Plains-Wanderer (Pedionomus Torquatus) Recovery Plan
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Draft Recovery Plan Plains-wanderer (Pedionomus torquatus) Recovery Plan Draft for Public Comment October 2002 © NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, 2002 This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced without prior written permission from NPWS. NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service 43 Bridge Street (PO Box 1967) Hurstville NSW 2220 Tel: 02 95856444 www.npws.nsw.gov.au For further information contact: Threatened Species Unit, Western Directorate. NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service P.O. Box 2111 Dubbo NSW 2830 Tel (02) 6883 5330 Email [email protected] Cover illustration: David Baker-Gabb This Plan should be cited as follows: NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (2002). Plains-wanderer (Pedionomus torquatus) Draft Recovery Plan. ISBN 07313 6416 3 NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service Recovery Planning Program Plains-wanderer (Pedionomus torquatus) Draft Recovery Plan Prepared in accordance with the New South Wales Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 October 2002 Acknowledgments Many landholders have generously permitted surveys and studies of Plains- wanderers on their properties over the past decade. David Baker-Gabb, Phil Maher and Rick Webster undertook much of the field work which underpins this Recovery Plan, supported by Birds Australia. Damon Oliver, Matt Cameron and Matt White of NSW NPWS provided assistance in the preparation of the Recovery Plan. This Recovery Plan was compiled by David Baker-Gabb, Convenor of the Recovery Team. Revision of the draft Recovery Plan was assisted by Recovery Team members: Matt Cameron, Martin Driver, Jim Hermiston, Ross McDonnell, Phil Maher, Michael Mullins, John Nevinson, Damon Oliver, Roger Oxley, David Parker, Mark Rowe, Mark Sheahan, Bruce Simpson and Rick Webster. ii Executive Summary Introduction Legislative context The Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (TSC Act) is NSW’s most comprehensive attempt at establishing a legislative framework to protect and encourage the recovery of threatened species, populations and communities. Under the TSC Act, the Director-General of National Parks and Wildlife has certain responsibilities including the preparation of Recovery Plans for threatened species, populations and ecological communities. This draft Recovery Plan has been prepared in accordance with the provisions of the TSC Act. Preparation of Plan This draft Recovery Plan has been prepared with the assistance of a Recovery Team, a non-statutory group of interested people with relevant expertise, established to discuss and resolve issues relating to the Plan. Components within the Plan do not necessarily represent the views nor the official positions of all the individuals or agencies represented on the Recovery Team. The information in this draft Recovery Plan was accurate to the best of the NPWS’s knowledge on the date it was approved. Current Species Status The Plains-wanderer has been listed as an endangered species on Schedule 1 of the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995. Recovery Objectives The long-term objective of the NSW Plains-wanderer Recovery Plan is to improve the conservation status of the species from ‘Endangered’ to ‘Vulnerable’ within the next 10 years. This would be achieved by: 1. Establishing an effective Recovery Team to administer and organise the recovery effort. 2. Maintaining the extent and enhancing the quality of Plains-wanderer habitat. 3. Locating and protecting Plains-wanderer habitat in areas not yet surveyed. 4. Securing a key area(s) of native grassland biodiversity through the purchase of one or more large reserves of at least 20,000 ha, and containing not less than 5,000 ha of habitat suitable for Plains-wanderers. iii 5. Halving the decline in Plains-wanderers in NSW due to overgrazing during droughts, and increasing numbers in 10,000 ha of habitat by enhanced management. 6. Assessing the relative impact of different management regimes and controlling threatening processes. Recovery Criteria 1. Progress towards meeting Recovery Plan objectives and actions is achieved efficiently with high levels of community and Government stakeholder support and involvement. 2. Integration of this Recovery Plan into a Regional Vegetation Plan which helps bring a halt to inappropriate development of important native grasslands, and yet does not impede well-planned, integrated development that falls outside important areas. 3. ‘Core Areas’ and other sites with important Plains-wanderer habitat defined, mapped, included in Regional Vegetation Plans and protected by 2002. These areas to be protected through their incorporation into the Western Riverina Regional Vegetation Management Plan and through the development and implementation of an appropriate DLWC policy relating to the consent process under the NVC Act and EP&A Act. 4. Establishment of a well-managed system of private reserves and refuge areas which, although small in size, have a major impact by halving the declines in the Plains-wanderer population during droughts, and contributes to increasing population numbers in the Riverina during average seasons through enhanced management. 5. A prime area(s) of native grassland initially supporting at least 400 breeding Plains-wanderers and other threatened flora and fauna to be added to the National Reserve System by 2001. With enhanced management the number of Plains-wanderers on the reserve(s) increases to 1,000 by 2005. 6. Targets are refined, management regimes modified, threatening processes reduced and Plains-wanderer numbers increase following implementation of new management actions derived from benchmarking and monitoring programs. Recovery Actions 1.1. Establish landholder, Government and community stakeholder representation on the Recovery Team. iv 1.2. Employ a part-time Recovery Team Convenor to organise meetings, minutes and annual reviews of progress, to oversee surveys and monitoring, and to facilitate Recovery Team members fulfilling their agreed responsibilities. 2.1. Employ a half-time Wildlife Extension Officer to liaise with and provide information to landholders, Government agencies and other relevant Recovery Teams, and to undertake population monitoring. 2.2. Integrate all information on Plains-wanderer habitat and requirements into the Western Riverina Regional Vegetation Management Plan, and ensure that such habitat is provided with a 2 km buffer (necessary to protect against the impacts of fox predation) from areas approved for cultivation. 2.3. Establish a register of areas of Plains-wanderer habitat lost to or degraded by cultivation, and areas included in reserves, and provide an annual report on changes. 2.4. Develop and provide management guidelines, in consultation with landholders, for broadacre properties, and conservation areas covered by Voluntary Conservation Agreements or Property Agreements. 2.5. Provide information and maps to ensure that agency representatives, including plague locust authorities, and landholders are aware of the location and relative importance of Plains-wanderer habitat under their control. 3.1. Conduct ground surveys in potential Plains-wanderer habitat areas that were not mapped in the NPWS/WRRVC Plains-wanderer habitat mapping project 1998- 2001. 4.1. Determine the importance of all Plains-wanderer habitat outside ‘Core Areas’. 4.2. Submit the map of ‘Core Areas’ as part of this Recovery Plan to the Western Riverina Regional Vegetation Committee (WRRVC) for their inclusion in the Western Riverina Regional Vegetation Management Plan. 5.1. Encourage and facilitate Whole Farm Plans with relatively small (eg 5% of property) areas fenced and lightly grazed under Voluntary Conservation Agreements, Property Agreements or other voluntary arrangements. 5.2. Negotiate fenced, lightly grazed areas with appropriate Fox controls under Property Agreements as a trade-off where landholders wish to undertake developments that will potentially impact Plains-wanderers in lesser conservation value areas. Ensure that such trade-offs mesh with the Regional Vegetation Plan, important habitat is conserved, and a net benefit to the long-term conservation of Plains-wanderers is achieved. v 6.1. Collate scientific data documenting that the Riverine Plain is poorly represented in the National Reserve System and that a once-only opportunity exists to purchase one of several high conservation value properties, or parts thereof, which could soon be lost to fragmentation by cultivation. 7.1. Establish benchmark numbers and undertake monitoring of Plains-wanderers at a range of sites with different management regimes including: broad acre grazing properties, stud grazing properties, large reserves, small areas under Voluntary Conservation Agreements, and areas fragmented by cultivation. 7.2. Involve stakeholders and provide regular feed-back to land managers on improvements to management regimes. Biodiversity Benefits The Plains-wanderer has become a ‘flagship’ species in the effort to conserve ‘Riverine Plain’ native grasslands in NSW and Victoria. These native grasslands are listed as a threatened plant community under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988. Plains-wanderers commonly occur in the same areas as threatened plants, and lowland native grasslands contain a large number of threatened plants (Briggs and Leigh 1988). The second Atlas of Australian Birds indicates that a number of other grassland species have undergone national declines of 30-50% in the last 20 years, with greatest declines in south-eastern