Canning River Regional Park - Department of Environment and ...

Part C Conservation
PART C CONSERVATION
8. PRINCIPAL CONSERVATION
DIRECTIONS
CONSERVATION GOAL
Protect and conserve the Park's physical,
cultural and scenic resources.
The objective is to protect the Park's
values, restore degraded areas and
promote a conservation ethic for the
Park.
CONSERVATION STRATEGY
The strategy for conservation management of
the Park is to conserve natural areas and
minimise conflict between recreational use and
conservation values (Section 6), control weeds
(Section 13), minimise the effects of fire
(Section 14), rehabilitate degraded areas
(Section 18) and promote community
education and involvement in the management
of the Park (Sections 29 and 33).
9. GEOLOGY AND SOILS
The objective is to protect and
conserve the existing geological
structure and soil associations in the
Park.
The Swan-Canning River system is a drowned
river valley system, adjacent to a semi-arid
hinterland of low relief and sluggish drainage
(L.B Collins 1987). These rivers are part of
the drainage system of the Swan Coastal
Plain, which lies between the Darling Scarp
and the sea. A description of the geology and
soils of the Swan Coastal Plain may be
obtained in Seddon (1972).
The Park contains two distinct soil
associations. The Swan Soil Association
occurs within the flood plain of the river and
consists of clay-silt based wetlands and loamy
alluvial river flats. It is rich in humus and
relatively fertile. The Bassendean Soil
Association occurs on the higher ground
throughout the Park, and is typical of the
Swan Coastal Plain grey infertile sands.
STRATEGIES
1. Use clean soil, which is free of
disease and weeds and similar to
the natural soil types of the
area when it is necessary to
13
import soil into the Park. (CC,
CALM, WP, , WC, WRC,
MRWA)
10. THE RIVER AND FLOOD
PLAIN
The objective is to manage the Park
in a manner which will complement
the Swan River Management Strategy
(1988) and current SRT policies for
the Canning River.
10.1 Management Responsibility
The SRT has overall responsibility for
waterways planning, protection and
management. It provides advice to the Minister
for the Environment who is responsible for
development control. (see section 7). The
Water and Rivers Commission has
responsibility for flood plain management
planning and advises planning authorities on
matters affecting the passage of floods along
rivers and flood plains. Filling of the flood
plain (from urban development and land
filling) can result in loss of wildlife habitats
which provide food and nesting grounds for
fauna. Proposals for the filling of the flood
plain need to consider the ecological
importance of the area. Agencies or
organisations such as CALM and the City of
Canning will carry out management of the
Park. A number of environmental issues are
manifest within the Park, namely the presence
of Hydrocotyle ranunculoides and other
aquatic weeds and the increase in nutrient
levels evidenced by the recent occurrence of
algal blooms.
10.2 Hydrocotyle and other aquatic
weeds
Hydrocotyle ranunculoides is an aquatic
species native to Europe and possibly North
and South America and is a common aquarium
plant throughout Australia. First observed in
Bannister Creek in 1983, it spread and covered
large sections of the river by 1991. It is
considered to have the potential to develop into
a serious environmental, economic and
recreational threat to the Park and other lakes
and waterways. There appears to be no other
infestation of Hydrocotyle in Australia and
there is no established protocol for the control
and eradication of this weed. Klemm et al
(1993) has developed a short term control and a
long term eradication strategy for this weed.
The long term control of Hydrocotyle is still