Nature Reserves
Southern Midlands Municipal area has 20 publically owned reserves, set aside in recognition of the important nature conservation values of each particular site. Only one of these sites is owned by the Southern Midlands Council being the Chauncy Vale Wildlife Sanctuary.
This area at Bagdad was originally in the Chauncy family.
The remaining 19 sites are owned by Parks and Wildlife, comprising of ten Conservation Areas, one Game Management Reserve (Lake Tiberias) and eight Nature Reserves. Lake Dulverton Conservation Area is perhaps the most well known. This site is managed by the Southern Midlands Council, under the guidance of the Lake Dulverton and Callington Park Management Committee. The total area of these reserves make up 2.9% of the total Southern Midlands Municipal area.
There are also many more formal and informal areas under private reserves, covered by long term nature conservation covenants, or landcare sites with short term management agreements, or sites just ‘set aside’ by private landholders. If the privately owned land parcels under some form of nature conservation regime is included in land area calculations, around 7.5% of the municipal area is now managed for environmental purposes.
