IDENTIFICATION AND CONSERVATION OF FIRE SENSITIVE ECOSYSTEMS AND SPECIES OF THE SOUTH COAST NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT REGION. Sarah Barrett Sarah Comer Nathan McQuoid Meghan Porter Cameron Tiller Deon Utber ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project was funded by South Coast NRM Inc. and supported by the Department of Environment and Conservation. Members of the steering committee, Alan Danks, Deon Utber, Brad Barton, Lachie McCaw, Roger Armstrong and Greg Broomhall, provided advice and support throughout the project. Alison O’Donnell kindly provided access to her unpublished data on the Lake Johnson area. We are grateful to Malcom Grant, Greg Freebury, Greg Broomhall and Vince Hilder for their input into the section deatling with past and present fire management practices. Anne Cochrane kindly provided assistance with the development of example monitoring protcols. Meredith Spencer, Janet Newell, Saul Cowen, Louisa Bell and Pierre Rouxel assisted with compilation of references. In particular we would like to acknowledge the peer review of the document by Neil Burrows, Lachie McCaw, Stephen van Leeuwen, Carl Gosper, Klaus Tiedemann and Roger Armstrong. The following individuals provided valueable input through their participation in the Fire Ecology Workshop held in Albany on the 4th of March 2009: Emma Adams, Brad Barton, Neil Blake (facilitator), Bruce Bone, Brett Beecham, Wendy Bradshaw, Klaus Braun, Karl Brennan, Neil Burrows, Greg Broomhall , Allan Burbidge, Anne Cochrane, Gil Craig Alan Danks, Paula Deegan, Rob Edkins, Greg Freebury, Tony Friend, Sandra Gilfillan, Malcom Grant, Carl Gosper, Roger Hearn, Vince Hilder, Trevor Howard, Peter Keppell, Jennifer Jackson, Maria Lee, Sylvia Leighton, Laurent Marsol, Lachie McCaw, Shapelle McNee, Nathan McQuoid, Nicole Moore, Cassidy Newland, Mick Rose, Angela Sanders, Meredith Spencer, Peter Thompson, Klaus Tiedemann, Cameron Tiller, John Tonkin, Paul Van Heurk, Ian Wilson, Gavin Wornes and Joanna Young. Photographs provided by Sarah Barrett, Brent Barrett, Anne Cochrane, Sarah Comer, Alan Danks, Greg Freebury, Jiri Lochman, Nathan McQuoid, Nicole Moore and Libby Sandiford. This report was printed by Hidewood Printing, Albany. Citation: Barrett, S., Comer, S., McQuoid, N., Porter, M., Tiller, C. & Utber, D. (2009). Identification and Conservation of Fire Sensitive Ecosystems and Species of the South Coast Natural Resource Management Region. Department of Conservation and Land Management, South Coast Region, Western Australia. DISCLAIMER The information provided in this report has been compiled from a wide range of sources including individuals and published literature. At the time of printing, this information is believed to be accurate however the authors accept no responsibility for any damage or loss experienced by any individual or corporation caused by resultant errors within the following report. i Identification and Conservation of Fire Sensitive Ecosystems and Species of the South Coast Natural Resource Management Region Sarah Barrett, Sarah Comer, Nathan McQuoid, Meghan Porter, Cameron Tiller and Deon Utber Executive Summary Southern Prospects, the South Coast Strategy for Natural Resource Management, identified that the South Coast region has many fire sensitive ecosystems occurring on public and private land; that inappropriate fire regimes were a significant threatening process impacting on biodiversity; and that more information was required to adequately manage and conserve these systems. This project identifies a preliminary list of 80 fire sensitive systems and collates information on their ecological attributes that will directly assist their management. Many of these systems characteristise the landscape of the South Coast region in terms of their endemism, species richness and restricted distribution. The identification of ecosystem sensitivity was a product of the Ecodistrict perspective and was based upon the disturbance response of vegetation communities and habitat development to meet the requirements of fauna. Fire sensitive systems were defined as those systems vulnerable to long term loss of species diversity, vegetation structure and habitat value as a result of too frequent, intense or extensive fire or to inappropriate season of fire. These primarily included vegetation systems dominated by serotinous obligate seeder species such as mallet woodlands, shrublands and mallee over Melaleuca shrublands, as well as transitional woodlands, granite communities, wetland and riparian systems, peat and organic soil systems, cryptogram communities, and systems with refugial fauna and other short range endemic species. General recommendations and guidelines for South Coast fire sensitive systems were developed as well as ecological management guidelines for individual systems. Key fire sensitive species for each system were identified and their response to fire and maturation times documented where known. Fire sensitive plant species included dominant structural species, in particular serotinous obligate seeder species, with long maturation or recovery periods, species sensitive to intense or extensive fire, short range endemics and relictual species. Monitoring guidelines were developed to inform adaptive management. Past and present fire management practices and relevant fire management policy were reviewed and the fire history of remnant vegetation in the region was mapped. An analysis of the fire history, with an emphasis on specific reserves, in a GIS environment allowed some general observations to be made on the fire regimes in the last 33 years (1975-2008). The cause of fire for the eastern and more remote parts of the region has been predominantly wildfire with a greater incidence of prescribed fire in western parts of the region and areas of greater public use. The greatest proportion of area in the reserves assessed had a fire frequency of 1 to 2 fires in the 30 year period. The Fitzgerald River National Park (FRNP) and Great Western Woodland (GWW) had greater areas with no fire recorded for the study period. Of concern for the regeneration of serotinous obligate seeder species, was the high percentage of the ii Stirling Range National Park (SRNP) (16%) and Cape Arid National Park (CANP) (12%) that had experienced three fires in the study period. The area burnt annually across the region and the incidence of fire between 1975 and 2008 showed an upward trend in this period. This trend was less marked for individual reserves with the exception of the GWW where the area burnt annually appears to be increasing. Fire ecology literature and related environmental issues relevant to the South Coast region were reviewed. Ecological studies based in the region are summarised in this report and along with expert knowledge and the collation of fire response data used to identify fire sensitive systems. From the literature review, knowledge gaps and research priorities were identified and included: • Population and seed bank dynamics of key functional plant taxa in relation to fire; • Chronosequence (space-for-time) studies to investigate the effect of fire regime on community species composition and structure; • The effect of fire regime including patch size and fire history diversity on the habitat and population dynamics of key fauna species; • Leaf litter ecology and fungal diversity and in relation to fire regime; • Fuel load (biomass), flammability and risk of ignition in priority South Coast systems in relation to time since fire. This report is designed to assist future land management and planning within the South Coast region in that it provides land managers with a preliminary list of fire sensitive systems and the key components within these systems that can be used to assess and monitor ecosystem health in relation to fire. iii Table of Contents 1 Introduction......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Fire, policy and legislation................................................................................2 1.2 Fire and related environmental issues .............................................................3 2 Literature review................................................................................................. 4 3 South Coast Ecodistricts and their relationship to fire...................................... 11 3.1 Geology, climate, drainage, soils and vegetation...........................................11 3.2 The 15 Ecodistricts ........................................................................................13 4 Fire-sensitive systems...................................................................................... 17 4.1 Fire sensitivity - flora......................................................................................17 4.2 Fire sensitivity - fauna....................................................................................19 5 Identification of High Priority Fire Sensitive Systems, information on priority systems and threatened taxa within systems and their relationship with fire ... 21 6 Information on past and current fire management practices and plans including planned fire and wildfire suppression............................................................... 25 6.1 Past Practices................................................................................................25 6.2 Present Practices...........................................................................................26 7 Analysis of planned and wildfire history