From hollow words to hollow deeds

There’s a housing shortage in our community. And this one has feathers, fur and wings caught up in it.

The loss of large, old trees across our neighbourhood, especially in the past 12 months, also means the loss of tree hollows, important breeding and shelter sites for birds, gliders, microbats and other wildlife.

Protecting the hollow-bearing trees we still have must always come first. But once an old tree and its hollows are gone, replacing that habitat naturally can take more than a century.

So we need to think long term. And act now.

Planning for the hollows of tomorrow

CPPA and Rotary Club of Toronto Sunrise are collaborating on a grant application to the Eraring Community Investment Fund for Hollows for Habitat: A Community-Led Habitat Restoration Pilot.

If successful, the project will begin in 2027, bringing together Rotary, CPPA Landcare, TreeHouse Ecology and local landholders.

The idea is to build local skills as well as hollows.

Volunteers would learn to create habitat hollows and entrance pieces at Progress Hall. An ecologist would assess suitable trees and sites, with qualified climbing contractors installing around 20 hollows on private bushland properties.

Already, 24 local landholders have volunteered to become potential hollow hosts.

Importantly, the skills, tools and workshop space would remain in our community, allowing us to keep creating supplementary habitat well beyond the life of the grant.

But wildlife can’t wait for 2027

While we plan for next year and beyond, another breeding season is already upon us. So CPPA wants to turn plans into practical action.

Our immediate goal is to purchase and install 11 supplementary nest hollows within the next month.

We need funds to purchase the hollows and, ideally, engage an arborist to install them safely at appropriate heights and locations.

Professional installation matters. Different wildlife species need their hollows at different heights in the surrounding habitat. Putting up a hollow is one thing. Putting it where wildlife has a good chance of using it is another.

Habitat loss is already putting pressure on our wildlife. The emerging threat of avian influenza adds another worry for our fine feathered neighbours.

Imagine Coal Point without the morning chorus. Without kookaburras cackling across the peninsula, the parrots parrotting on while perusing potential nest sites or the owls’ haunting hoots while hunting quietly after dark. They all need hollows for homes.

We can’t grow an old hollow-bearing tree in a month.

But we can protect the ones we still have.

And where hollows have already been lost, we can provide supplementary habitat while the next generation of trees grows old.

The grant is about building our capacity to help in the years ahead.

The next 11 hollows are about helping now.

Let’s turn hollow words into hollow deeds. Help us install 11 hollows this breeding season.

DONATE https://events.humanitix.com/hollow-words-hollow-deeds