Trust for Nature (Victoria)

Our mission is to protect and restore biodiversity on private land across Victoria

  • What we do
    • Conservation covenants
    • Working with Aboriginal Victorians
    • Climate change
    • Protecting threatened species
    • Neds Corner Station
    • Conservation reserves
    • Current projects
  • Ways to give
    • Help Protect What Remains
    • Bush Protection Program
    • Wills and bequests
    • Donate land
    • West Gippsland Fund
    • Volunteers
  • About us
    • Our board
    • Our people
    • Covenantors
    • Partners
    • News
    • Events
    • Careers
    • Contact us
  • Resources
    • All publications
    • Strategic Plan 2021-2025
    • Statewide Conservation Plan
    • Resources for landholders
    • Preparing for fire season
    • Resources for businesses
    • Victorian ecosystems
    • Sustainable Development Goals
  • What we do
    • Conservation covenants
    • Working with Aboriginal Victorians
    • Climate change
    • Protecting threatened species
    • Neds Corner Station
    • Conservation reserves
    • Current projects
  • Ways to give
    • Help Protect What Remains
    • Bush Protection Program
    • Wills and bequests
    • Donate land
    • West Gippsland Fund
    • Volunteers
  • About us
    • Our board
    • Our people
    • Covenantors
    • Partners
    • News
    • Events
    • Careers
    • Contact us
  • Resources
    • All publications
    • Strategic Plan 2021-2025
    • Statewide Conservation Plan
    • Resources for landholders
    • Preparing for fire season
    • Resources for businesses
    • Victorian ecosystems
    • Sustainable Development Goals
  • Make an enquiry
  • Properties for sale
  • Donate
  • What we do
    • Conservation covenants
    • Working with Aboriginal Victorians
    • Climate change
    • Protecting threatened species
    • Neds Corner Station
    • Conservation reserves
    • Current projects
  • Ways to give
    • Help Protect What Remains
    • Bush Protection Program
    • Wills and bequests
    • Donate land
    • West Gippsland Fund
    • Volunteers
  • About us
    • Our board
    • Our people
    • Covenantors
    • Partners
    • News
    • Events
    • Careers
    • Contact us
  • Resources
    • All publications
    • Strategic Plan 2021-2025
    • Statewide Conservation Plan
    • Resources for landholders
    • Preparing for fire season
    • Resources for businesses
    • Victorian ecosystems
    • Sustainable Development Goals

Learning to live with mistletoe

Mistletoe

The Ruffs bought a 132-hectare grazing property in Wirrate 21 years ago. They removed the sheep and the property has been managed for conservation ever since with over 140 species of birds recorded. It is protected by a covenant and they’ve done a lot of work to restore plants and wildlife including erecting 30 nest boxes.

The Ruffs have erected two ex-closures designed to keep herbivores out. One of them is in an open grassy area which would be heavily grazed by herbivores such as rabbits and kangaroos, the other ex-closure is in a woodland area, less preferable to herbivores. They are part of a long term monitoring project to compare the browsing behaviours between each of these landscapes. The main vegetation type on the property is Box Ironbark Forest with areas of nationally threatened grassy woodland. The property received funding from the Australian Government through the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority to manage the woodlands.

Mistletoe has challenged the native trees, killing them in fact. So it was surprising when a mistletoe expert told people at a field day held on the property that the mistletoe plant benefits biodiversity.

Professor Dave Watson from Charles Sturt University says we need to understand the whole landscape to understand why mistletoe becomes a problem.

The landscape is recovering and the environment has changed, fire frequency has changed and many of the remaining trees were used as sheep camps, increasing nutrients around the trees. This still effects the health of the trees today, so extra pressures such as mistletoe have an added impact.

Mistletoe does have predators, one of the main ones being Common Brush Tail Possums, which love the sweet and juicy leaves. However the Brush Tail Possum population hasn’t recovered from recent culling history, (contrary to over population in some urban areas).

Butterflies are also predators – the Imperial White Butterfly lays its eggs on mistletoe and the voracious caterpillars reduce mistletoe growth.

Solution

Professor Watson recommends increasing the shrub layer on the property with plants such as Bursaria sp. to encourage butterflies, to trial some cool burns to kill the lower mistletoes and put up nest boxes specifically for the Common Brush Tail Possums and if there is more mistletoe in a tree than eucalypt remove the mistletoe to prolong tree life. But Professor Watson warns the mistletoe will be back!

Solution

Want to stay in the loop?

Subscribe to our news updates

We acknowledge and respect Victorian Traditional Owners as the original custodians of Victoria’s land and waters. We pay respect to Elders past and present and to the continuing spiritual and cultural connection Aboriginal Victorians continue to have with Victoria’s diverse environments.

Our mission is to protect and restore biodiversity on private land across Victoria.

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & conditions
  • Compliance
  • Properties for sale
  • Donate

+61 (0)3 8631 5888
Freecall 1800 999 933
trustfornature@tfn.org.au
5/379 Collins Street,
Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

© Copyright 2017 Trust for Nature (Victoria). ABN 60 292 993 543. Website designed and developed by Zib Digital.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.