Valerie was recently awarded the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment from the Ecological Society of Australia to investigate carbon storage and biodiversity potential of environmental planting sites across Australia. The grant will be used to elicit information on the fauna habitat values of planted species for woodland dependent birds to estimate biodiversity potential. Existing estimates of above ground biomass from a CSIRO inventory of the planting sites will be utilised for carbon storage potential. Findings will be validated in the field through habitat assessments, estimates of above ground biomass and bird surveys in selected planting sites across southern Queensland. This study is part of her PhD research project supervised by Professor Kerrie Wilson and Dr John Dwyer with The University of Queensland and CSIRO.

Photo: Valerie Hagger