Reptile Management Plan Cooma Non-Directional Beacon Upgrade
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Reptile Management Plan Cooma Non-Directional Beacon Upgrade An ecological report prepared for Daly International JANUARY 2011 Author: Report No. ER 212 Citation EnviroKey (2011) Reptile Management Plan: Cooma Non-Directional Beacon Upgrade. A report prepared by of EnviroKey for Daly International. Final Version. 28 h January 2011. Report No. ER 212. Commercial In Confidence All intellectual property rights, including copyright, in documents created by EnviroKey remain the property of EnviroKey. The information contained within this document is confidential. It may only be used by the person to whom it is provided for the stated purpose for which it is provided. The document must not be i mparted t o an y t hird p erson w ithout t he pr ior w ritten a pproval of EnviroKey. Disclaimer The scope of work for this report was defined by time and budgetary constraints and the availability of other reports and data. EnviroKey accept no liability or responsibility for or in respect of any use of or reliance upon this report and its supporting material in whole or in part by any third party. Information in this report is not intended to be a substitute for site specific assessment or legal advice in relation to any matter. Front Cover Photos Left to Right: Grassland Earless Dragon (Tympanocryptis pinguicolla). Photo by Peter Robertson (Sourced from National Recovery Plan (Robertson and Evans 2009)). Striped Legless Lizard (Delma impar). Photo courtesy and used with permission from . PO Box 7231 Tathra NSW 2550 t 02 6494 5422 www.envirokey.com.au [email protected] ABN 35255478680 Reptile Management Plan: Cooma Non-directional beacon upgrade. Report ER 212 Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1 1.1 THE MANAGEMENT AREA .................................................................................. 1 1.2 METHODOLOGY FOR THE PREPERATION OF THIS RMP ................................ 2 1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THIS RMP ................................................................................ 2 2 THREATENED REPTILE FAUNA ................................................................ 3 2.1 GRASSLAND EARLESS DRAGON ...................................................................... 3 2.2 STRIPED LEGLESS LIZARD ................................................................................ 4 2.3 LITTLE WHIP SNAKE ........................................................................................... 5 3 ONSITE MANAGEMENT DURING CONSTRUCTION................................. 6 3.1 ENGAGEMENT OF HERPETOLOGIST ................................................................ 6 3.2 CONTRACTOR INDUCTION ................................................................................ 6 3.3 PRE-CLEARANCE SURVEY ................................................................................ 6 3.4 PROCEDURES FOR WHEN OPEN EXCAVATIONS ARE PRESENT .................. 7 3.5 REPTILE RELOCATION PROCEDURES ............................................................. 7 3.5.1 Venomous reptiles ......................................................................................... 7 3.5.2 Hygiene protocols during relocation ............................................................... 8 3.5.3 Relocation Procedure during Pre-clearance Survey ...................................... 8 3.5.4 Relocation Procedure outside of Pre-clearance Survey ................................. 9 3.6 PROCEDURES FOR INJURED REPTILES .........................................................10 4 IMPLEMENTATION PLAN ......................................................................... 11 5 REFERENCES ........................................................................................... 12 6 APPENDICES ............................................................................................... I APPENDIX 1 – QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE OF AUTHOR ............................. II FINAL January 2011 i Reptile Management Plan: Cooma Non-directional beacon upgrade. Report ER 212 Figures, Plates & Tables Figure 1: Location of the Management Area (Image courtesy of Google Earth). ............... 1 Plate 1: Grassland Earless Dragon. Left Image: Photo by Peter Robertson (Sourced from National Recovery Plan (Robertson and Evans 2009)). Right Image: Photo by ACT Government (Sourced from http://incp.environment.act.gov.au/Stats/CategoryResults.aspx?statid=24&name=Grassla nd%20Earless%20Dragon) ............................................................................................... 3 Plate 2: Left: Striped Legless Lizard. Photo by Ross Bennett (Sourced from http://www.threatenedspecies.environment.nsw.gov.au/tsprofile/profile.aspx?id=10211). Right: Striped Legless Lizard hiding in soil crack (indicated by arrow). Photo courtesy and used with Permission from Melissa Doherty. ..................................................................... 4 Plate 3: Little Whip Snakes. Photos courtesy and used with permission from Melissa Doherty. ............................................................................................................................ 5 Table 1: Implementation timeframe for this RMP. ............................................................11 FINAL January 2011 ii Reptile Management Plan: Cooma Non-directional beacon upgrade. Report ER 212 1 INTRODUCTION Airservices Australia (ASA) has initiated the Infrastructure Tower Replacement Project in order to provide towers that meet current Australian and ASA standards to support navigational aides known as Non-Directional Beacon (NDB) antenna. EnviroKey were engaged by Daly International to undertake a Flora and Fauna Impact Assessment (FFIA) for the proposed upgrade at the Cooma NDB (EnviroKey 2010). The FFIA provided a series of recommendations in order to limit disturbance and potential impacts to Matters of National Environmental Significance, threatened species and ecological communities. One of these recommendations was that a Reptile Management Plan (RMP) be produced for the Cooma NDB upgrade. EnviroKey have been engaged by Daly International to prepare this RMP. 1.1 THE MANAGEMENT AREA The Management Area is the Cooma NDB facility located south-west of the Cooma Airport (Figure 1). The Management Area is located within the Snowy River local government area (LGA), the Murrumbidgee Catchment Management Authority region (Monaro sub-region) (DECCW 2010) and the South Eastern Highlands Bioregion (Thackway and Creswell 1995). Figure 1: Location of the Management Area (Image courtesy of Google Earth). FINAL January 2011 1 Reptile Management Plan: Cooma Non-directional beacon upgrade. Report ER 212 1.2 METHODOLOGY FOR THE PREPERATION OF THIS RMP The preparation of this RMP has involved two main elements. These being: • Analysis of data from the FFIA to refine the strategies and actions required to achieve the objectives of the RMP • Analysis of this data in the context of best-practice management principles. The RMP has been pr epared by a s uitably qualified and experienced Herpetologist. Details of the author are provided (Appendix 1). 1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THIS RMP This RMP details actions to minimise potential impacts to threatened reptile fauna as a result of the NDB upgrade. This plan will: • Outline details of a Preclearance Survey. This will detail the methods used for an active search of the works areas by an experienced herpetologist to remove any reptiles, including threatened reptile fauna and relocate any found to adjacent habitat prior to the direct commencement of site excavation works. • Outline details of how any reptiles including threatened reptile fauna, inadvertently trapped within open excavations for the new towers and other infrastructure will be managed during the entire construction period and decommissioning period. • An implementation plan. FINAL January 2011 2 Reptile Management Plan: Cooma Non-directional beacon upgrade. Report ER 212 2 THREATENED REPTILE FAUNA The FFIA identified that two species of threatened reptile fauna (Grassland Earless Dragon, Striped Legless Lizard) had the potential to occur within the Management Area based on the presence of potential habitat, the condition of and appropriate extent of potential habitat and known species occurrence in the wider locality (EnviroKey 2010). A third threatened reptile species, Little Whip Snake, has been recently recorded within 15kms of the Management Area, and is included in this section for completeness. This section of the RMP provides general information on all three species. 2.1 GRASSLAND EARLESS DRAGON The Grassland Earless Dragon (Tympanocryptis pinguicolla) is listed as Endangered under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995, Endangered under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and Critically Endangered under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 (DECCW 2010; Wilson and Swan 2010). The species was historically known to occur in native grasslands extending from Bathurst, NSW in the north (Osborne et al. 1993b) to Melbourne, Victoria in the south (Robertson and Evans 2009). However, more recent records indicate that the Grassland Earless Dragon has undergone a dramatic decrease in its geographic distribution (Robertson and Evans 2009) suggesting that any extant populations would be extremely important to the long-term survival of the species. Plate 1: Grassland Earless Dragon. Left Image: Photo by Peter Robertson (Sourced from National Recovery Plan