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New bushland field guide for northern SA land managers
To the untrained eye damaged bushland can be difficult to differentiate from areas of bush that are intact and have high biodiversity value. To manage bushland effectively and protect its biodiversity value, a new field guide has been written to help South Australian land managers recognise indicators of bushland condition.
Funding
The Field Guide to Bushland Monitoring: Northern Agricultural Districts - assisted with $20,000 from the Australian Government and support from the South Australian Government via the Northern and Yorke Natural Resource Management (NRM) Board – assesses and scores key environmental indicators to provide a measure of a bushland's condition.
Originally developed as a monitoring tool, the scientifically-based guide also highlights the main threats impacting on bushland, which helps tailor funding for on-ground activities.
Tim Milne, project officer with the Nature Conservation Society SA who helped develop the Guide, said more than 70 sites had been assessed in the Northern and Yorke region and over 400 sites statewide.
Activities
“The Field Guide provides techniques for monitoring ten different aspects, or indicators, of bushland condition,” Tim said.
“These include plant species diversity, weed abundance and threat, structural diversity, natural regeneration, tree and shrub health, tree habitat features, feral animals, total grazing pressure, fauna species diversity and bushland degradation risk.”
Achievements
The guide has been used to help evaluate and prioritise applications for biodiversity funding. It has also been used to evaluate bushland sites for other conservation projects including woodland bird monitoring sites.
Once assessment reports on bushland condition are completed they're given to landholders so those who are interested can be trained undertake their own monitoring down the track.
An example of the guide's use can be seen at the region's Boxthorn Control project. Bushland condition monitoring helps to monitor changes on the project sites such as increased native plant species diversity, improved tree health and increased groundcover.
More information
- Tim Milne, Nature Conservation Society of SA Inc: (08) 8223 6301 or tim.milne@ncssa.asn.au
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