VEGETATION MANAGEMENT PLAN for Bidjigal Reserve - Land

Vegetation Management Plan - Bidjigal Reserve7.8 Indigenous RevegetationThe following information, while brief in nature, is offered as a general aid to planting programsundertaken in bushland areas.Revegetation in bushland restoration and rehabilitation projects usually comprises ‘enrichment’ orsupplementary planting in areas of low species diversity; and ‘bush landscaping’ on edge sites andbuffer zones, or in landscaped garden beds to create an extended native habitat.Occasionally, where a native landscape is to be recreated (or reconstructed) on totally cleared landor land with very few native plants remaining, weed control followed by thorough site preparationand a broad-scale but staged indigenous planting program must be employed.Enrichment Planting is carried out to increase existing species diversity by planting small shrubs,herbs, grasses and occasionally, new canopy trees. Enrichment planting can also be used to increasehabitat for native fauna, and/or to re-introduce species which are known to have once been part ofthe local plant community, but for some reason have now been lost.Bush Landscaping refers to the placement of new plants to in-fill clearings or gaps and linkremnants, to establish buffer zones at the interface between bushland and developed areas, and tocreate complementary native gardens on adjoining sites.Indigenous Revegetation refers to the partial or total reconstruction of a selected vegetationcommunity by sourcing seed from local sources and propagation of tubestock (or similar); and toplanting, seeding and/or brush matting with local plant material. This is the most difficult form ofindigenous revegetation not only because must the correct species be chosen in the right numbersand placed in appropriate micro-sites, but because (over time), the new community must evolve todisplay a similar structural form and floristic composition to the community being replicated.Indigenous Revegetation – whether enrichment planting, bush landscaping or broad-scale planting –should endeavour to use plant material grown from local sources (i.e. indigenous species) in order tomaintain the genetic integrity of the local bushland, and also to maintain ‘local character’.7.8.1 Site PreparationSoil ConditionsThe success of any planting program will be dictated by site conditions, and particularly the structureand chemical composition of the site soils. Prior to planting, a series of basic soil tests should becarried out by a reputable chemical laboratory and should comprise:• Emerson Aggregate Test (clay fill soils only);• Available phosphorus (not total P);• Soil pH;• Soil salinity;• Soil texture; and• Cation Exchange capacity, especially Aluminium, Sodium, Magnesium, Calcium andPotassium.UBM Ecological Consultants Pty Ltd 140