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Maintaining Straw-Necked Ibis Habitat at the Western Treatment Plant Despite Changes in Agriculture

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Maintaining Straw-Necked Ibis Habitat at the Western Treatment Plant Despite Changes in Agriculture Maintaining Straw-necked Ibis Maintaining Straw-necked Ibis habitat habitatat the at Western the Western Treatment Treatment Plant Plantas despite pasture changes is converted in agriculture to crops P.V. Macak, D.I. Rogers and P.W. Menkhorst December 2017 Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Report Series No. 285 delwp.vic.gov.au Photo credit Straw-necked Ibis at the Western Treatment Plant (Danny Rogers) © The State of Victoria Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning 2017 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. You are free to re-use the work under that licence, on the condition that you credit the State of Victoria as author. The licence does not apply to any images, photographs or branding, including the Victorian Coat of Arms, the Victorian Government logo and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) logo. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ISSN 1835-3827 (print) ISSN 1835-3835 (pdf) ISBN 978-1-76077-018-1 (print) ISBN 978-1-76077-019-8 (pdf/online) Disclaimer This publication may be of assistance to you but the State of Victoria and its employees do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other consequence which may arise from you relying on any information in this publication. Accessibility If you would like to receive this publication in an alternative format, please telephone the DELWP Customer Service Centre on 136186, email [email protected], or via the National Relay Service on 133 677 www.relayservice.com.au. This document is also available on the internet at www.delwp.vic.gov.au. MaintainingMaintaining Straw Straw-necked-necked Ibis Ibis habitat habitatat the Westernat the Western Treatment Treatment Plant Plantas pasture despite is changes converted in agriculture to crops Phoebe V. Macak, Danny I. Rogers and Peter W. Menkhorst Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning Heidelberg, Victoria December 2017 Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Report Series No. 285 Acknowledgements This study was commissioned and funded by Melbourne Water, and we are grateful for the support of Dr Will Steele, who initiated the study, and Heather Graham who understood its significance and allowed it to continue. Dan Mooney facilitated communication with MPH Agriculture Pty Ltd, and Kevin Gillett, Aaron Zanatta, Warren Blyth and Mathew Drysdale provided operational and OH&S support. We thank MPH Agriculture Pty Ltd, particularly Julie Vanzyl, Laurie Fitzsimmons and Mark Earles, for supplying paddock irrigation, crop rotation and cattle quarantine information. The following people facilitated access to cattle quarantine areas during ibis surveys: Andrew Armstrong, Nick Binder, Phil McKenzie, Spencer Millear. Shayne Moor and Ted Diwell provided information and advice at various times. Dr Paul Moloney (Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research [ARI]) conducted data analyses and provided study design advice, Dr Dave Ramsey (ARI) provided study design advice in the initial stages of the project, and Dr Josephine MacHunter, Dr Jenny Nelson (ARI), and Dr Will Steele and Heather Graham (Melbourne Water) commented helpfully on an earlier draft. Report produced by: Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning PO Box 137 Heidelberg, Victoria 3084 Phone (03) 9450 8600 Website: www.ari.vic.gov.au Citation Macak, P.V., Rogers, D.I. and Menkhorst, P.W. (2017) Maintaining Straw-necked Ibis habitat at the Western Treatment Plant as pasture is converted to crops. Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research Technical Report Series No. 285, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Heidelberg, Victoria Contents Summary .......................................................................................................................... iii 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Changes in land use .................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Straw-necked Ibis at the Western Treatment Plant ................................................................................ 1 1.3 The Terrestrial Margin and potential ibis habitat ................................................................................... 2 1.4 Project scope and objectives ................................................................................................................... 3 2. Methods ......................................................................................................................... 4 2.1 Overview ..................................................................................................................................................... 4 2.2 Ibis observations ....................................................................................................................................... 4 2.3 Vegetation observations ........................................................................................................................... 4 2.4 Irrigation information ................................................................................................................................ 6 2.5 Paddock names, groupings and identification ....................................................................................... 7 2.6 Data analysis .............................................................................................................................................. 7 3. Results ........................................................................................................................... 9 3.1 Ibis numbers at the WTP 2013-2017 ........................................................................................................ 9 3.2 Vegetation type and ibis numbers ......................................................................................................... 11 3.3 Terrestrial Margin observations ............................................................................................................. 13 3.4 Influence of irrigation, vegetation type, time of year and Terrestrial Margin .................................... 15 3.5 Influence of vegetation height ................................................................................................................ 16 3.6 Behavioural observations ....................................................................................................................... 17 4. Discussion ................................................................................................................... 19 4.1 Influence of habitat variables on ibis foraging ..................................................................................... 19 4.2 Use of the Terrestrial Margin .................................................................................................................. 19 4.3 Ibis and land management ..................................................................................................................... 20 4.4 Further research ...................................................................................................................................... 20 4.5 Recommendations................................................................................................................................... 20 5. References .................................................................................................................. 21 Appendix A Terrestrial Margin paddocks of the Western Treatment Plant ............ 23 Appendix B Ibis survey dates and observers ........................................................... 24 Appendix C Details of statistical analyses ................................................................ 25 Appendix D Hurdle model parameter statistics ........................................................ 26 Maintaining Straw-necked Ibis habitat at the Western Treatment Plant i Summary Background The Western Treatment Plant (WTP), managed by Melbourne Water, is Melbourne’s major processor of wastewater. Its 10,500 ha of lagoons, paddocks and other environments, attract tens of thousands of birds, contributing to its recognition under the Ramsar convention of wetlands of international significance. Consequently, and in line with the Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, any changes in management must be carried out in the context of mitigating potentially adverse environmental impacts. The extensive paddock system (~4,550 ha) of the WTP has been utilised by Straw- necked Ibis Threskiornis spinicollis as foraging habitat for many years. Straw-necked Ibis are listed as one of the key values of the Ramsar site that includes the WTP. Consequently, an important management aim for Melbourne Water is to maintain the numbers of ibis using the site. Many WTP paddocks have now been converted from pasture (previously utilised for sewage treatment) to various agricultural crops. Ibis also use cropped areas for foraging, and although observations indicated that tall (> 45 cm) dense
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