VEGETATION MANAGEMENT PLAN for Bidjigal Reserve - Land

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Vegetation Management Plan - Bidjigal ReserveRepresentative species of each stratum – i.e. the canopy, shrub and groundcover – must be presentor (potentially) be present in the soil seed bank for natural regeneration to function as the primaryrehabilitation process. Such bushland is described as ‘structurally intact’, and conforms to thedefinition provided by State Environmental Planning Policy No-19 – Bushland in Urban Areas.Regeneration of the native plant community from existing seed sources cannot occur where thepotential for regeneration (i.e. site resilience) is absent.7.4.1 Bush Regeneration StrategiesThe bush regeneration approach to the rehabilitation of degraded bushland incorporates a numberof different methodologies, or strategies: the most commonly used are summarised below.Natural Regeneration – which involves removing weeds; using a combination of hand weedingmethods and the application of selective herbicides; then caring for the native seedlings whichsubsequently colonise the site.Assisted Natural Regeneration – which combines traditional bush regeneration methods (e.g.weeding) with seed collection, propagation and planting of locally indigenous tubestock tosupplement natural (unassisted) regeneration.Restoration or Reconstruction – which is used where a native plant community has been completelylost, but where the biophysical attributes of the site (e.g. soil type, soil nutrient status, hydrologicalregime) are still within levels which remain tolerable to local native species. Reconstructiontechniques centre on the planting of locally indigenous species in the proportions, range anddensities similar to those present in the original (pre-disturbance) plant community.Fabrication – which is used where the original native plant community is no longer present, andwhere the site’s biophysical attributes have changed to the point where the original plantcommunity cannot be reconstructed or recreated (i.e. where site conditions have changed sodramatically that simply replanting with local native species is impractical). Fabrication of a newplant community will necessarily take place over a long period of time (up to or more than 10-years).The timeframe for fabrication will depend on the feasibility of ameliorating site impacts and ofcourse, resources available for on-ground works.Each of the bush regeneration methods described above will have some application to therehabilitation of native vegetation communities and fauna habitats in Bidjigal Reserve. These aredescribed in more detail in Sections 7.7 and 7.8 Protocols for Weed Control and IndigenousRevegetation.UBM Ecological Consultants Pty Ltd 134
Vegetation Management Plan - Bidjigal Reserve7.5 Potential for Regeneration – Ecosystem ResilienceEcosystem resilience is defined as “the degree, manner and pace of restoration of the structure andfunction of the original ecosystem after disturbance” (Westman 1978), or put more simply, as theability of an ecosystem to recover from disturbance.When assessing site resilience, key indicators are the standing biomass of remaining native plants(particularly naturally regenerating seedlings), and the potential reservoir of propagative material(seeds, spores, rhizomes) in the soil seed bank, although the latter is difficult to assess accuratelywithout extensive trials.Resilience in some parts of the Reserve is expected to be ‘low’ or possibly ‘absent’ because of theimpact of past land uses, including stripping of native topsoil, excavation and/or deposition of fill,enrichment of the parent soils through the incorporation of compost and garden topsoil,replacement of native understorey with horticultural specimens and introduced turf grasses,changes to local drainage patterns, long-term weed invasion, and of particular importance, thesuppression of the ‘natural’ fire regime, with a consequent reduction of vigour in older plants andloss of viability in the soil seed bank. Such areas occur below sporting fields such as Eric MobbsReserve where fill soils have spilled over into the Reserve, along the sewer line emplacements whichwere similarly filled with imported soils, where previous lands uses and activities have impacted onbushland soils (e.g. old quarry site near Excelsior Avenue, M2 bushland)m around the stormwaterdetention basin).However, for those areas where past disturbance events have been arrested, and where parent soilshave not been overly disturbed, site resilience is expected to be ‘moderate’, with some sites ofincreased resilience in more open areas where native understorey plants have managed to reestablishin the absence of dense weed thickets or planted shrubs.Where site resilience is ‘low’ or ‘absent’, reconstruction of the native vegetation community throughthe clearing of weeds and other unwanted vegetation, followed by broad-scale replacement plantingwill be required.In areas with more potential for natural regeneration (i.e. where some site resilience is anticipated),if after a period of (say) 12 months, natural regeneration is sparse (or absent), enrichment plantingmay be necessary to stabilise soils and to provide a native understorey to serve as habitat for nativeflora and fauna.Note: It must be stressed that the natural regeneration of a few shrubs or native ground covers in adegraded site does not indicate that the site is capable of regenerating naturally (i.e. withoutplanting) to a floristically and structurally intact bushland habitat. The presence of disturbancetolerant,commonly-occurring species (e.g. Acacia spp, Pittosporum undulatum or Commelinacyanea) is at times used to support an oversimplified approach to bushland rehabilitation, whichsuggests that all degraded sites retain some resilience, and can, if given enough time and resources,be regenerated to a diverse and fully functioning ecosystem.UBM Ecological Consultants Pty Ltd 135
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specific regulations to improve the
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Parks & Landscape ServicesBushland
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1. IntroductionThese guidelines hav
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2.1 Step 1. Determine the Vegetatio
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2.3 Step 3. Calculate the Weed Clas
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2.5 Step 5. Report the Weed Classif
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Appendix B. Mapping ExampleKMC Bush
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VEGETATION MANAGEMENT PLAN for Bidjigal Reserve - Land

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