Australian Collaborative Rangeland Information System, Reporting Change in the Rangelands – 2007 Queensland Information for the National Report October 2007 John Carter, Queensland Department of Natural Resources & Water Richard Silcock, Queensland Department of Primary Industry & Fisheries Gary Bastin and Melissa Schliebs, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems QDPIF logo QDNRW logo CSIRO logo ACRIS Rangelands 2007 – Taking the Pulse; QLD contribution to national reporting, Oct 2007 1 DISCLAIMER Probably need advice from the ACRIS-MC (or DEWR, if they publish this on the ACRIS web site). In addition to the usual disclaimer content, I suggest we need to include something like “this report has undergone a reasonable degree of editing but the content was prepared primarily to assist the ACRIS Management Unit in its compiling content for the national report Rangelands 2007 – Taking the Pulse (published by the ACRIS Management Committee and printed by the National Land & Water Resources Audit). The reader should also refer to that report for published reporting of change in Queensland’s rangelands. CITATION This report should be referenced as Carter et al. (2007) Carter, J., Silcock, R., Bastin, G. and Schliebs, M. (2007). Australian Collaborative Rangeland Information System, Reporting Change in the Rangelands – 2007: Queensland Information for the National Report. Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Water, Brisbane, Australia. 68 pp. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The following kindly provided data, information or advice and support in reporting: The Department of Natural Resources & Water (NRW) –Robert Hassett, Peter Scarth and Tim Danaher. The Department of Primary Industry and Fisheries –John Arrowsmith, DPIF Biosecurity Group. Environmental Protection Agency – Teresa Eyre. Beverley Henry (NRW) provided encouragement and support throughout this reporting activity and for that, we thank you. Datasticians (Graham Griffin and Sarah Dunlop) were contracted by the Desert Knowledge CRC to analyse and report on several of the NRW datasets. Their information is included in both this and the national report. We thank Datasticians for their contributions. Members of the ACRIS Management Committee provided more general direction and guidance with jurisdictional contributions to the 2007 national report. Queensland reporting was supported by Natural Heritage Trust funding administered by the Desert Knowledge CRC. We thank the DK-CRC Secretariat, and Ange Vincent in particular, for their contribution by way of implementing and managing contractual arrangements. ACRIS Rangelands 2007 – Taking the Pulse; QLD contribution to national reporting, Oct 2007 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables...........................................................................................................................................5 List of Figures..........................................................................................................................................6 Summary.................................................................................................................................................7 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................9 Reporting Area.................................................................................................................................9 Method of Reporting ........................................................................................................................9 Report Contents.............................................................................................................................12 Rangeland Assessment Programs....................................................................................................12 New initiatives in rangeland monitoring .........................................................................................13 Landscape Function..............................................................................................................................15 Data Sources.....................................................................................................................................15 Comparison of Dataset Results.........................................................................................................15 Change in Landscape Function.........................................................................................................21 Sustainable Management .....................................................................................................................23 Critical stock forage...........................................................................................................................23 Data source....................................................................................................................................23 Change in stock forage..................................................................................................................24 Sustainability of pasture utilisation, 1991-2005..........................................................................24 Change in pasture utilisation......................................................................................................25 Combining recent sustainability and trend .................................................................................27 Reliability in reporting.....................................................................................................................28 Caveats on reporting change based on Aussie-GRASS simulation of pasture utilisation ............29 Woody Cover.....................................................................................................................................30 Data source....................................................................................................................................30 Woody cover: 2003........................................................................................................................31 Change in woody cover: 1991 to 2003 ..........................................................................................32 Supporting Photographic Images..........................................................................................................33 Mulga Lands Bioregion......................................................................................................................34 Mitchell Grass Downs Bioregion .......................................................................................................36 Land Values ..........................................................................................................................................39 Methodology ......................................................................................................................................39 IBRA rangeland values......................................................................................................................40 Acknowledgements ...........................................................................................................................41 Reporting by Datasticians .....................................................................................................................42 References............................................................................................................................................43 Appendix One: Bastin’s modifications to Datasticians’ reporting of change in bare ground ................44 Introduction........................................................................................................................................44 Rationale for Additional Analysis and Reporting ...............................................................................44 ACRIS Rangelands 2007 – Taking the Pulse; QLD contribution to national reporting, Oct 2007 3 Additional analysis .........................................................................................................................45 Methods.............................................................................................................................................45 Median difference variable.............................................................................................................45 Seasonal Quality............................................................................................................................46 Direction of Change .......................................................................................................................46 Results...............................................................................................................................................47 Sub-IBRA change classes .............................................................................................................47 Summary results by bioregion .......................................................................................................51 Brigalow Belt North.....................................................................................................................51 Brigalow Belt South....................................................................................................................52 Cape York Peninsula..................................................................................................................52