VEGETATION MANAGEMENT PLAN for Bidjigal Reserve - Land

Vegetation Management Plan - Bidjigal Reserve7.8.3 Seed CollectionCollection SitesIn many urban bushland reserves, especially those which have been degraded for some years, therewill be few native plants remaining in the mid-storey or understorey to provide seed or otherpropagules. Trees and/or large shrubs are more likely to remain in situ, and as this seed is relativelyeasy to collect, these components of the plant community tend to be over-represented in thecollector’s seed bank, and subsequently in the tubestock supplied for revegetation programs. It istherefore important to allow adequate lead-time for seed collection and propagation of tubestock inorder to ensure a wide diversity of both plant forms and species is obtained.For indigenous planting programs, seed collection from bushland within a 10-kilometre radius of therestoration site is recommended 16 . Seed should be collected from a number of individuals andbulked in order to avoid creating a ‘genetic bottleneck’.Where local seed sources are inadequate, seeds may be collected from further afield, provided thatthey are sourced from similar plant communities, growing on similar soils and parent geology, andwithin the same climatic range.Seed Collection GuidelinesSeed collection, processing and storage should follow the Flora Bank Seed Collection Guidelines(National Heritage Trust/Bushcare/Greening Australia 2002), which can be found atwww.florabank.org.au.7.8.4 Densities and Spatial ArrangementPlanting densities will depend very much on the number and type of native plants remaining in situand/or regenerating on the subject site after weeds are removed. If the site is effectively denudedafter weed removal, and it is unlikely that natural regeneration will provide the desirable result,tubestock can be planted to replicate the pre-disturbance community structure.Planting density should be based on the final size of the relevant species used. For example, smallsizedplants (generally less than 500 millimetres in height) should be planted in groups at a density ofapproximately three (3) to five (5) units per square metre.Larger species should also be planted in groups of three (3) to seven (7), but should be placedsufficiently close together to enable a dense cover to form (as appropriate), but not so densely as tosuppress light-demanding groundcovers.16 Note: seed collection in council-managed reserves may only be undertaken with written permission, while collection inparks or reserves managed by the NPWS/DECC may only be carried out under a Section 91 Licence (forms available on linefrom the DECC website).UBM Ecological Consultants Pty Ltd 142