Upper Darling Region Pest Management Strategy NSW NATIONAL PARKS AND WILDLIFE 2003 - 2006 SERVICE NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, 2003. This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced without prior written permission from NPWS. NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service 43 Bridge Street (PO Box 1967) Hurstville NSW 2220 Telephone: 02 9585 6444 www.npws.nsw.gov.au For further information contact: Pest Management Officer Upper Darling Region, Western Directorate NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service PO Box 453 Cobar NSW 2835 Telephone: 02 6836 2692 Cover image: Exclusion fences with drop down one-way goat ramps have been constructed around artificial water points in Yathong Nature Reserve. The exclusion fences will improve the control of feral goat populations and enable better management of other pest animal populations within the Reserve Photograph by Michael Wales. This plan should be cited as follows: NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. (2003). Upper Darling Region Pest Management Strategy 2003-2006. NPWS, Hurstville, NSW. ISBN 0 7313 6697 2 Regional Pest Management Strategies Foreword Pest animals and weeds are the targets of the five regional pest management strategies for central and western NSW. The strategies are an initiative of the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and have been released by the Western Directorate for public information. The release of the pest management strategies follows a two-month public exhibition of draft strategies during August and September 2002, which provided an opportunity for the community to have their say in how they were developed. These strategies recognise that pest species are a problem across the landscape and they aim to maximise the effectiveness of pest control programs, particularly through cooperative programs with neighbours and others. The NPWS is committed to a regional approach to pest management where the programs are developed and often undertaken in collaboration with neighbours, other government agencies, rural lands protection boards, local government councils, regional pest committees, CSIRO, universities and community groups such as Landcare, and Bushcare volunteers. These documents identify the major pest populations within the regions, and establish priority control programs. The aim is to apply best practice, humane, cost effective methods, which will have minimal impacts on the environment. In general this requires careful planning, to ensure an integrated approach is adopted using a range of techniques at critical times of the year, and often, the targeting of more than one species. The pest management strategies establish direction for pest management activities within the NPWS' western regions until 2006. The year to year focus of control activities will vary with climatic conditions and available funding. The annual work programs will be set out in Regional operation plans. For further information on these details I encourage you to contact the Regional Manager in your Region. TERRY KORN DIRECTOR WESTERN Table of Contents 1 Background .................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Upper Darling Region............................................................................................................ 1 1.3 Legislation and Policy............................................................................................................ 4 1.3.1 National Parks and Wildlife (NPW) Act 1974.................................................................. 4 1.3.2 Threatened Species Conservation (TSC) Act 1995 .......................................................... 4 1.3.3 Rural Lands Protection (RLP) Act 1998.......................................................................... 4 1.3.4 Noxious Weeds Act 1993.................................................................................................. 5 1.3.5 Wild Dog Destruction (WDD) Act 1921........................................................................... 5 1.3.6 Other Relevant Legislation............................................................................................... 5 1.3.7 NPWS Field Management Policies .................................................................................. 5 2 Management Strategy.................................................................................................................... 6 3 Objectives of Pest Control Programs ........................................................................................... 7 4 Pest Programs and Threatened Species ....................................................................................... 7 4.1 Past Pest Management........................................................................................................... 7 4.1.1 Pest Animals..................................................................................................................... 8 4.1.2 Weeds............................................................................................................................... 9 4.2 Threatened Species............................................................................................................... 10 5 Regional Priorities ....................................................................................................................... 11 5.1 Criteria for Prioritising Pests..............................................................................................11 5.2 Regional Assessment ............................................................................................................ 12 6 Programs....................................................................................................................................... 15 6.1 Pest Animal Species.............................................................................................................. 15 6.1.1 Feral Pig - Sus scrofa ..................................................................................................... 15 6.1.2 European Red Fox – Vulpes vulpes................................................................................ 15 6.1.3 European Wild Rabbit – Oryctolagus cuniculus............................................................ 16 6.1.4 Feral Goat – Capra hircus.............................................................................................. 17 6.1.5 Feral Cat – Felis catus.................................................................................................... 17 6.1.6 Wild Cattle and Sheep.................................................................................................... 18 6.2 Weed Species ........................................................................................................................ 18 6.2.1 Parthenium Weed - Parthenium hysterophorus ............................................................. 18 6.2.2 Spiny Burr Grass - Cenchrus incertus............................................................................ 19 6.2.3 African Boxthorn - Lycium ferocissimum ...................................................................... 19 6.2.4 Bathurst Burr - Xanthium spinosum............................................................................... 20 6.2.5 Noogoora Burr - Xanthium occidentale ......................................................................... 21 7 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 21 8 Acknowledgements....................................................................................................................... 21 9 Further Reading........................................................................................................................... 22 Index of Figures Figure 1: Map of Upper Darling Region............................................................................................. 3 Index of Tables Table 1: Distribution of pest animals and weeds on NPWS estate in the Upper Darling Region. 10 Table 2: Threatened species protection programs. .......................................................................... 11 Table 3: Priority classes for pest species. .......................................................................................... 12 Table 4: Pest species priority classes for Upper Darling Region. ................................................... 13 Appendices Appendix 1: Timing of Pest Control Programs…………………………………………………..…23 Appendix 2: Noxious Weeds of Upper Darling Region………………………………………….…24 Appendix 3: Threatened Fauna Species within the Upper Darling Region………………………25 Appendix 4: Threatened Flora Species within the Upper Darling Region………………………..26 This Pest Management Strategy outlines 1 Background how the NPWS manages pest species. In this strategy, the term “pest species” refers to introduced species of weeds and pest 1.1 Introduction animals. Introduced pest species can seriously impact upon the biodiversity of reserved 1.2 Upper Darling areas by modifying species richness, Region abundance and ecosystem function. They can also have significant impacts on the The Upper Darling Region is economic and social values of approximately 100,000 square kilometres