Wombat 4 Rescue, located roughly six kilometres away from the prospective site for the Northern Regional Prison, takes in orphaned wombat joeys, raises them and eventually releases them back into the wild.

Wildlife carer Debbie Everson says the wombats she releases tend to gravitate towards the 70 hectare patch of Crown land where the prison is set to be built.

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The government last month announced the new site, following a determined campaign from Westbury residents opposed to the facility being constructed at the Valley Central Industrial Precinct.

However, the new site is creating further headaches for Corrections Minister Elise Archer, with a new group of concerned locals having formed to fight the proposal.

Mrs Everson said if the government went ahead with building the prison, she may have to turn her back on Wombat 4 Rescue - for good.

"Between us and Westbury, that's about the only real greenbelt area that has never been touched basically," she said. "That's where [the wombats] would be heading for to set up their homes."

"You've got the running creek down there so there's a constant water supply and there's lots of fields also around there for grass and vegetation that they eat. And obviously within that woody area it's safe and secure where they can build their burrows and basically set up their homes.

"I don't know where I would go, future-wise, if they destroy this area. I think it would leave me with no option but having to stop."

"Because when you raise them, you can't just physically pick them up and say, 'Oh, we'll take this one down wherever and just leave it'. You have to release them through what's called a soft release - so we open up the gate and they come and go until they feel confident enough to go full-time."

Scott Carver, a wildlife ecology expert at the University of Tasmania, said wombats tended to have their burrows in fringing forest areas close to pasture. "At a local scale, putting a prison [somewhere], taking away a potential food resource, will have some local effect on wombats in that area," he said.

"Developments like that can mean that there's less pasture."

However, Ms Archer said the government would remain "fully cognisant" of the environment in planning for the prison's construction.

"A preliminary investigation has been conducted by DPIPWE and it is understood there are no eagle nests, covenants or records of threatened wildlife on the block," she said. "It is important to note that the prison is likely to only require a footprint of approximately 15 hectares of the 70 hectare site, providing opportunities to manage any environmental features on the site."

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