About Grassy Box Woodland Conservation Management Network

Grassy White Box Woodlands are listed as an endangered ecological community under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and White Box - Yellow Box - Blakely's Red Gum Woodlands are listed as an endangered ecological community under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act. The Grassy Box Woodlands Conservation Management Network model is a useful way of managing the conservation of these ecological communities.

Grassy Box Woodlands are characteristic of fragmented ecological communities.  They once dominated millions of hectares on fertile soils of the wheat-sheep belt of NSW, but have now largely been cleared for agriculture. Remnants are widely scattered, often small, on multiple land tenures and rarely managed for conservation.

Important representatives of Grassy Box Woodlands largely remain through chance. There is no certainty for conservation in the long term, as important sites are easily lost through clearing, increased grazing, weed invasion and inappropriate burning. For ecological communities like Grassy Box Woodlands, the processes of ecological degradation are such that once certain thresholds of change are passed they are largely irreversible.

The Grassy Box Woodlands CMN has been coordinated by project officers sitting within the former NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and current NSW Department of Environment and Conservation for the past four years. The project is funded through the Commonwealth Natural Heritage Trust. The Grassy Box Woodlands CMN includes remnants from private land, cemeteries, travelling stock reserves, road and rail easements, town commons, and reserves managed by NPWS, Councils, Trusts and DLWC with a range of quality, size, management regimes and tenures.

More information

• About Conservation Management Networks
• Joining GBWCMN Form (PDF 99KB)