With the help of Gunnedah Shire Council's Farmer Army, the Gunnedah Urban Landcare Group (GULG) is hard at work restoring the popular walking trails after receiving $60,000 through the Drought Communities Program.

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Over the years, the dirt tracks have suffered from lack of maintenance, erosion, the drought and misuse by those in 4WD vehicles, and riding dirt and BMX bikes.

The tracks were originally established by volunteers and one of GULG's founding members, Hans Allgayer.

GULG is also installing bollards on lower and upper Porcupine to dissuade locals from driving where they shouldn't.

Landcare president Mark Kesby said misuse of the reserve had been an ongoing issue and they were hopeful an increase in barriers would minimise the damage.

The reserve is crown land and Gunnedah Shire Council is responsible for its management.

"It's great that we've finally got funds and help to do what we want to in Porcupine reserve," Mr Kesby said.

"It's a significant site for the Aboriginal and Gunnedah community that is used regularly and the walking tracks were getting into bad shape.

"We want to fix the tracks up and get them back to the state they should be in."

The president said work had already been done on the main entry points of the walking tracks but they would have to venture further in now to do the rest.

Mr Kesby said the reserve had been a talking point among members for at least a year but it was a big job for a small group of volunteers, many of whom have full-time jobs.

He is hopeful the project will be finished by late September.

Gunnedah shire mayor Jamie Chaffey praised GULG for the "amazing work" it does in the community.

GULG has also been busy on Pensioners Hill after receiving $10,000 from the Drought Communities Program. The upgrade includes a hand carved eagle seat, new gardens and flora signs.

Mr Kesby said there is funding for a new automatic watering system for the park area of Pensioners, which would "eliminate the need for the very labour-intensive moving of sprinklers"

He said GULG also wanted to reshape some of the northern slope of Pensioners so more trees and shrubs can be planted.

"Previous areas have been rehabilitated by importing left-over soil from Gunnedah Shire Council projects. Unfortunately, this avenue is now closed due to EPA requirements.

"There is significant soil in areas that can be reshaped for our purposes but we will need to remove a fair amount of waste (metal, concrete and wood) to the waste management facility.

"If all goes to plan, we will be able to plant this area next winter."