National Recovery Plan for the Hairy-pod Wattle Acacia glandulicarpa Oberon Carter Prepared by Oberon Carter (Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria). Published by the Victorian Government Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) Melbourne, 2011. © State of Victoria Department of Sustainability and Environment 2011 This publication is copyright. No part may be reproduced by any process except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. Authorised by the Victorian Government, 8 Nicholson Street, East Melbourne. ISBN 978-1-74208-773-3 This is a Recovery Plan prepared under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, with the assistance of funding provided by the Australian Government. This Recovery Plan has been developed with the involvement and cooperation of a range of stakeholders, but individual stakeholders have not necessarily committed to undertaking specific actions. The attainment of objectives and the provision of funds may be subject to budgetary and other constraints affecting the parties involved. Proposed actions may be subject to modification over the life of the plan due to changes in knowledge. 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 that may arise from you relying on any information in this publication. An electronic version of this document is available on the Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities website www.environment.gov.au For more information contact the DSE Customer Service Centre 136 186 Citation: Carter, O. 2011. National Recovery Plan for the Hairy-pod Wattle Acacia glandulicarpa. Department of Sustainability and Environment, Melbourne. Cover photograph: Hairy-pod Wattle Acacia glandulicarpa by Oberon Carter. 1 Table of Contents Species Information ......................................................................................... 3 Description ................................................................................................................................... 3 Distribution .................................................................................................................................. 4 Population information ............................................................................................................... 5 Habitat .......................................................................................................................................... 5 Decline and Threats ......................................................................................... 7 Existing Conservation Measures ............................................................................................... 8 Recovery Information ...................................................................................... 8 Recovery objectives.................................................................................................................... 8 Program Implementation ............................................................................................................ 9 Program Evaluation .................................................................................................................... 9 Recovery Objectives, Actions and Performance Criteria ..................................................... 10 Management Practices ............................................................................................................. 12 Affected interests ...................................................................................................................... 12 Role and interests of indigenous people ................................................................................ 12 Benefits to other species/ecological communities ............................................................... 12 Social and economic impacts .................................................................................................. 13 Acknowledgments ......................................................................................... 13 Bibliography ................................................................................................... 13 Priority, feasibility and estimated costs of recovery actions ..................... 14 2 Summary The Hairy-pod Wattle Acacia glandulicarpa is a perennial shrub endemic to south-eastern Australia, where it occurs in western Victoria and eastern South Australia. Widespread clearing of habitat has been responsible for the decline in range and abundance of the species. There are estimated to be 6,000–12,000 plants occurring in about 75 locations, almost all of these occurring in the Wimmera region of western Victoria. At least 50% of the total number of plants occur in just seven populations, with one population, in the Little Desert National Park in Victoria, accounting for about 25% of the total number. Most populations are small (<20 plants) and occur in highly vulnerable situations such as roadsides. Remaining populations are threatened by weed invasion, grazing, lack of regeneration, roadworks and altered fire regimes. The Hairy-pod Wattle is listed as Vulnerable under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, Threatened under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 and Endangered under the South Australian National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972. This national Recovery Plan for the Hairy-pod Wattle details the species’ distribution and biology, conservation status, threats, and recovery objectives and actions necessary to ensure its long-term survival. Species Information Description The Hairy-pod Wattle Acacia glandulicarpa is a dense, rounded, spreading and much-branched shrub 0.5–2 m high, with dull to bright olive-green foliage. Branches are grey-brown, terete and minutely pubescent, marked with small raised leaf bases along the stems. Phyllodes are obliquely oblong-obovate to more or less elliptic, 5–13 mm long and 3–8 mm broad, erect, thick, rigid, glabrous, minutely glandular, and sometimes viscid when young. The lower phyllode margins are usually undulate. Phyllodes are 2-veined, the central vein being more prominent. Lateral veins are few and obscure, and the apex is shortly mucronate. Inflorescences are simple, axillary, solitary or paired, with the bright yellow flower heads carrying 8–20 flowers from July–October. Peduncles are about as long as the phyllode. Seed pods are narrowly oblong, 30 mm long and 2–5 mm wide, straight or curved, sticky, and covered with glandular shining hairs (description from Jessop & Toelken 1986; Maslin 1996). Little is known of the ecology of the Hairy-pod Wattle. Most stands comprise ageing individuals (Venn 1996), although in late 2003 some recruitment was observed at several sites following heavy spring rain. Sticky, unripe seed pods (November 2003, by O. Carter) seedling at McHabes Hut Track West, Little Desert National Park (November 2003, by O. Carter) 3 Hairy-pod wattle flowers (September 2007, by Gary Backhouse) Distribution The Hairy-pod Wattle is endemic to south-eastern Australia, where it occurs in the Wimmera region of western Victoria and south-east, northern agricultural and north-east pastoral districts of South Australia, in the Murray Darling Depression IBRA bioregion (sensu DEH 2000) (Figure 1). Although the species has a wide total distribution, plants are apparently restricted to three widely separated broad locations: (1) the Wimmera region of western Victoria; (2) around Burra, and (3) Wertaloona Station in South Australia. Present Range Figure 1. Distribution of the Hairy-pod Wattle 4 Maps showing the distribution of the Hairy-pod Wattle are available from the Department of Sustainability and Environment (for Victoria) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (for South Australia). Population information The Hairy-pod Wattle has been recorded from about 75 separate sites (DSE & DENR flora records and additional records from the Horsham Field Naturalists Club), with an estimated total population of 6,000–12,000 plants. Most sites and plants occur in Victoria, with about seven sites currently known from South Australia. At least 50% of the total number of plants occur in just seven populations, with one population (Little Desert National Park-Kiata) accounting for about 25% of the total number (Table 1). At least 60 sites are on roadsides, with most sites comprising very few individuals (1–20 plants). Some of these sites are separated by <100m, hence the total number of breeding populations may be less than 70 and more likely closer to 50. There are likely to be more occurrences of Hairy-pod Wattle along roadsides (and possibly on adjoining private land) that still support remnant native vegetation in the Victorian Wimmera and South Australia (Jessop & Tolken 1986). Important sites necessary to the long term survival and recovery of the Hairy-pod Wattle have been determined according to their relative chance of long-term ecological viability, including evidence of regeneration, population size, land tenure, patch and landscape condition, and geographic location, with representative sites from across the range of the species requiring protection to maintain the