DRAFT ACT NATIVE GRASSLAND CONSERVATION STRATEGY AND ACTION PLANS MARCH 2017 © Australian Capital Territory, Canberra 2017 This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission from: Director-General, Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate, ACT Government, GPO Box 158, Canberra ACT 2601. Telephone: 02 6207 1923 Visit the EPSDD Website Privacy Before making a submission to this draft strategy and action plans, please review the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate’s privacy policy and annex website. Any personal information received in the course of your submission will be used only for the purposes of this community engagement process. Names of organisations may be included in any subsequent consultation report, but all individuals will be de-identified unless prior approval is gained. Accessibility The ACT Government is committed to making its information, services, events and venues as accessible as possible. If you have difficulty reading a standard printed document and would like to receive this publication in an alternative format, such as large print, please phone Access Canberra on 13 22 81 or email the Environment and Planning Directorate at [email protected] If English is not your first language and you require a translating and interpreting service, please phone 13 14 50. If you are deaf, or have a speech or hearing impairment, and need the teletypewriter service, please phone 13 36 77 and ask for Access Canberra on 13 22 81. For speak and listen users, please phone 1300 555 727 and ask for Access Canberra on 13 22 81. For more information on these services visit the Relay Service website. CONTENTS PART A CONSERVATION STRATEGY 1. INTRODUCTION 2 1.1 OVERVIEW 4 1.2 STRUCTURE OF THE STRATEGY 4 1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STRATEGY 5 1.4 SCOPE OF THE STRATEGY 5 1.5 RELEVANT POLICY AND LEGISLATION 6 1.6 ACTION PLANS 8 2. STRATEGY: PROTECT NATIVE GRASSLAND AND COMPONENT SPECIES 10 2.1 OVERVIEW 12 2.2 PROTECTION GOAL 13 2.3 KEY PRINCIPLES 13 2.4 CONSERVATION SIGNIFICANCE CATEGORIES 13 2.5 CONSERVATION SIGNIFICANCE CATEGORY 1 SITES 14 2.6 CONSERVATION SIGNIFICANCE CATEGORY 2 SITES 15 2.7 CONSERVATION SIGNIFICANCE CATEGORY 3 SITES 16 2.8 LOCAL, REGIONAL AND NATIONAL COOPERATION 16 3. STRATEGY: REDUCE THREATS TO NATIVE GRASSLAND BIODIVERSITY 20 3.1 OVERVIEW 22 3.2 THREAT MANAGEMENT GOAL 22 3.3 KEY PRINCIPLES 22 3.4 MANAGE WEEDS 23 3.5 MANAGE INTRODUCED PEST ANIMALS 24 3.6 ECOLOGICALLY INAPPROPRIATE DISTURBANCE REGIMES 26 3.7 MANAGE GRAZING BY KANGAROOS 26 3.8 MANAGE IMPACTS OF URBANISATION 27 3.9 MANAGE THE CONSEQUENCES OF CLIMATE CHANGE 28 4. STRATEGY: MANAGE NATIVE GRASSLAND AND COMPONENT SPECIES FOR CONSERVATION 30 4.1 OVERVIEW 32 4.2 MANAGEMENT GOAL 33 4.3 KEY PRINCIPLES 33 4.4 APPLY BEST PRACTICE WITHIN AN ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK 33 4.5 MANAGE GRASS BIOMASS AND STRUCTURE 34 4.6 IMPLEMENT ECOLOGICALLY APPROPRIATE DISTURBANCE REGIMES 38 4.7 MANAGE FIRE RISK 41 4.8 MANAGE HABITATS THAT INCLUDE EXOTIC GRASSES 41 4.9 IMPLEMENT MEASURES TO SAFEGUARD POPULATIONS 43 4.10 LOCAL AND REGIONAL COOPERATION 43 5. STRATEGY: ENHANCE RESILIENCE, ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION AND HABITAT CONNECTIVITY 46 5.1 OVERVIEW 48 5.2 ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION AND CONNECTIVITY GOAL 48 5.3 KEY PRINCIPLES 48 Draft Native Grassland Conservation Strategy and Action Plans i 5.4 IMPROVE RESILIENCE AND ADAPTABILITY UNDER A CHANGING CLIMATE 49 5.5 ENHANCE ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION 50 5.6 ENHANCE HABITAT CONNECTIVITY 52 6. STRATEGY: MONITORING AND RESEARCH 56 6.1 OVERVIEW 58 6.2 MONITOR GRASSLAND COMMUNITY CONDITION 58 6.3 COLLECT BASELINE INFORMATION 60 6.4 ADDRESS KNOWLEDGE GAPS IN GRASSLAND CONSERVATION AND RESEARCH 61 7. STRATEGY: ENGAGE THE COMMUNITY 64 7.1 OVERVIEW 66 7.2 KEY PRINCIPLES 66 7.3 ENGENDER COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT THROUGH AWARENESS RAISING AND VOLUNTEERING 66 7.4 ENHANCE AND PROMOTE USE OF CITIZEN SCIENCE 67 7.5 BUILD INDIGENOUS ENGAGEMENT IN THE MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES 68 7.6 SUPPORT APPROPRIATE RECREATIONAL AND TOURISM USE OF NATURAL AREAS 69 8. BACKGROUND 70 8.1 WHAT ARE NATIVE GRASSLANDS? 72 8.2 A BRIEF HISTORY OF NATIVE GRASSLANDS IN THE ACT AND SURROUNDING REGION 78 8.3 CURRENT NATIVE GRASSLAND DISTRIBUTION IN THE ACT 79 8.4 THREATENED AND UNCOMMON GRASSLAND SPECIES IN THE ACT 82 8.5 GRASSLAND CONSERVATION ACTIVITIES IN THE ACT SINCE 2005 82 8.6 EVIDENCE BASE FOR THE ACT NATIVE GRASSLAND STRATEGY 91 8.7 CLIMATE CHANGE: POTENTIAL IMPACTS ON NATIVE GRASSLANDS 92 8.8 KANGAROO GRAZING OF NATIVE GRASSLANDS 93 8.9 DESCRIPTIONS OF GRASSLAND ASSOCIATIONS 94 9. REFERENCES 101 ii Draft Native Grassland Conservation Strategy and Action Plans CONTENTS PART B ACTION PLANS NATURAL TEMPERATE GRASSLAND ENDANGERED ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITY 113 !EUERLEN’S GENTI!N 145 BUTTON WRINKLEWORT 153 GINNINDERRA PEPPERCRESS 169 GOLDEN SUN MOTH 181 GRASSLAND EARLESS DRAGON 203 PERUNGA GRASSHOPPER 223 STRIPED LEGLESS LIZARD 235 Draft Native Grassland Conservation Strategy and Action Plans iii I iv Draft Native Grassland Conservation Strategy and Action Plans Draft Native Grassland Conservation Strategy and Action Plans v “Healthy native grasslands supporting a diverse flora and fauna for now and the future” Native grasslands of the Territory include a rich assemblage of flora and fauna species that combine into a unique ecosystem. These grasslands are a priority for protection and management as they contribute to our natural biodiversity, our history and heritage, and local amenity and community. They also provide opportunities to enhance cultural engagement, education and scientific research. Since European settlement our native grasslands grasslands. It extends to all grassland and grassy woodlands have come under ecosystems by expanding the scope to include increasing pressure from human settlement, montane and rocky native grasslands. It also urbanisation and a changing climate. Due to shifts the focus from strongly protection-based these changes, only 2% to 10% of the lower (recognising the previous success in achieving elevation grasslands in south-eastern Australia this) to best-practice conservation management remain in high ecological condition, seven and enhancing the condition of native grassland species, and one species that occurs in grasslands in light of a changing climate. both grasslands and woodlands, are listed as Native grasslands are a unique ecosystem that endangered or vulnerable in the ACT. Other warrants care and attention. By working plants and animals that occur in grasslands are together we can conserve these areas for now are also under threat. Temperate grasslands are and the future. considered one of the most threatened Australian ecosystems. The Native Grassland Conservation Strategy aims to build on the successful protection and management of grasslands achieved since the The ACT Government acknowledges the original 2005 Lowland Grassland Conservation Ngunnawal people as the Traditional Custodians Strategy (ACT Government 2005). In the years of the land and waters in the ACT and respects between the previous strategy and this revised their continuing culture and unique contribution strategy, a number of the native grasslands in they make to the life of our region. the ACT have been protected and a large body The Ngunnawal people actively managed the of grassland research, monitoring and landscape over tens of thousands of years and conservation planning has accumulated. today retain their spiritual and cultural Building on these significant achievements, this connection to Country. revised strategy provides a Territory-wide approach within a regional context to the conservation and management of native vi Draft Native Grassland Conservation Strategy and Action Plans ii Draft Native Grassland Conservation Strategy and Action Plans 1. INTRODUCTION 2 Draft Native Grassland Conservation Strategy and Action Plans Draft Native Grassland Conservation Strategy and Action Plans 3 1.1 OVERVIEW The ACT Native Grassland Strategy provides guidance on the conservation of native grasslands and component species in the ACT consistent with the ACT Nature Conservation Strategy 2013–23 (ACT Government 2013a). Relatively large areas of native grassland in the ACT are now protected within reserves, so the current emphasis of grassland conservation is on management and enhancement of grassland ecosystems. This includes conserving native grassland species and communities by managing threats, maintaining and improving ecological connectivity, ecosystem function and grassland biodiversity, undertaking monitoring and research programs, partnering with the community to support grassland conservation and enhancing the resilience of grasslands to disturbance and climate change. 1.2 STRUCTURE OF THE Chapter 4: STRATEGY This chapter includes the strategy for managing native grassland and component species for This document is divided into seven main conservation. It considers adaptive strategies with key principles and management management principles for managing herbage guidelines and is structured as follows: biomass, disturbance regimes and exotic grass as habitat, including species-specific grass Chapter 1: structure and herbage biomass management This introduction chapter outlines the objectives guidelines and how these principles should be and scope of the strategy, legislation and policy implemented at the local scale. applying to nature conservation and the links between the strategy and associated action Chapter