Flora survey for Hamersley Drive recreation - Environmental ...

FRNP Improvement Project: Culham Inlet to Hamersley Inlet GF Craig– July 2010
Previous biological surveys
Vegetation and flora surveys have been carried out by:
• Beard (1976, 1979) mapped the vegetation at 1:250 000 scale;
• Aplin and Newbey (1990 a & b) described the vegetation and flora of the FRNP;
• Chapman and Newbey (1995) established a series of monitoring quadrats for flora and trap
lines for fauna across the FRNP (Appendix 6);
• Chapman and Newbey (1987) documented plant species, landform, geology and soil data
for 309 vegetation sites in the FRNP;
• Lamont and Witkowski (1995 and 1999) have measured the response to fire of Banksia
species growing near Hopetoun;
• in 2007, DEC Albany established monitoring plots north of Hamersley Drive, to determine
vegetation response to the October 2006 fire. The fire followed from a prescribed burn
between Eyre Range and East Mt Barren to achieve some ‘break up’ of the 1989 wildfire.
Assessment of the state of biological knowledge and its relevance to the FRNP can be found in:
• Hopper and Gioia (2004) discuss the evolution and conservation of the south-west’s flora in
the context of the area being an International biodiversity hotspot. The FRNP is recognized
as an area of particularly high diversity within the south-west;
• Deegan (2005 and 2006) prepared a bibliography and review of the state of knowledge of
the Fitzgerald Biosphere;
• a list of the 1,665 plant taxa known from the Park is given in Newbey and Hickman (2008);
• Barrett et al (2009) identified fire sensitive ecosystems in the South Coast region;
• a Regional Strategic Management Plan for threatened species and ecological communities
(Gilfillan et al. 2009) and Recovery Plan for those in the Fitzgerald Biosphere (Newell et al.
2010).
Fitzgerald Biosphere Reserve
The national park is the core area of the Fitzgerald Biosphere which is a part-tenured management
concept recognised by UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere program. The Fitzgerald Biosphere Reserve
is recognised as being a ‘hotspot’ within one of Earth’s 34 global biodiversity ‘hotspots’. The FRNP has
approximately 1,660 plant taxa, containing over one-quarter (29%) of the south-west’s flora.
The protection of biodiversity is increasingly seen as a global concern. This change in perspective has
been associated with an increasing number of international instruments addressing biodiversity
conservation issues. Some of these instruments, such as those relating to Biosphere Reserves, have
been given some recognition in the Commonwealth’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity
Conservation Act 1999. Moreover, the Environmental Protection Authority has recognised the
importance of maintaining ecosystem/ecological processes for ecologically sustainable management
(EPA 1999).
The government of Western Australia occasionally discusses the Biodiversity Conservation Act in
Parliament. This Act proposes to enhance legislation for the protection, restoration and sustainable use
of our native plants, animals and other native organisms. The government recognises that “all of our
natural biodiversity is important and it is our responsibility to ensure that our biodiversity is conserved”
(Government of WA 2002).
Vegetation Classification
The survey area lies in the South West Botanical Province and the Esperance Biogeographic Region
(after Cresswell and Thackway 1995) and is in the Barren Ranges System described by Beard (1973,
1976), although the coastal dunes have affinity with the Fanny’s Cove System. These systems include
four types of pediments:
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