An ambitious 10-year plan to slow the nation's extinction crisis will be launched today at a conservation reserve south of Canberra.

As part of the plan, 50 scientists from 15 universities across the country will collaborate on 55 conservation projects.

The Saving Our Species plan has been devised by Bush Heritage Australia, a not-for-profit philanthropic conservation organisation that hopes to raise $20 million to fund it.

It will be launched today at Scottsdale Reserve, about 4 kilometres from Bredbo, south of the ACT.

Bush Heritage Australia's Dr Jim Radford said Australia was facing a biodiversity crisis, with 20 per cent of native mammals threatened with extinction and up to 20 per cent of birds in a similar situation.

"Simply protecting areas isn't going to be enough to save all of these species," he said.

"The need has never been greater and the urgency has never been greater.

"What we have been doing is making a difference, but we don't have all the knowledge necessary to recover all of the species that we want to."

Dr Radford said if successful, the Saving Our Species blueprint would double the organisation's research and science capacity.

"We are looking to ramp up our investment and leverage in science and research by partnering with academics," he said.

"To be involved in research on the ground and lead conversations at a national level, on issues that are of conservation significance."

He said the plan also aimed to provide greater transparency around philanthropic research activities.

'It is about conservation in perpetuity'

The new research plan includes fire and threatened species management, feral animal control, invasive species and ecological restoration.

Australian National University ecologist Dr David Freudenberger is among 50 scientists collaborating on the project.

His existing long-term research project on Scottsdale Reserve involves restoring grassy eucalypt woodlands.

Dr Freudenberger said they were the most threatened terrestrial ecosystems in Australia.

ANU students involved in a revegetation program at Scottsdale in southern NSW. ( Bush Heritage Australia )

"Scottsdale Reserve is a living classroom for my students, at understanding the challenges of restoring the grassy woodland," he said.

Some of the scientists involved with Bush Heritage Australia's new plan are offering their time and team contributions for free.

Dr Freudenberger said the project on Scottsdale Reserve had engaged 500 volunteers, who hand-planted native shrubs and trees in one of the largest woodland restoration efforts in the nation.

"To date there has been over 95 per cent survival over two years," he said.

Dr Freudenberger said because the plan was a 10-year commitment, it would not be constrained by the political calendars of election and funding cycles.

"It is about conservation in perpetuity," he said. "Sound ecological research can't be done in short-term projects.

"What makes Scottsdale special is its size, and it is free of the agency politics and bureaucracy, which makes it easy to build research relationships."

Striped legless lizard to be reintroduced at Scottsdale

Bush Heritage Australia intends to reintroduce a nationally threatened, striped legless lizard into Scottsdale Reserve later this year.

The Striped legless lizard will be reintroduced into Scottsdale Reserve later this year. ( Photo: Brett Howland )

"It looks a bit like a snake and it is dependent on high quality grasslands and open woodlands," Dr Freudenberger said.

"It has been lost to the ACT from suburban expansion and they don't travel very far and they don't cross roads.

"This will be an option to save the lizards and find them a new home with long-term, secure management."

Scottsdale Reserve is just one of Bush Heritage Australia's many reserves dotted throughout Australia.

The organisation's largest conservation reserves are located in Western Australia and Queensland.

Bush Heritage Australia hopes to expand its conservation estates across Australia in the years ahead.