Each year they take the opportunity to inspect projects in a particular landscape and this time the Lower North Coast was under the spotlight.

Chairman Wej Paradice and Board members Arthur Burns, John Weate, Chris Scott and Julia Immie were keen to see for themselves the stretch of Upper Bowman River now protected under the first ever Riparian Property Vegetation Plan (PVP).

The board realised that in previous funding rounds it was very difficult for landowners, who had narrow stretches of riparian land that they wanted to protect under a PVP agreement, to be competitive in the overall tendering process. Therefore a special Riparian PVP category was introduced and the Ward family was one of the first to be offered funding for one of these agreements.

Also on the agenda was a visit to Jane Scott’s 410-hectare property north-west of Gloucester. Early this year Ms Scott entered into a PVP with the CMA to set aside and manage roughly two thirds of her property in perpetuity (forever).

Prior to signing the agreement she had been considering logging the forested area on her property to generate the income needed for developing her cattle business, but now the incentive PVP payment means she can invest in improvements to the productive area of her property and undertake weed and fire management on the forested area protected under the PVP.

From some relatively new PVPs, it was then time to inspect one of the oldest. Signed in January 2007 this agreement sees 637 hectares of forest on a property known as Mt Carrington, 14km from Nowendoc on the Cooplacurripa River, protected in perpetuity. The conservation area includes Sub-tropical rainforest and Wet and Dry Sclerophyll forest with potential for over 25 threatened species to occur there.

Another highlight of the board meeting was a visit to the 3,761-hectare property ‘Kalungra’, purchased last year to protect its river and the rich ecosystem it supports. The CMA contributed 50 per cent of the cost of the property on the Barnard River at Hanging Rock for addition to the National Park Estate. Board members were shown around the property by Catherine Watt from the National Parks and Wildlife Service and neighboring landholder, Alexander Christian.