Consultation Document on Listing Eligibility and Conservation Actions Lepidorrhachis mooreana (Little Mountain Palm) You are invited to provide your views about: 1) the eligibility of Lepidorrhachis mooreana (Little Mountain Palm) for inclusion on the EPBC Act threatened species list; and 2) the necessary conservation actions for the above species. The views of experts, stakeholders and the general public are welcome. Responses can be provided by any interested person. Anyone may nominate a native species, ecological community or threatening process for listing under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) or for a transfer of an item already on the list to a new listing category. The Threatened Species Scientific Committee (the Committee) undertakes the assessment of species to determine eligibility for inclusion in the list of threatened species and provides its recommendation to the Australian Government Minister for the Environment. Draft information for your consideration of the eligibility of this species for listing as critically endangered starts at page 3 and information associated with potential conservation actions for this species starts at page 6. To assist with the Committee’s assessment, the Committee has identified a series of specific questions on which it seeks your guidance at pages 7-8. Responses to are to be provided in writing either by email to: [email protected] or by mail to: The Director Marine and Freshwater Species Conservation Section Wildlife, Heritage and Marine Division Department of the Environment PO Box 787 Canberra ACT 2601 Responses are required to be submitted by 16 January 2015. Contents of this information package Page General background information about listing threatened species 2 Information about this consultation process 2 Draft information about the little mountain palm and its eligibility for listing 3-6 Conservation actions for the species 6-7 References cited 8 Collective list of questions – your views 7-8 Lepidorrhachis mooreana (little mountain palm) consultation Page 1 of 7 General background information about listing threatened species The Australian Government helps protect species at risk of extinction by listing them as threatened under Part 13 of the EPBC Act. Once listed under the EPBC Act, the species becomes a Matter of National Environmental Significance (MNES) and must be protected from significant impacts through the assessment and approval provisions of the EPBC Act. More information about threatened species is available on the department’s website at: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/index.html. Public nominations to list threatened species under the EPBC Act are received annually by the department. In order to determine if a species is eligible for listing as threatened under the EPBC Act, the Threatened Species Scientific Committee (the Committee) undertakes a rigorous scientific assessment of its status to determine if the species is eligible for listing against a set of criteria. These criteria are available on the Department’s website at: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/pubs/guidelines-species.pdf. As part of the assessment process, the Committee consults with the public and stakeholders to obtain specific details about the species, as well as advice on what conservation actions might be appropriate. Information provided through the consultation process is considered by the Committee in its assessment. The Committee provides its advice on the assessment (together with comments received) to the Minister regarding the eligibility of the species for listing under a particular category and what conservation actions might be appropriate. The Minister decides to add, or not to add, the species to the list of threatened species under the EPBC Act. More detailed information about the listing process is at: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/nominations.html. To promote the recovery of listed threatened species and ecological communities, conservation advices and where required, recovery plans are made or adopted in accordance with Part 13 of the EPBC Act. Conservation advices provide guidance at the time of listing on known threats and priority recovery actions that can be undertaken at a local and regional level. Recovery plans describe key threats and identify specific recovery actions that can be undertaken to enable recovery activities to occur within a planned and logical national framework. Information about recovery plans is available on the department’s website at: http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/recovery.html. Information about this consultation process Responses to this consultation can be provided electronically or in hard copy to the contact addresses provided on Page 1. All responses received will be provided in full to the Committee and then to the Australian Government Minister for the Environment. In providing comments, please provide references to published data where possible. Should the Committee use the information you provide in formulating its advice, the information will be attributed to you and referenced as a ‘personal communication’ unless you provide references or otherwise attribute this information (please specify if your organisation requires that this information is attributed to your organisation instead of yourself). The final advice by the Committee will be published on the department’s website following the listing decision by the Minister. Information provided through consultation may be subject to freedom of information legislation and court processes. It is also important to note that under the EPBC Act, the deliberations and recommendations of the Committee are confidential until the Minister has made a final decision on the nomination, unless otherwise determined by the Minister. Lepidorrhachis mooreana (little mountain palm) consultation Page 2 of 7 Lepidorrhachis mooreana Little mountain palm Taxonomy Conventionally accepted as Lepidorrhachis mooreana (F. Muell.) O.F. Cook Description Small palm to 3 m. As is typical for Arecoideae, individuals are monoecious, but are unusual within the subfamily in that inflorescences contain flowers of one sex only, rather than both sexes, with both male and female inflorescences occurring on a single plant (Baker & Hutton, 2006). Distribution Known only from a single population on the Mt Gower summit of Lord Howe Island. Reported from Mt Lidgbird, but not seen in recent survey. Both extent of occurrence and area of occupancy are estimated at <4 km2 using a 2 x 2 km grid (as per IUCN guidelines). Relevant Biology/Ecology Plants with approximately 20 leaf scars flower and set seed. Auld et al. (2010) estimate that trunked plants produce 2–3 leaf scars per year, so a plant would have a trunk for 6–10 years before being mature. The time to trunk formation is unknown but likely to be decades in the cool cloud forest habitat. A plausible estimate is sexual maturity in 30–60 years, with life expectancy >100 years. Generation time is likely to be greater than 40 years. Flowers are produced between August and December on densely-branched inflorescences. Numerous marble sized fruit are produced from the previous year’s flowering (Baker & Hutton, 2006). It is likely to be insect pollinated but pollinators are unknown. Fruits have been observed to be dispersed by Lord Howe currawongs. No vegetative reproduction occurs. No long lived soil seed bank. It takes some 2 years for seed germination from fruits deposited on the soil surface. The seedling and juvenile plants then form a juvenile bank that may take advantage of small scale canopy disturbances such as tree fall/death. Auld et al. (2010) estimated densities of plants in plots on Mt Gower summit. They estimate that in favourable habitat (this palm occurs on the ridges of the summit but not in the gullies) there were on average around 2485 mature plants per Ha. This would equate to some 33,500 mature plants across the summit of 27 Ha, assuming half of the habitat is suitable. Threats Exotic animals (actual) Rattus rattus has been on the island for some 90 years. It is having an impact on Lepidorrhachis (Baker & Hutton, 2006, Auld et al., 2010). All recruitment is currently eliminated in the presence of rats (Auld et al., 2010). Some 7% of the summit plateau of Mt Gower is baited to reduce rat impacts and there is a plan to try and eradicate rats for the whole island. Weed invasion (actual) A small number of minor weeds have been recorded on the summit. Most are disturbance lovers and take advantage of edges or areas of tree fall, lightning strike, tree death. These may compete with native vegetation for recruitment in canopy gaps and cliff edges. Ongoing issue, especially if more aggressive weeds invade. Weeds identified so far are: Agrostis avenaceus, Arenaria serpyllifolia, Avena barbata, Bromus carthartius, Lolium perenne, Ehrharta erecta, Luzlula longiflora, Paspalum sp., Poa annua, Polycarpon tetraphyllum, Potentilla indica, Pseudognaphalium luteo-album, Rumex sp., Solanum nigrum, Sonchus oleraceus, Sporobolus africanus, Stellaria media,, Vulpia bromoides Lepidorrhachis mooreana (little mountain palm) consultation Page 3 of 7 Climate change impacts (potential) Species confined to mountain summits. There is no bioclimatic zone for species to move to. Climate change may also affect cloud formation and frequency and hence precipitation and species survival in forest. Other natives from lower elevations