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As with so many cases of threatened species conservation, human disturbance poses one of the biggest threats to the Milton Ulladulla subtropical rainforest (MUSR), a highly threatened rainforest community restricted to volcanic soils. This ecological community is critical to conserve as it is essentially the southern limit of subtropical rainforest in eastern Australia. A challenge to its conservation is that a high proportion of its distribution occurs on private agricultural land.

This NSW Saving our Species project aimed to partner with key local landholders, land managers and groups in the community in order to enhance engagement with the conservation efforts and to target the key threats to this endangered ecological community. These key threats include domestic stock damage, edge effects, fragmentation and weed invasion. This work has been undertaken by engaging with local landholders who have rainforest on their properties through three main avenues; local workshops, educational material and direct liaison.

The project operates in close partnership with Milton Rural Landcare, who are the central community focus point for the project. They are the primary contact point for landholders, host community education workshops, produce all plants for the revegetation component and are the primary source of volunteers for on-ground work. The 2019/20 bushfires that ravaged the Milton area also took a toll on the project. This has caused a change in focus of on-ground actions and has expanded community outreach.

Results

• 6 community engagement events (stalls at local show and rural supply store, workshops and educational talks)
• 6 partner organisations, two community based
• 8 sites (6 private landholders) are currently part of the project, with four remnants fenced (14 ha). An additional site is being used for seed collection and possible private land conservation.
• 14 volunteer planting days with over 500 volunteer hours contributed.
• 7000 plants in 7 ha area (>80% planting success); over 1% increase in the rainforest extent; and a significant reduction in edge/area ratio of remnants.
• Local employment and engagement of many local businesses.
• Detailed monitoring is being undertaken on composition, structure and function of revegetated areas, although it is too early in the project for those results.

Conclusions
Community engagement and knowledge building has been the backbone of the project. Milton Rural Landcare has a long-standing and trusted presence within the community. Bringing people together has helped build resilience, which has now been transferred into building resilience in the rainforest.