Understanding our native wildlife and their habitats is important when planning for our future. We want to better understand where our native wildlife is and the areas connecting them to pockets of native vegetation in order to support the development of habitat corridors. These habitat corridors enable wildlife to move more easily between areas and access other populations of their species for mating.

Previous community contributions to Have Your Say and at face-to-face workshops are supporting and informing the Habitat Corridor Plan currently being drafted by a consultant. The wildlife habitat planning will:

• Increase vegetation
• Support wildlife
• Improve waterways
• Contribute to a network of habitat corridors across Knox City Council

What you can do to further support habitat corridors in Knox:

• Join a local Friends Group
• Join the Gardens for Wildlife program or sign up to be a Gardens for Wildlife Volunteer
• Become a citizen scientist and contribute sightings of native and invasive flora and fauna on iNaturalist. For more information on how to use iNaturalist or contact the Biodiversity Team at Biodiversity@knox.vic.gov.au
• Upload sighting of invasive species in Knox to FeralScan. FeralScan is a free app which allows you to upload sightings of feral fox, rabbit, deer, and bird species to inform and notify our Biodiversity Team of their abundance and distribution. These observations inform management actions. For more information on FeralScan or contact the Biodiversity Team at Biodiversity@knox.vic.gov.au

Through this research and planning, we aim to identify and provide priority actions for the management, protection and enhancement of habitat corridors across Knox.

We are keen to learn about how you use our bushland reserves and what you have found when exploring them. This will help us better understand the habitats for our native animals.

We invite you to participate in a questionnaire on bushland reserves and native animal habitats in Knox.

The information will be used to support our future habitat corridor planning to manage our urban biodiversity.