Habitat creation is a relatively new practice in Arboriculture. The aim is to create habitat for native animals either as a permanent shelter or as an option for nesting and raising young.
Australia has a very large portion of wildlife that require hollows for nesting and reproduction, approximately 300+ species.
Approximately one third of terrestrial mammals
Two thirds of microbat species
15% of native birds (vs 10% USA & 9% Southern Africa)
Many more species also benefit from hollows
Due to a large loss of habitat and the fact that naturally occurring hollows typically take 120-150 years to develop, the demand for tree hollows has become extremely high.
The good news is that we can give your dead or dying tree a second life as a home for local wildlife! We can do this in existing standing trees by grinding the heartwood of the tree out and leaving a hollow suitable for a target animal, or for animals and fungi to carry on excavating. If there are no suitable trees on your property we can potentially hang pre-made hollows in a large enough tree.
Check out some of the team in action!
Live trees are even better due to their ability to regulate temperature up to 12-15% in comparison to the ambient temperatures!
Obviously the trees selected must remain safe in the ground after pruning and hollow creation so not all trees are viable options. In saying that we believe that leaving dead trees standing (assessed as safe) is crucial for ecological diversity and stability. It’s not necessarily about the creatures you can see either, we’re always amazed at how much insect life a tree can support!
Here are some of the dimensions required to support the different types of live we have in Australia provided by the VTIO.
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