Our National Biodiversity Month series continue with a little look skywards, and the importance of an urban canopy.
A ‘canopy’ is created when a group of trees grow close enough to connect and extend their habitat for birds and wildlife.
A canopy offers freedom of movement, sanctuary from earthbound predators (sorry cat-lovers), shelter and food.
This is easily understood when it comes to birds, such as the Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo, but our region is also home to unique tree-living marsupials such as the Western Ringtail Possum, which is currently a threatened species.
In our urban environments, we sometimes remove old/dead trees for safety reasons – but these are the trees that most often have hollows which are an important refuge for our wildlife. However, we can still encourage wildlife by including habitat boxes or other structures with our healthy natives.
Plant a stand of trees for the future, and make sure our wildlife has somewhere to call home!