Flora and vegetation survey for the Edna May Greenfinch Project Prepared for Evolution Mining Ltd August 2016 Final Report Flora and vegetation survey for the Edna May Greenfinch Project Prepared for Evolution Mining Ltd Flora and vegetation survey for the Edna May Greenfinch Project Prepared for Evolution Mining Ltd Final Report Authors: Grant Wells, Grace Wells Reviewers: Volker Framenau Submitted to: Marty Costello, Evolution Mining Ltd Version history Name Status Version Date G. & G. Wells Draft for client comments 1 23 June 2016 G. Wells Final 0 16 August 2016 ©Phoenix Environmental Sciences Pty Ltd 2016 The use of this report is solely for the Client for the purpose in which it was prepared. Phoenix Environmental Sciences accepts no responsibility for use beyond this purpose. All rights are reserved and no part of this report may be reproduced or copied in any form without the written permission of Phoenix Environmental Sciences or the Client. Phoenix Environmental Sciences Pty Ltd 1/511 Wanneroo Rd BALCATTA WA 6021 P: 08 9345 1608 F: 08 6313 0680 E: [email protected] Project code: 1116-EVO-EM-BOT Flora and vegetation assessment for the Edna May Greenfinch Project Prepared for Evolution Mining Ltd Contents CONTENTS ................................................................................................................................................ I LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................................... II LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................................ II LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................... II EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................... III 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Survey objective and scope of works ...................................................................................... 5 2 LEGISLATIVE CONTEXT .................................................................................................................... 7 2.1 Commonwealth ....................................................................................................................... 7 2.2 State ........................................................................................................................................ 8 2.2.1 Threatened and Priority species and communities ........................................................ 8 2.2.2 Locally or regionally significant flora and vegetation ..................................................... 8 2.2.3 Clearing of native vegetation .......................................................................................... 9 2.2.4 Environmentally Sensitive Areas ..................................................................................... 9 2.3 Introduced flora .................................................................................................................... 10 3 EXISTING ENVIRONMENT .............................................................................................................. 12 3.1 Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation of Australia (IBRA) .................................................. 12 3.2 Land systems of the study area ............................................................................................ 12 3.3 Climate and weather ............................................................................................................. 14 3.4 Land use ................................................................................................................................ 15 3.5 Native vegetation extent and status ..................................................................................... 15 3.6 Conservation reserves and Environmentally Sensitive Areas ............................................... 15 4 METHODS ...................................................................................................................................... 18 4.1 Desktop review ..................................................................................................................... 18 4.2 Field survey ........................................................................................................................... 18 4.2.1 Flora and vegetation ..................................................................................................... 18 4.3 Taxonomy and nomenclature ............................................................................................... 22 4.4 Survey personnel .................................................................................................................. 22 4.5 Survey limitations ................................................................................................................. 23 5 RESULTS ........................................................................................................................................ 24 5.1 Desktop review ..................................................................................................................... 24 5.1.1 Flora .............................................................................................................................. 24 5.1.2 Vegetation ..................................................................................................................... 26 5.2 Field survey ........................................................................................................................... 29 5.2.1 Flora .............................................................................................................................. 29 5.2.2 Vegetation ..................................................................................................................... 32 6 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................... 42 6.1 Flora ...................................................................................................................................... 42 6.2 Vegetation ............................................................................................................................. 44 Phoenix Environmental Sciences Pty Ltd i Flora and vegetation assessment for the Edna May Greenfinch Project Prepared for Evolution Mining Ltd 7 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................. 45 List of Figures Figure 1-1 Location of the Edna May Greenfinch Project ................................................................ 6 Figure 3-1 Land systems of the study area .................................................................................... 13 Figure 3-2 Annual climate data (average monthly temperatures and rainfall records) and records for the year preceding the field survey for Merredin (BoM 2016) ............................... 14 Figure 3-3 Pre-European vegetation of the study area .................................................................. 16 Figure 3-4 Conservation reserves and Environmentally Sensitive Areas ....................................... 17 Figure 4-1 Survey locations in the study area ................................................................................ 19 Figure 5-1 Location of the EPBC listed TEC Eucalypt wodlands of the Western Australian wheatbelt in the project area ......................................................................................................... 28 Figure 5-2 Location of Eremophila resinosa in and around the study area ................................... 31 Figure 5-3 Vegetation types in the study area ............................................................................... 35 Figure 5-4 Vegetation condition in the study area ........................................................................ 37 List of Tables Table 2-1 Terms used to describe introduced flora (DPaW 2015c) .................................................. 10 Table 2-2 Description of control categories for declared pests (Government of Western Australia 2013) ................................................................................................................................. 11 Table 3-1 Extent and level of protection of vegetation association intersecting study area (DPaW 2014) ................................................................................................................................. 15 Table 4-1 Vegetation condition rating scale (Keighery 1994) ........................................................... 21 Table 4-2 Project team ...................................................................................................................... 22 Table 4-3 Survey limitations.............................................................................................................. 23 Table 5-1 Conservation significant flora species identified from the desktop review ..................... 24 Table 5-2 Priority Ecological Communities identified to occur within 50 km of the Project (Keighery 1994) and current conservation