, habitat and work zones

• Tables listing detailed data such as species lists and work processes

• Photographs of flora and fauna to illustrate descriptions

Understanding your flora, will allow you to understand how it fits into the ecosystem.

If your property conducts agriculture or horticulture this will be reflected in your plan.

The plan will be easily read and understood by both the layperson and professionals that may come in to work on the property. This is important, as it must contain plain enough language to inform the property owner, and assist in planning and writing further funding applications.

Lead regenerator David De Nardi hand clearing lantana

Koala Gardens had a property management plan completed in July 2015, and is still using this plan to successfully write funding applications in 2018. The life of the plan should be as long as 10 years unless there are major alterations to the property during that time.

The plan will include recommendations for how to deal with types of weeds, and the preferred method for zones. Methods may include hand removal, composting of seeds, cut and paint, spot spraying or overspraying.

Lead regenerator David De Nardi spot spraying in open grass areas in 2015.

The property management plan is an exciting document that brings out detail of your property that you were probably never aware of.

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