Volunteers are planting about 5,000 trees in the Blue Mountains to help feed koalas at a sanctuary after critical food sources were burnt by the summer blazes.
Australian Ecosystems Foundation spokesperson Allison Garoza said the volunteers were creating a wildlife corridor between two nature reserves.
Ms Garoza said the project would revegetate an area of donated farmland, near Lithgow in central western New South Wales, with various eucalyptus species.
The trees will benefit native wildlife and also be suitable to feed koalas undergoing rehabilitation programs at the nearby Secret Creek Sanctuary.
"The diet of the koalas is quite restrictive, there are only a few species of trees that they'll feed on," Ms Garoza said.
"With the bushfires that came through recently a lot of that area has been cleared."
The Gospers Mountain fire burnt through more than 500,000 hectares of bushland in the Blue Mountains area over summer.
Helping hands dig in
The project has received help from volunteers based locally and further afield, many of whom are associated with overseas cultural communities now living and working in Australia.
"It was really nice to see a group of international people come to try and help protect the Australian bushland," she said.
"I think after the bushfires a lot of people felt helpless and this was just a good way to give back."
The owner manager of Secret Creek Sanctuary Trevor Evans said more than half of the 5,000 trees, donated by Featherdale Sydney Wildlife Park, had been planted.
Mr Evans said he appreciated the effort of the helpers working within the restricted numbers allowed on site due to coronavirus restrictions.
"Tree planting is a really good activity during the COVID period because people can still get out and do this — even in their own backyard," he said.
Saving pygmy possums
Mr Evans said the foundation had recently been given a donation of $200,000 from Prague Zoo in the Czech Republic.
The funds will be used for building a facility to breed the critically endangered mountain pygmy possums, which are native to the New South Wales Snowy Mountains, he said.
"It's fantastic for people in a country so far away to contribute to the work we're doing and recognise the work we're doing to save this species," he said.
"We hope to breed them at a lower altitude so they can adapt to climate change into the future."
