Goulburn Broken CMA urges community to protect paddock trees as vital habitat and ecosystem heroes.
The Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority (CMA) is shining a spotlight on the critical role tree hollows play in supporting native wildlife as part of its 2025 Year of the Tree Hollow community awareness campaign.
Lace monitor on a hollow tree. Photographer: Ros King
This month’s focus is on large old trees and standing dead trees—often overlooked, yet vital providers of tree hollow habitat for birds, bats, marsupials, and insects.
“Large old trees and dead standing trees, and the tree hollow habitat they provide, are essential for a suite of native fauna such as birds, possums, phascogales, antechinus and microbats,” said Goulburn Broken CMA Project Officer Janice Mentiplay-Smith. “We need to treasure and treat every tree—dead or alive—as a vital part of the catchment’s natural estate. Our native birds and other fauna are an integral part of the Australian landscape. A land without our native wildlife would be unimaginable, but to retain them, we need to retain their homes.”
Large old trees deliver multiple benefits beyond habitat. They store carbon, improve soil health, mitigate erosion and salinity and provide shelter for livestock. Their canopies reduce wind and water loss to crops, while their roots recycle nutrients and maintain soil structure.
“Living or dead paddock trees are essential to a healthy farming landscape and are valued by the community for their economic and environmental benefits,” Ms Mentiplay-Smith said. “They act as vegetated highways and stepping stones for native birds and bats, enabling movement between larger remnants and supporting genetic diversity.”
Tree hollows take 150–200 years to form, making them irreplaceable in the short term. Different to the northern hemisphere where species such as woodpeckers help to create tree hollows, Australian hollow habitat relies on natural processes like fungi, lightning strikes, and branch shedding.
“It is illegal to remove, lop or destroy native vegetation, including paddock trees and standing dead trees,” Ms Mentiplay-Smith added. “Protecting these trees during activities such as stubble burning is crucial.”
Grey - Box Woodland. Photographer: Janice Mentaplay-Smith
A lacy monitor resting in tree hollow. Photographer: Richard Gregson.
The Goulburn Broken CMA urges landholders and the community to value every paddock tree. “Once lost, these hundreds-of-years-old sentinels cannot be quickly replaced,” Ms Mentiplay-Smith said. “Dead or alive, they provide nesting and roosting sites for birds and bats that control pests and pollinate crops; services that are vital for farm and landscape health.”
The Year of the Tree Hollow is supported by the Victorian Government through the Our Catchments Our Communities stewardship program.
Photos: A variety of photos are attached, by Janice Mentaplay-Smith, Richard Gregson, Ros King.