Megan Ward is the owner of Te Kapowai Sanctuary, a property situated in East Wardell, approximately 50km south of Byron Bay, NSW. The property is a residence and wildlife sanctuary also used for wildlife rehabilitation.
Megan intends to extend and improve the existing zones of high biodiversity across the property and create a habitat corridor between the Bundjalung National Park in the south and private forests in the north. She also plans to regenerate areas of the property overrun with weeds to protect the pied oystercatchers that reside there, and plans to regenerate wet areas to improve habitat for local wildlife, including koalas. Megan also intends to prevent toxic runoff from neighbouring farmland draining into the Richmond River. As the property is of high biodiversity value, Megan hopes to enter an agreement with the Biodiversity Conservation Trust (BCT) to get her sanctuary recognized as an Area of Outstanding Biodiversity Value (AOBV).
The property covers 40 hectares of coastal littoral forest, coastal dunes, wetlands and alluvial plains. Local vegetation types include native grasslands, coastal eucalypts and stackhousia species. Wildlife is abundant on the property and includes pied oystercatchers (Haematopus longirostris), brolgas (Grus rubicunda), black cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus spp.), bare-nosed wombats (Vombatus ursinus) and a wide variety of frogs and birds. A formal survey may reveal additional threatened flora and fauna on the sanctuary
