TTAARRGGEETTEEDD Brigalow Belt South FFLLOORRAA SSUURRVVEEYY AANNDD MMAAPPPPIINNGG NSW WESTERN REGIONAL ASSESSMENTS Stage 2 SEPTEMBER 2002 Resource and Conservation Assessment Council TARGETED FLORA SURVEY AND MAPPING NSW WESTERN REGIONAL ASSESSMENTS BRIGALOW BELT SOUTH BIOREGION (STAGE 2) NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service A project undertaken for the Resource and Conservation Assessment Council NSW Western Regional Assessments project number WRA / 16 For more information and for information on access to data contact the: Resource and Conservation Division, Planning NSW GPO Box 3927 SYDNEY NSW 2001 Phone: (02) 9762 8052 Fax: (02) 9762 8712 www.racac.nsw.gov.au © Crown copyright September 2002 New South Wales Government ISBN 0 7313 6875 4 This project has been funded and managed by the Resource and Conservation Division, Planning NSW This report was written and compiled by the NPWS WRA Unit Vegetation Assessment Team: Angela McCauley Robert DeVries Ben Scott Michelle Cavallaro Marc Irvine Vanessa Pelly Jamie Love The authors of this report would like to thankSimon Ferrier and Glen Manion of the NPWS GIS Research and Development Unit (Armidale) for their input and assistance with floristic data analysis and community modelling for this project. The authors would also like to acknowledge the assistance and support provided by the WRA Unit of NPWS (especially Julia, Sarah and Jane), Marianne Porteners (consulting botanist), Geoff Robertson and Miranda Kerr (NPWS Western Directorate), Steve Lewer (DLWC, Dubbo), and the JVMP and TWG Botanists (Doug Binns, State Forests and Greg Steenbeeke, DLWC). Disclaimer While every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that this document is correct at the time of printing, the State of New South Wales, its agents and employees, do not assume any responsibility and shall have no liability, consequential or otherwise, of any kind, arising from the use of or reliance on any of the information contained in this document. CONTENTS Project Summary 1. INTRODUCTION 10 1.1 Background 10 1.2 The Targeted Flora Project 10 1.3 About this Report 12 1.4 The Brigalow Belt South Biogeographic Region 12 2. PLANT SPECIES 25 2.1 Overview 25 2.2 Data Audit and Compilation 27 2.3 Significant Plant Species 53 2.4 Targeted Flora surveys 75 2.5 Habitat Modelling for Rare or threatened Species 89 3. PLANT COMMUNITIES 107 3.1 Overview 107 3.2 Inventory of Plant Communities 108 3.3 Plant Community Analysis 117 3.4 Significant Plant Communities 159 4. DISCUSSION 167 4.1 Context 167 4.2 Project Outputs 168 4.3 Summary of Findings 169 5. CONCLUSION 171 5.1 Overview 171 5.2 Project Outputs 172 5.3 KEY FINDINGS 172 5.4 Recommendations 173 References 177 Appendices 1. An Attributed Checklist of All Native and Exotic Taxa 2. An Attributed Checklist of Significant Plant Species 3. Locality Records for Significant Plant Species 4. Locality Maps for Significant Plant Species 5. Autecological Profiles for Significant Plant Species 6. Results of Targeted Rare Plant Surveys 7. Habitat Models for Priority Taxa 8. API Map Code Inventory 9. Significant Plant Communities 10. GIS Modelling Dataset 11. Distribution Models for Plant Associations EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Tables 1 Geographic Provinces of the BBS 2 Catchments Intersecting with the BBS 3 Identified Wetlands, Wetland Types and Area within the BBS 4 Wetlands by Province within the BBS 5 Broad Vegetation Patterns in the BBS: Past and Present 6 Floristic Data Acquired or Accessed for the Targeted Flora Project 7 Atlas Database Fields 8 YETI Database Fields – Sites Table 9 YETI Database Fields – Vegetation Structure Table 10 YETI Database Fields – Physical Attributes Table 11 YETI Database Fields – Disturbance Table 12 Systematic Surveys Contained in the YETI Database 13 Vascular Plant Families and Taxa of the BBS 14 Fields in the Bioregional Vascular Plant Species List 15 Abundant Exotic Species of the Greater BBS (>100 Records) 16 Abundant Native Species of the Greater BBS (>400 Records) 17 Plant Species Richness of Australian States and Territories 18 Regions and Plant Biodiversity 19 Geographic Provinces of the BBS and Plant Species Richness 20 Relatively Well Surveyed Geographic Areas 21 List of Departments and Experts Involved in the Validation Process 22 List of Identification Reliability Codes 23 List of Spatial Precision Codes 24 Erroneous Species Identified within the Bioregional Floristics List 25 List of Taxonomic Issues Identified by the Expert Review Process 26 Conservation Status Data for NSW Vascular Plant Species 27 Conservation Significance Criteria for Vascular Plants 28 Bioregional Conservation Priority – Composite Classes 29 Rare or Threatened Australian Plant Codes 30 Taxa Listed As Endangered on the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 31 Taxa Listed As Vulnerable on the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 32 Rare or Threatened Taxa of the Greater BBS 33 Rare or Threatened Taxa whose Bioregional Status is Uncertain 34 Taxa Listed as Extinct on the EPBC and TSC Act 35 Survey Information on Extinct Taxa 36 Undescribed Taxa that may be Threatened within the BBS 37 Availability of Autecological Data for Priority Species 38 Priority Species Selected for Targeted Surveys 39 Summary of Autecological and Population Data Obtained from Targeted Surveys 40 Results of Targeted Rare Plant Surveys by Site 41 Results of Opportunistic Rare Plant Surveys 42 Priority Species Modelled and Source Records 43 Environmental Layers Used in Habitat Modelling 44 Model Output Summary for Priority Species 45 Importance of Environmental Variables in Habitat Modelling of Priority Species 46 API Vegetation Map 47 Datasets Broad Overstorey Vegetation Types identified during the Stage 1 Assessment 48 The Conservation Status Criteria of Specht et al. (1995) 49 Conservation Atlas Community of the BBS 50 Woody Plant Communities of the Greater BBS 51 Herbaceous Plant Communities of the Greater BBS 52 Summary of Model Outputs for Woody Plant Species Groups 53 Summary of Model Outputs for Herbaceous Plant Species Groups 54 Importance of Environmental Variables in Woody Species Group Models 55 Importance of Environmental Variables in Fine Herbaceous Species Group Models 56 Importance of Environmental Variables in Broad Herbaceous Species Group Models 57 Vegetation Community Conservation Status Sources, Categories and Criteria 58 Significant Plant Communities of the Greater BBS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Figures 1 Location of the Brigalow Belt South Bioregion (BBS) in NSW 2 Geographic Provinces within the BBS 3 Australian Phytogeographic Regions Identified by Specht et al. (1995) 4 Broad Vegetation Patterns of the BBS: Past and Present 5 NSW Botanical Subdivisions within the BBS 6 Overview of the TFP Floristic Data Management System 7 Data Checking Procedures 8 Frequency of Species Occurrence within Systematic Sites 9 BBS Species-Area Curve based on Geographic Province Totals 10 Systematic Survey Sites in the Greater BBS 11 Systematic Survey Site Density in the Greater BBS 12 Site Locations of Significant Plant Species within the Greater BBS 13 Concentrations of Significant Plant Species Locality Records 14 Occurrence of Rare or Threatened Plant Species in the BBS by Tenure 15 Target Search Regions and Sites for Priority Species 16 Survey Site Locations 17 New Site Locations for Significant Plant Species 18 Spatial Modelling of Priority Species 19 Example Species File – Philotheca ericifolia 20 Example of envars file – Philotheca ericifolia 21 Sample Modelling Output: The Postscript File 22 BBS within a 1:100,000 Scale Mapsheet Grid 22 23 Spatial Modelling of Species Groups 24 Generalised Dissimilarity Modelling Process Common Acronyms used in this report API - Aerial Photographic Interpretation BBS - Brigalow Belt South Bioregion Greater BBS - The Brigalow Belt South Bioregion plus a 15 km buffer around the bioregion DEM - Digital Elevation Model DLWC - NSW Department of Land and Water Conservation EPBC - Environmental and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 GAM - Generalised Additive Model GDM - Generalised Dissimilarity Model GIS - Geographic Information System(s) GLM - Generalised Linear Model JANIS - Joint ANZECC / MCFFA National Forest Policy Statement JVMP - RACD Joint Vegetation Mapping Project NPWS - NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service NVMP - Native Vegetation Mapping Program RACAC - Resource and Conservation Assessment Council RACD - The Resource and Conservation Division within the NSW Department of Urban Affairs and Planning RFA - Regional Forest Agreement ROTAP - Rare or Threatened Australian Plants List (Briggs and Leigh 1996) SF - NSW State Forests TFP - RACD Targeted Flora Survey and Mapping Project TSC - Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 TSR - Travelling Stock Reserve WRA - Western Regional Assessments YETI - The Yet Another Vegetation Survey Database (Bedward and Ellis 2001) PROJECT SUMMARY This report describes a project undertaken for the Resource and Conservation Assessment Council as part of the regional assessments of western New South Wales. The Resource and Conservation Assessment Council advises the State Government on broad-based land use planning and allocation issues. An essential process for the western regional assessments is to identify gaps in data information and the best ways in which to proceed with data gathering and evaluation. Project objective The BBS Targeted Flora Survey and Mapping Project was established to provide biodiversity information on the flora of the Brigalow Belt South Bioregion (BBSB) for use in the design of regional conservation