Document Reference: EP18-046(05)—003 Emerge contact: Jason Hick 8 October 2018 Attention: Clearing Permit Section Department of Water and Environmental Regulation Locked Bag 33 CLOISTERS SQUARE WA 6850 Delivered by email to: [email protected] Dear Sir/Madam, CLEARING PERMIT (PURPOSE PERMIT) APPLICATION FOR PORT KENNEDY DRIVE DUPLICATION Emerge Associates (Emerge) has been engaged by the City of Rockingham (‘the applicant’) to provide environmental consultancy services to support the proposed duplication of Port Kennedy Drive between Warnbro Sound Drive and Ennis Avenue (herein referred to as ‘the site’). Due to the presence of native vegetation within the site, Emerge have prepared this letter to support an application for a clearing permit (purpose permit) pursuant to Part V of the Environmental Protection Act 1986 (EP Act). Introduction and background The site is Crown land that has been vested in the control of the City of Rockingham for the purposes of a public road, as per the current land use zoning, ‘Other Regional Roads’ under the Metropolitan Region Scheme and the City of Rockingham Town Planning Scheme No. 2. The site currently consists of the existing Port Kennedy Drive carriageway, cleared areas and native remnant vegetation. The site is bound by Bush Forever Site 356 to the south, Warnbro Sound Avenue to the west, commercial land uses in addition to remnant bushland to the north and Ennis Avenue to the east and is located approximately 55 km south of Perth within the City of Rockingham, as shown in Figure 1. To support increased traffic volumes, the City of Rockingham is proposing to duplicate a section of Port Kennedy Drive extending between Warnbro Sound Drive and Ennis Avenue located in Port Kennedy to form a dual carriageway. A purpose clearing permit is sought to clear the native vegetation within the site to enable the duplication works to be completed. The site is 8.23 hectares (ha) in size, and supports approximately 3.31 ha of native vegetation, with the remaining 4.92 ha of the site either cleared or supporting non-native vegetation, although it is noted that scattered occurrences of individual native shrubs and trees occur within completely degraded areas of the site. Environmental context The site includes vegetation located within the Port Kennedy Drive road reserve, to the north and south of the existing carriageway. The majority of native vegetation exists within the southern portion of the site, with the majority of the northern and central portion of the site being historically Emerge Environmental Services Pty Ltd ACN 144 772 510 trading as Emerge Associates 2 cleared (including the existing Port Kennedy Drive) or supporting non-native vegetation, with scattered occurrences of individual native shrubs and trees. The key environmental features within the site include: x Three conservation category wetlands (unique feature identifier (UFI)) # 6235, 6244 and 6246 have been mapped within the site, in addition to one multiple use wetland (UFI# 6242) (Figure 3). x One environmentally sensitive area has been identified across the entirety of the site, which is centered on Bush Forever Site 356 (identified to the immediate south of the site), conservation category wetlands and known occurrences of threatened ecological communities (Figure 3). x One threatened ecological community (TEC) ‘Sedgelands in Holocene dune swales’ and one priority ecological community (PEC) ‘Acacia shrublands on taller dunes’ has been identified within the site (Figure 4). The TEC that has been identified within the site, ‘Sedgelands in Holocene dune swales’, is a federally listed TEC pursuant to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity and Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). Prior to preparing and lodging this clearing permit application, Emerge Associates met with a number of representatives from the federal Department of the Environment and Energy (DoEE) to determine if a referral to the DoEE under the EPBC Act was required as part of the proposed clearing. Following consultation, it was determined that the proposed clearing was not considered to be a significant impact, and no further action was required from a federal referrals level. This correspondence is provided in Attachment 4. Clearing Permit Application Attachment 1 contains the signed clearing permit application form for processing by DWER. Attachment 2 contains the targeted flora and vegetation survey report (Emerge Associates 2018). Attachment 3 contains the results of the fauna survey undertaken by Harewood (2017). Attachment 4 contains correspondence between Emerge Associates and DoEE. Attachment 5 contains correspondence between Emerge Associates and DWER. Attachment 6 contains the clearing plans. The remainder of this letter contains supporting information to assist the DWER in assessing the clearing permit application. Clearing permit area The clearing permit area refers to the 3.31 ha of native vegetation identified within the site boundary, and is shown in Figure 2. It is noted that there are scattered occurrences of individual native shrubs and trees within the completely degraded areas of the site, however these do not constitute any specific plant communities. Whilst this clearing permit applies only to the native vegetation within the site, it is anticipated that clearing will only occur where necessary to facilitate the construction of the future road and associated infrastructure, and to ensure the environmental impact within and surrounding the site is minimised. As per the clearing plans attached as Attachment 6, the proposed areas of clearing are likely to require clearing only to the south of the existing carriageway. Flora and vegetation values A spring flora and vegetation assessment of the clearing permit area was undertaken by Emerge Associates across September and October 2017 (Attachment 2). The following provides a summary of the flora and vegetation values pertaining to the clearing permit area. A total of 43 native and 33 non-native flora species were recorded. The dominant families containing native taxa were Fabaceae (seven native taxa and one non-native taxa), Cyperaceae (five native taxa and one weed taxa) and Myrtaceae (five native taxa and one weed taxa). Invasive species (denoted EP18-046(05)—003 Emerge Associates 3 by the prefix ‘*’) identified across the clearing permit area included *Bromus diandrus, *Lagurus ovatus, *Pelargonium capitatum, *Scabiosa atropurpurea and *Trachyandra divaricata. No occurrences of threatened flora species were identified within the clearing permit area. One priority 4 (P4) species, Conotylis pauciflora subsp. pauciflora, was recorded within the clearing permit area (Emerge Associates 2018). Approximately 145 individuals were recorded within the clearing permit area, however it is noted that it is hard to verify exactly how many individuals are present in this area due to the clumping habit of C. pauciflora subsp. pauciflora. No other occurrences of any priority flora species were recorded within the clearing permit area. Three native plant communities, in addition to heavily disturbed and/or cleared areas were recorded within the clearing permit area. These are described below and illustrated in Figure 5. x ArMs - Shrubland to closed shrubland of Acacia rostellifera (sometimes with codominant Acacia saligna and Acacia cochlearis) over open low shrubland Melaleuca systena and Acacia lasiocarpa over open forbland Acanthocarpus preissii, Lomandra maritima, Conostylis pauciflora subsp. pauciflora, Senecio pinnatifolius var. pinnatifolius and Trachyandra divaricata and grassland to closed grassland Austrostipa flavescens, *Bromus diandrus, Lolium rigidum, Ehrharta spp. and Eragrostis curvula (Plate 1). x BjFnLg - Low open woodland of Melaleuca rhaphiophylla and Eucalyptus decipiens (or overstorey layer absent) over sparse forbland of *Dittrichia graveolens, closed sedgeland of Baumea juncea, Ficinia nodosa and Lepidosperma gladiatum and open vineland Clematis linearifolia over open grassland Austrostipa flavescens and *Bromus diandrus (Plate 2). x JfAsBd - Shrubland of Jacksonia furcellata, *Leptospermum laevigatum and Acacia saligna over forbland of Opercularia vaginata, Senecio pinnatifolius var. pinnatifolius, *Euphorbia terracina, *Trachyandra divaricata and *Pelargonium capitatum and grassland of *Bromus diandrus, *Eragrostis curvula and *Lagurus ovatus (Plate 3). x Cleared areas - Heavily disturbed non-vegetated areas or areas dominated by exotic weed species, with scattered occurrences of individual native shrubs or trees (Plate 4). Plate 1: Plant community ArMs in ‘good condition’ EP18-046(05)—003 Emerge Associates 4 Plate 2: Plant community BjFnLg in ‘very good condition’ Plate 3: Plant community JfAsBd in ‘degraded condition’ EP18-046(05)—003 Emerge Associates 5 Plate 4: Cleared areas in ‘completely degraded’ condition Vegetation condition within the site ranges from ‘completely degraded’ to ‘very good’ using the Keighery (1994) scale, which is commonly used in the Perth metropolitan region, as shown on Figure 6. Approximately 60 % of the site contains non-native vegetation in ‘completely degraded’ condition, particularly along the interface with the existing Port Kennedy Drive carriageway. The ‘completely degraded’ vegetation consists of non-native grasses and cleared areas of bare earth, including the existing bitumen road, in addition to scattered occurrences of individual native shrubs or trees. The ‘degraded’ to ‘completely degraded’ condition rating reflects historic clearing