Biodiversity Corridors Action Plan

The City of Salisbury describes itself as a Living City. We understand that living in a city with a vibrant biological basis is good for our health, our view of community and for our view of ourselves. For the city-dweller with an urban lifestyle, the urban environment provides the basis for his/her views on nature. If local-native plants and animals disappear from the urban environment, then the city-dweller will not appreciate the richness and diversity of life around them and will not necessarily be able to transfer an environmental awareness to areas outside of the city.
Urban systems are dynamic environments with their own ecology. They contain natural habitats within an overlay of man-made environments. The assemblages of locally native and introduced flora and fauna species are a direct result of human influence. Development pressure for housing and industry can lead to significant changes to biodiversity. Such localised pressures typically lead to the creation of a simplified and poorly understood urban matrix which is unsuitable for the majority of native species that once inhabited the area. With the intensification of the global greenhouse effect, resulting climate change and the ever increasing impact of the human ecological footprint we must become more sustainable in our use of natural resources and to significantly reduce the impacts of our ways on the planets natural systems and resources. Conservation of biological diversity is a foundation of ecological sustainability. This Biodiversity Corridor Plan for the City of Salisbury is a critical step towards achieving this conservation goal at the local level.
This report is a response to the mandate set out in Councils Strategic Planning Framework and in particular the its Game Plan (2008) which states that “Council has a responsibility to conserve the City’s natural assets through planning and decision making to prevent further loss of biodiversity significance. It is essential to establish coordinated planning for the protection and expansion of areas with biodiversity value.” This document summarises findings from a detailed flora and fauna survey and ecological assessment of sites along the five designated biodiversity corridors where habitat and species diversity is required to be conserved, linked and expanded (Game Plan 2008). This baseline information has been used to determine conservation measures for threatened species and revegetation and habitat enhancement strategies for each corridor. Site by site rehabilitation action plans are currently under development; along with strategies for annual monitoring of sites to determine the effectiveness of remedial measures and to propose further improvements to on-ground works.