18th Decebmber 2007 FerrAus Ltd DAVIDSON CREEK TARGETED PRIORITY AND RARE FLORA SURVEY. 1025 Wellington Street WEST PERTH WA 6005 ･ phone: 9322 1944 ･ fax: 9322 1599 ･ ACN 088 821 425 ･ ABN 63 088 821 425 www.ecologia.com.au FerrAus Limited Davidson Creek – Targeted Rare and Priority Flora Survey December 2007 FerrAus Limited Davidson Creek - Targeted Rare and Priority Flora Survey Document Status Rev Author Reviewer/s Date Approved for Issue No. Name Distributed To Date FINAL R. Graham & Christina Cox 18/12/07 C. Cox John Berry, 18/12/07 M. Hay FerrAus © ecologia Environment (2007). Reproduction of this report in whole or in part by electronic, mechanical or chemical means including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, in any language, is strictly prohibited without the express approval of ecologia Environment and/or FerrAus Pty Ltd. Restrictions on Use This report has been prepared specifically for FerrAus. Neither the report nor its contents may be referred to or quoted in any statement, study, report, application, prospectus, loan, or other agreement document, without the express approval of ecologia Environment and/or FerrAus. ecologia Environment 1025 Wellington Street WEST PERTH WA 6005 Phone (08) 9322 1944 Fax (08) 9322 1599 [email protected] i FerrAus Limited Davidson Creek - Targeted Rare and Priority Flora Survey Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY......................................................................................................iv 1.0 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................1 1.1 BACKGROUND 1 1.2 LOCATION 1 2.0 METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................3 2.1 DECLARED RARE AND PRIORITY FLORA SURVEY 3 3.0 VEGETATION ...........................................................................................................5 3.1 REGIONAL VEGETATION 5 3.2 VEGETATION OF THE DAVIDSON CREEK SURVEY AREA 5 4.0 FLORA ......................................................................................................................9 4.1 FLORA OF CONSERVATION SIGNIFICANCE RECORDED IN THE CURRENT SURVEY AREA 9 4.1.1 Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999..................9 4.1.2 Wildlife Conservation Act 1950 ......................................................................9 4.1.3 Priority Flora recorded within the survey area................................................9 4.2 INTRODUCED SPECIES WITHIN THE CURRENT SURVEY AREA 10 5.0 CONSERVATION SIGNIFICANCE .........................................................................12 5.1 DECLARED RARE FLORA 12 5.2 PRIORITY FLORA 12 6.0 CLEARING PRINCIPLES AND THE EPA ACT, 1986............................................13 7.0 RECOMMENDATIONS ...........................................................................................15 8.0 STUDY TEAM .........................................................................................................16 9.0 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................17 Appendix A: Complete Species List for the Area Surveyed..........................................18 Appendix B: Explanation of Conservation Codes..........................................................24 Appendix C: Priority Flora Recorded at the Davidson Creek Project Area..................27 Appendix D: Introduced Flora Recorded at the Davidson Creek Project Area............30 Appendix E: Rare Flora Report Forms Lodged with DEC..............................................33 Appendix F: Proposed Drill line and Access Track Coordinates..................................35 ii FerrAus Limited Davidson Creek - Targeted Rare and Priority Flora Survey Tables Table 3-1: Vegetation types recorded at Davidson Creek...........................................6 Table 4-1: Rare and Priority Flora occurring within 200 km of Davidson Creek........10 Table 6-1: Clearing permit requirements and the Davidson Creek survey area. ......13 Table A-1: Complete species list for the Davidson Creek Project Area.....................19 Table B-1: Definition of categories described under the EPBC Act...........................25 Table B-2: Definition of Declared Rare and Priority categories. ................................25 Table B-3: Explanation of codes for Declared Weeds in Western Australia..............26 Table C-1: Locations of Priority Flora recorded at the Davidson Creek Project Area.... .................................................................................................................28 Table D-1: Locations of introduced flora recorded at the Davidson Creek project area ..........................................................................................................31 Table F-1: Proposed drill line and access track coordinates.....................................36 Figures Figure 1-1: Location of the Davidson Creek survey area within the IBRA boundaries..2 Figure 2-1: Overview of the Davidson Creek survey area.............................................4 Figure C-1: Approximate location of Goodenia nuda recorded at Davidson Creek project area. ..............................................................................................29 Figure D-1: Locations of introduced flora taxa recorded at Davidson Creek. ..............32 Plate Plate 3-1: Plain vegetation type 1................................................................................7 Plate 3-2: Plain vegetation type 2................................................................................7 Plate 3-3: Plain vegetation type 3................................................................................7 Plate 3-4: Plain vegetation type 4................................................................................7 Plate 3-5: Plain vegetation type 5................................................................................7 Plate 3-6: Floodplain vegetation type 6. ......................................................................7 Plate 3-7: Floodplain vegetation type 7. ......................................................................8 Plate 3-8: Rocky hillslope vegetation type 8................................................................8 Plate 3-9: Rocky hillslope vegetation type 9................................................................8 Plate 3-10: Rocky hillslope vegetation type 10..............................................................8 Plate 3-11: Rocky hillslope vegetation type 11..............................................................8 Plate 5-1: Goodenia nuda (P3)..................................................................................12 iii FerrAus Limited Davidson Creek - Targeted Rare and Priority Flora Survey EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FerrAus Limited (FerrAus) proposes to carry out an exploration drilling program at tenement E 52/1658 at its Davidson Creek exploration area. FerrAus commissioned ecologia Environment Pty Ltd (ecologia) to carry out a survey for Declared Rare and Priority Flora species along proposed tracks and drill lines at the Davidson Creek exploration area. FerrAus is required to identify and minimise impacts of the exploration effort on flora species of conservation significance, and the results of this survey are to be used to support a Programme of Works application (PoW) to be submitted to the Department of Industry and Resources (DoIR). This report details the outcomes of a Declared Rare and Priority Flora survey undertaken by ecologia in September 2007. Approximately 32.6 km of drill lines were surveyed, along with 5.2 km of access track. To ensure that all potential habitats were assessed, the survey comprised foot traverses (the three botanists covering a combined band width of 50 m) along the 16 proposed drill lines and two access tracks, linking the drill lines. One hundred and ninety seven taxa from 43 families and 105 genera were recorded during the survey, of these taxa five were introduced (weed) species. Flora species are protected at a National level under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC 1999 Act). The Act contains a list of species that are considered Critically Endangered, Endangered, Vulnerable, Conservation Dependent, Extinct or Extinct in the Wild. One species listed under this Act as Endangered, Pityrodia augustensis, is known from 12 collections in the Pilbara region. This species was not recorded during this survey. Under the Western Australian Wildlife Conservation (Rare Flora) Notice of the Wildlife Conservation Act 1950, the Minister for the Environment may declare species of protected flora to be Declared Rare Flora (DRF) if they are considered to be in danger of extinction, rare or otherwise in need of special protection. These taxa are legally protected and removal or impact to their surroundings cannot be conducted without ministerial approval obtained specifically on each occasion for each population. Currently, three DRF taxa are listed as potentially occurring in the Pilbara and Gascoyne IBRA regions; Pityrodia augustensis, Thryptomene wittweri and Lepidium catapycnon; these DRF species were not recorded during the survey at Davidson Creek. The Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) maintains a list of Priority Flora taxa, which may be rare or threatened but for which there are insufficient survey data to accurately