Susan Island Nature Reserve

Susan Island Nature Reserve New South Wales
IUCN category IV (habitat/species management area)
Susan Island
Susan Island Nature Reserve
Nearest town or city	Grafton
Coordinates	29°40′55″S 152°54′49″E / 29.68194°S 152.91361°E / -29.68194; 152.91361
Established	May 1982 (1982-05)[1]
Area	0.23 km2 (0.1 sq mi)[1]
Managing authorities	NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service
Website	Susan Island Nature Reserve
See also	Protected areas of New South Wales

Susan Island

Geography
Location	Clarence River
Administration
Australia
State	New South Wales

The Susan Island Nature Reserve is a protected 20-hectare (49-acre) reserve nature reserve located at the western (upstream) end of the 90ha Susan Island, a 3km long x 420m wide river island, that is located in the Clarence River, in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales in eastern Australia near the centre of Grafton.^[1] The rainforest of the nature reserve and adjoining crown land is a rare 19-hectare (47-acre) example of sub tropical lowland rainforest on floodplain, and is listed under the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Act as an Endangered Ecological Community.^[2]

Although only 23ha in total, the nature reserve contains the largest remaining remnant of this rainforest community in the Clarence Valley, together with smaller remnants in Coramba Nature Reserve (9ha) and in the Maclean Rainforest Reserve (2ha). A long term rainforest regeneration program has successfully been undertaken since the early 1990s to protect, restore and enhance the reserve's lowland subtropical rainforest from the damaging impacts of destructive invasive weeds, particularly fast-growing exotic vines such as Cat's Claw Creeper, Dutchman's Pipe, Moonflower and Balloon Vine which have infested and damaged all northern NSW riparian zones since the early 1990s by forming dense heavy curtains that blanket and kill trees, then collapse and suppress the rainforest canopy. ^[3]