Linking conservation areas across Tasmania’s Central Highlands to create 20,000 hectares of privately protected areas for nature, the Pine Tier property makes a difference at a landscape scale.
Located in the heart of Tasmania, Pine Tier spans 1,880 hectares of central plateau, traversed by crystal clear streams and shaded by the endemic Mt Mawson pine. But it isn’t just breathtaking natural beauty that makes Pine Tier so special – it’s a vital link in the mosaic of conservation efforts across Tasmania’s Central Highlands.
Pine Tier’s importance lies in connectivity. Its placement between existing private conservation properties – including TLC’s Five Rivers Reserve (11,175 hectares) and trawtha makuminya, a 6,878 hectare property managed for conservation by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre – opens up vast pathways across the Central Highlands. This allows Tasmania’s precious wildlife to safely move across expansive habitats in search of food and habitat.
By stitching together these properties, we will create 20,000 hectares of uninterrupted conservation land for our precious native wildlife to thrive well into the future.
GRASSLANDS, SEDGELANDS AND PEATLANDS
Over 70% of Pine Tier’s diverse landscape is comprised of threatened vegetation, including extensive areas of highland Poa grasslands and the nationally endangered highland Sphagnum peatland.
Intact Sphagnum peatlands play an important role in carbon sequestration globally, storing more carbon than all other forest vegetation types and mitigating the effects of climate change. But due to active harvesting, peatlands are at risk all over the globe, restricting their ability to store and release water into catchments, sequester carbon and support biodiversity.
As the effects of a changing climate become more apparent, private land conservation is increasingly important for safeguarding precious ecosystems like Pine Tier and ensuring they thrive for generations to come.
Many of Tasmania’s extraordinary, endemic animals call Pine Tier home, including threatened and endangered species like Tasmanian devils, Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagles and the eastern quoll.
The increasing fragmentation of eastern quoll habitat has meant this charismatic creature is now extinct on the mainland and sadly, they are now at risk of disappearing in Tasmania. Once a stronghold for eastern quolls, recent studies in the Central Highlands have shown their vulnerability, with huge declines in sightings.
With Pine Tier’s eucalypt forest and extensive grasslands providing perfect habitat for quolls to hunt and forage, its protection will ensure these existing wildlife corridors remain intact and reduce human impacts on eastern quolls in this critical landscape.
Pine Tier is a crucial opportunity to make a real difference in the protection of Tasmania’s natural heritage. But we cannot do it alone. We need your help to raise the funds necessary to ensure the places we value today are protected long into the future.
Let’s tip the scales back in nature’s favour.
