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Final Report FINAL REPORT Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Gippsland Region, March 2002 1 © The State of Victoria, Department of Natural Resources and Environment 2002. This publication is copyright. Apart from any fair dealings for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, or graphic) without written prior permission of the State of Victoria, Department of Natural Resources and Environment. All requests and enquires should be directed to the Copyright Officer, Library Information Services, Department of Natural Resources and Environment, 5/250 Victoria Parade, East Melbourne, Victoria 3002. ISBN 1 74106 548 8 Find more information about the Department at www.dse.vic.gov.au Customer Service Centre Phone: 136 186 [email protected] General 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 consequences which may arise from your relying on information in this publication. COVER PHOTO LOCATIONS (TOP TO BOTTOM) Photo 1. Depauperate Coastal Tussock Grassland (EVC 163-04) on islands off Wilsons Promontory. Photo 2. Gippsland Plains Grassy Woodland (EVC 55-03) at Moormurng Flora and Fauna Reserve south-west of Bairnsdale. Photo 3. Wet Forest (EVC 30) in the Strzelecki ranges. Photo 4. Mangrove Shrubland (EVC 140) on the South Gippsland coastline at Corner Inlet. Photo 5. Fen (EVC 171) (foreground) at The Morass on the Baw Baw Plateau with Sub-alpine Wet Heathland (EVC 210) and Sub-alpine Woodland (EVC 43) behind. Photos by J. Davies, A. Oates and T. Wills. 2 It is sometimes said that scientists are divided into ‘lumpers’ and ‘splitters’. The lumper notices that things which seem very different actually have things in common, so they get lumped together (with valuable results). The splitter notices that things which seem the same actually have important points of difference, so he makes distinctions and splits them apart (also with valuable results). In general, how we deal with the world as children or as a society is a matter of lumping and splitting. That is how we form concepts in the first place and then go on to form better concepts. De Bono, E. (1992) ‘Teach Your Child How To Think’. 3 ECOLOGICAL VEGETATION CLASS MAPPING AT 1:25:000 IN GIPPSLAND J.B. Davies¹, A.M. Oates² and A.V. Trumbull-Ward³ ¹Department of Natural Resources and Environment, 71 Hotham Street, Traralgon, Victoria 3844. ²Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Arthur Rylah Institute, 123 Brown Street, Heidelberg, Victoria 3084. ³Department of Natural Resources and Environment, 171/173 Nicholson Street, Orbost, Victoria 3888. Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Gippsland Region, March 2002 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................6 2. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................6 3. OBJECTIVES ........................................................................................................................7 4. TERMINOLOGY ..................................................................................................................8 5. METHODS .............................................................................................................................8 6. LIMITATIONS ....................................................................................................................13 7. RESOURCES .......................................................................................................................15 8 RESULTS ..............................................................................................................................16 9. DISCUSSION .......................................................................................................................16 10. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER WORK ......................................................17 11. PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS ...............................................................................19 12. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................19 13. REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................20 5 1. SUMMARY A total of 63 Ecological Vegetation Classes and 44 Floristic Communities was described and mapped in East and West Gippsland Study Areas at a scale of 1:25 000 between 1995 and 2000. Two hundred and eighty-seven 1:25000 GIS vegetation map sheets were produced and have been entered onto the NRE Corporate Library. The mapping covered a wide range of habitats from sub-alpine vegetation on the Baw Baw plateau to coastal vegetation and warm temperate rainforest near Lakes Entrance to specialised vegetation restricted to the islands off Wilsons Promontory. An analysis was conducted on existing Gippsland quadrats on NRE’s Victorian Flora Information System (FIS). The Wilsons Promontory analysis was based on 622 quadrats with a total of 1217 quadrats being analysed for the rest of the West Gippsland Study Area. Over 700 plant species lists were collated during fieldwork in the West Gippsland Study Area (including Wilsons Promontory) with a further 36 plant species lists collated in the East Gippsland Study Area. These were entered onto the Flora Information System. Sixty-seven quadrats were conducted during the mapping project in the poorly sampled southern half of Wilsons Promontory National Park and adjacent islands and entered onto the Flora Information System. 2. INTRODUCTION 2.1 Background This project commenced in 1995 following a decision by the then Flora Fauna & Fisheries Section in the Gippsland Region of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to map and describe Ecological Vegetation Classes (EVCs) on the rural land of Gippsland (private and small areas of embedded public land). The project complemented EVC mapping on public land at 1:100, 000 which was then underway. Funding for this project was primarily from Flora, Fauna and Fisheries, Gippsland Region, whilst additional funds were later provided by the Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) program during 1997-98, and Parks Victoria for the mapping of unclassified patches of Wilsons Promontory National Park during 1998-99. The mapping will be of use mainly for native vegetation planning and management by NRE, Catchment Management Authorities, Parks Victoria, Landcare groups and Shires. It extends into six of Victoria’s 21 bioregions: East Gippsland Uplands, East Gippsland Lowlands, Highlands-Southern Fall, Gippsland Plain, Wilsons Promontory and Victorian Alps. 2.2 Study area The mapping started as two independent mapping projects with different reporting relationships and separate funding. A decision was made by Gippsland Flora & Fauna management to amalgamate the two projects. Since different resources, mapping methods and personnel were used in the respective areas it was decided to maintain two separate study areas. 6 These were defined as the East Gippsland Study Area and West Gippsland Study Area (see individual overview EVC distribution maps in Appendix 3) based largely on the Forest Management Area boundaries. The mapping project followed on from 1:100 000 mapping completed in East Gippsland as a requirement of the Comprehensive Regional Assessment under the Regional Forest Agreement. When the East and West Gippsland mapping projects commenced, the initial objective was to map only private land (and small areas of embedded public land). However, as the project progressed in West Gippsland it became obvious that it was more efficient to map all land tenures due to the limited extent of remnant vegetation. Wilsons Promontory National Park (including adjacent islands) was later incorporated into the project following a request from Parks Victoria. The 1:100 000 map sheets covered in the two study areas include Bairnsdale, Benambra, Bendoc, Bogong, Cann, Craigie, Dargo, Eden, Foster, Healesville, Jack Smith Lake, Howitt, Jacobs River, Maffra, Mallacoota, Matlock, Moe, Murrindal, Murrungowar, Numbla, Omeo, Orbost, Sale, Stockyard, Stratford, Traralgon, Warragul, Wilsons Promontory, Wonthaggi and Yarram. A list of all the 1:25 000 map sheets used in this EVC mapping project is presented in Appendix 6. East Gippsland Study Area EVC mapping of private land in the East Gippsland study area was done by Allen Trumbull- Ward, Flora & Fauna Officer, Orbost. Mapping covered foothills to montane and sub-alpine sites around Bairnsdale and Dargo to Omeo and Benambra. Coastal mapping extended from Lakes Entrance through to Mallacoota, with inland mapping occurring in foothill and montane sites from Bruthen to Gelantipy extending eastwards to Deddick and Bendoc. West Gippsland Study Area EVC mapping of private and public land in the West Gippsland study area was carried out by John Davies, Senior Flora & Fauna Officer and Alison Oates, Flora & Fauna Officer, both of the former Warragul Office, Gippsland NRE with assistance in localised areas by Tim Wills and Karen Lester. Mapping commenced on the West Gippsland Study
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