The RunningPostman Newsletter of the Private Land Conservation Program April 2009 Building partnerships with landowners for the sustainable management Issue 4 and conservation of natural values across the landscape. ISSN 1835-6141 Department of The Running Postman • April 2009 Primary Industries and Water 1 2 The Running In Postman this Our newsletter is named after Issue a small twining plant that is widespread in Tasmanian dry forests (Kennedia prostrata). Message from the Program Manager 3 The Running Postman is published Living in a shared house, every action has a reaction 4 three times per year, and circulated Managing habitat for wildlife in privately owned reserves 5 to all the participants in the various Private Land Conservation Native grasslands - more than just grass 6 Program (PLCP) initiatives, as well Balancing conservation and production: A landowner’s perspective 7 as other interested groups and individuals. Creating bandicoot habitat - conservation in captivity 8 The PLCP Conservation Covenant Habitat for threatened species - the butterfly Chaostola skipper 9 partners, Land for Wildlife Protecting habitat - saving species 10 members, and signatories Log on and get more for your land 11 to Vegetation Management Agreements now extends to AGFEST 2009 12 over 1000 people. These people Protected Areas on Private Land Program 12 range from graziers and farmers Selling Property 12 with extensive operations in the Midlands, through to people with ten hectare bush blocks on the fringes of Hobart, with just about everything in between. More information regarding the PLCP (and an electronic version of The Running Postman) can be found on the Department of Primary Industries and Water The Running Postman is printed on Monza Satin recycled paper, derived from website: sustainable forests, elemental chlorine free pulp and certified environmental systems. www.dpiw.tas.gov.au/runningpostman On the cover: The nationally endangered grassland paperdaisy (Leucochrysum albicans subsp. albicans var. tricolor). Photo by Oberon Carter (DPIW). Above: The Running Postman (Kennedia prostrata). Photo by Dr Greg Jordan, UTAS. Design and layout: ILS Design Unit, DPIW. 2 The Running Postman • April 2009 April 2009 • The Running Postman Message from the Program Manager Covenanting programs have been Over the time that I have been in eligible for some level of financial operating in Tasmania for roughly the position of managing the PLCP, incentive for entering into a ten years now. The well known I have had numerous conversations conservation covenant, or assistance Private Forest Reserves Program with landowners interested in with weed or stock control under a and the Protected Areas on Private taking a more holistic approach to long term management agreement. Land Program have been highly property management than just Most recently we have been successful in targeting under- targeting one patch of forest or one working together to develop reserved vegetation communities sward of grassland. Their emphasis a proposal for the Australian for protection on private land over has generally been on the fact Government’s Caring for Our this time. In more recent times, the that all of their property provides Country initiative, and over the last Non-Forest Vegetation Program, habitat for something, and it is the year have been actively pursuing Forest Conservation Fund and balance of all of these species, their philanthropic funding through the Midlands Biodiversity Hotspots interactions and their various niches Myer Foundation. This work may Program have made significant that makes their property special bring significant opportunities for additions to the areas under to them. Midlands landowners committed to conservation covenant. It is also these very features that sustainable land management and Those of you who have entered make some parts of Tasmania conservation management. In the into conservation covenants more valuable from a conservation future, we hope to broaden this through these programs are perspective than others. This is type of opportunity out to other probably aware that their focus particularly so in those agricultural parts of Tasmania. has usually been quite specific. areas that are more fertile and have This edition of The Running For example, certain forest been managed for their productive Postman features articles that communities have been eligible for values for many years. In those explore the diversity of habitat funding and others have not, and areas, the remaining hilltops that that is found on covenanted land certain grassland communities have have not been ploughed and and Land for Wildlife properties. attracted higher levels of funding fertilised, or the bands of forest and This is the hidden value of the than others - in spite of them scrub along waterways may be the bushland, scrub and grassland that appearing roughly the same to the only link to the native vegetation landowners I speak to are really casual observer. that once covered the land. interested in looking after. I hope The reason for this generally comes The PLCP has been actively you enjoy the articles. from the recognition that those working with partners such as John Harkin particular vegetation communities the Tasmanian Land Conservancy, are not well represented in the Bush Heritage Australia and the conservation “reserve estate” Tasmanian NRM Regions to make - whether it be National Park our funding programs more flexible, or private land. So it is those and to recognise those natural communities that our programs values beyond specific vegetation are able to offer funding on a per communities that are under- hectare basis for a guaranteed represented in the conservation commitment to ongoing estate. We are working with conservation management by the potential funding providers so landowner. that areas of locally significant habitat that is under some form of conservation management may be The Running Postman • April 2009 April 2009 • The Running Postman 3 4 Living in a shared house, every action has a reaction There are many definitions for ‘habitat’ lobster. However, for some smaller It is clear that changes in the structural but the one that describes it best for species, the presence of a good ground complexity of the vegetation me is ‘home’. Within nature this ‘home’ layer of leaf litter and coarse woody community can have big effects on can range from a large geographic area debris may be all that is needed to the local fauna. One such example is to a single cell within an organism. This maintain their population. the noisy miner, an aggressive native complexity of habitat requirements honeyeater, which excludes or kills Within individual reserves, it is the creates a challenge when considering smaller birds from their community. structural complexity of the vegetation reserve design. When assessing a In a community that has been that allows a wide range of animals to reserve proposal, the PLCP takes into structurally simplified (e.g. removal of share the same environment. Different consideration not only the protection understorey or opening of the canopy species have evolved to exploit the and long-term viability of important by significant tree removal), the miner variety of resources (e.g. hollows, water vegetation communities but also gains a competitive advantage over the bodies) available within each vegetation the value of habitat both within and smaller native bird species and is able layer (e.g. canopy, shrub layer, ground surrounding the proposed reserve. to achieve species dominance. Their cover). Whilst some species can be dominance can cause an ecological Structural complexity and connectivity considered generalists, that is, species imbalance in that the small bird of reserves, in both a landscape that do not have highly specialised species they exclude are specialised and individual reserve context, are habitat and dietary requirements, insect eaters which feed on leaf eating important factors we take into other species have evolved with more invertebrates. In the absence of these consideration to maximise the specialised requirements. insect eating birds, tree health can effectiveness of the private reserve An example of a specialised species seriously decline. As the saying goes, system, to protect a wide range of might be the swift parrot, a bird that every action has a reaction. habitat within Tasmania. only feeds on the flowers of two Maintaining a healthy, structurally In a landscape context, for example, eucalypt species – the blue gum and floristically diverse vegetation large areas of native bushland and/ and the black gum. Without these community benefits both the native or connectivity to other areas of tree species the swift parrot cannot flora and fauna, and by managing native vegetation are important survive in the wild. On the other protected areas on private land we are for larger animals such as birds and hand, generalist species such as the working towards achieving healthy and native mammals. Connectivity of bluetongue lizard are able to exploit robust vegetation communities across riparian areas is important for native many habitats and food sources and the Tasmanian landscape. invertebrates, such as burrowing so have a better chance of survival in a crayfish and the giant freshwater changing environment. Janet Smith Photos (L to R): Photo by Janet Smith (DPIW) Photo by Oberon Carter (DPIW). 4 The Running Postman • April 2009 April 2009 • The Running Postman “A covenant area can provide a myriad