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The
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The JVAP was established in 1993. It is funded jointly by the Rural Industries, Land and Water Resources, and Forest and Wood Products R&D corporations and also manages funds from the Natural Heritage Trust and the Murray-Darling Basin Commission.No 77: Guidelines for biodiversity conservation in new and existing softwood plantations
These guidelines are based on research conducted at Tumut in southern New South Wales on the persistence of plants, reptiles, small mammals, arboreal marsupials and birds in pine plantations. It was funded by Natural Heritage Trust through the Joint Venture Agroforestry Program (JVAP) Project ANU-33A Plantation Design and Biodiversity Conservation, and through the National Remnant Vegetation R&D Program Project ANU6 funded by LWRRDC and EA.
Further information on the guidelines can be obtained from Dr David Lindenmayer at the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Australian National University, 0200.
| Radiata pine plantations
are an increasingly common sight in the landscapes of southern Australia.
But they are not always popular with the public, partly because of the
perception that they are of little use for conservation.
This brochure provides guidelines on how to adapt current management for better conser-vation outcomes in landscapes dominated by new and existing pine plantations. Putting these guidelines into practice should enhance the public image of such plantations and contribute to the conservation of biodiversity. The guidelines may change as new information becomes available. New fi ndings will be relayed to plantation managers to better inform approaches for improved plantation design. |
New
plantations
| Principle: remnant patches of native woodland and forest are important habitat for native mammals, birds, reptiles and plants. |
| Principle: Larger patches of remnant native vegetation (>3 ha) support more native animals than small patches. However, remnant patches of native vegetation as small as 0.5 ha are still of considerable value for biodiversity. |
| Recommendation:remnant patches of native vegetation should not be cleared for plantation establishment. If some clearing does occur, areas that are 0.5 ha or larger should never be cleared as part of softwood plantation establishment. |
| Principle: remnant patches within 500 m of large continuous areas of native vegetation are more likely to be occupied by some vertebrate taxa (eg small mammals, arboreal marsupials and birds) than are more isolated ones. However, even isolated patches can have signifi cant conservation value for many species (eg birds). |
Recommendation:isolated
patches of remnant vegetation should not be cleared simply because they
are isolated.
| Principle: landscapes composed of both remnant native vegetation and softwood stands have signifi cantly higher biodiversity value than radiata pine monoculture. |
| Principle: plantation establishment should avoid a net reduction in the area of native vegetation. |
| Recommendation:if
plantation estab-lishment requires the clearing of native vegetation, even
isolated paddock trees, concerted native vegetation restoration efforts
should be undertaken elsewhere in the plantation estate, particularly along
gully lines.
Recommendation:large-scale
plantations (eg >1000 ha) should contain at least 30% of their tolerance
as remnant or re-established native vegetation. Restoration efforts may
be needed to achieve this level of native vegetation cover within the plantation
estate.
|
| Principle: new planting of native vegetation can suffer high rates of mortality. |
Recommendation:plant
large numbers of seedlings when restoring native vegetation.
| Principle: establishing, maintaining or enhancing landscape heterogeneity and landscape connectivity between patches of native remnant vegetation promotes biodi-versity conservation. |
Recommendation: the
restoration of native vegetation should occur along gully lines to link
existing patches of
remnant native vegetation
within the softwood plantation estate.
Recommendation:physical
connectivity (eg wildlife corridors) between native remnant vegetation
or revegetated
areas within and outside
the plantation estate should be maintained, established or enhanced.
| Principle: the quality of retained vegetation will determine its long-term conservation value. |
Recommendation:firewood collection and the culling of trees should be excluded from remnant patches of native woodland.
Recommendation:grazing
by domestic stock should be excluded for at least fi ve years from patches
of remnant
native vegetation or revegetated
areas retained within newly established softwood plantations. This should
facilitate
the regeneration of some
native plants in patches of formerly grazed remnant vegetation.
| Principle: the establishment of exotic plants in remnant patches of native vegetation threatens the integrity of such patches. |
Recommendation:efforts should be made to further develop and use reproductively sterile radiata pine for softwood plantation establishment.
Recommendation:existing radiata pine wildlings should be removed from remnant vegetation patches.
Recommendation:hygiene protocols are needed for logging and other machinery to stop the spread of blackberry from the existing plantation estate (where it is already established) to areas targeted for the development of new plantations.
Recommendation: management
effort is required to control presently minor outbreaks of blackberry in
recently established parts of the plantation estate (eg those planted in
the past fi ve years).
| Principle: windrowed eucalypt logs in pine plantations are important habitat for wildlife. |
Recommendation:windrows of eucalypts created in establishing the plantation should be retained where possible.
The principles given for new softwood plantations apply equally to existing plantations. The following recommendations can be made.
Recommendation: large areas of native vegetation were cleared as part of softwood plantation establishment until a few decades ago. Native vegetation in gullies and along streamlines should be re-estab-lished where they have been previously cleared for use as habitat and for dispersal by wildlife.
Recommendation:restoration activities should use native tree species endemic to the local area and link existing patches of remnant native vegetation within the pine plantation estate.
Recommendation: buffer strips of native vegetation re-established along streams within the plantation estate should be a minimum of 40 metres wide.
Recommendation: efforts should be made to further develop and use reproductively sterile radiata pine trees for regenerating softwood plantations after the fi nal clearfell harvest.
Recommendation: existing radiata pine wildlings should be removed from remnant vegetation.
Recommendation: firewood collection and the culling of trees should be excluded from remnant patches of native vegetation.
Recommendation: the decay of windrowed eucalypt logs should not be accelerated by damage from harvesting machinery during logging operations.
Recommendation: where possible the planting and cutting schedule of plantations adjacent to remnants should be staggered to ensure that, at any one time, eucalypt remnants are linked by some areas of advanced regrowth radiata pine within the landscape matrix.
