Central Creek Grassland (Ngarri-djarrang) 5 year Works Plan Brian Bainbridge, Katrina Roberg, Megan Jericho, Ben North, Dave Crawford September 2010 Merri Creek Management Committee for Darebin City Council 2 Lee St East Brunswick 3057 ph 9380 8199 fax 9380 6989 Cover; Ngarri-djarrang from air showing post ecological burn conditions, Late May 2009. Photo courtesy James Booth. Acknowledgements This action plan is based on the previous Central Creek Grassland 5 year works Program (Bush, Miles and Bainbridge 2003) and incorporates feedback from many staff, past and present from MCMC’s Parkland Management Team. The patience and support of the Merri Creek Management Committee management and Darebin City Council staff is appreciated. Thanks to James Booth for use of the cover photo and for support in facilitating this project. Central Creek Grasslands Works Plan 2009-2014 page 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................4 2 MANAGEMENT ELEMENTS .......................................................................................................5 2.1 BIOMASS MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................................................................6 2.2 WILDFIRE MANAGEMENT.............................................................................................................................................10 2.3 WEED MANAGEMENT....................................................................................................................................................12 2.4 VISITOR & EDGE MANAGEMENT .................................................................................................................................15 2.5 MONITORING STRATEGY..............................................................................................................................................17 2.6 SIGNIFICANT SPECIES MANAGEMENT........................................................................................................................17 3 FIVE YEAR WORKS PROGRAM............................................................................................. 18 4 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................. 23 5 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................................... 24 5.1 APPENDIX 1 CENTRAL CREEK GRASSLANDS (NGARRI-DJARRANG) FLORA SPECIES LIST ................................24 5.2 APPENDIX 2 EVCS WITHIN CENTRAL CREEK GRASSLAND (NGARRI-DJARRANG) .............................................32 5.3 APPENDIX 3 PRIORITY WEEDS....................................................................................................................................33 5.4 APPENDIX 4 BIOMASS MANAGEMENT : BURN ZONES AND ROTATION SCHEDULE................................................35 5.5 APPENDIX 5 ECOLOGICAL BURN PROCEDURES.......................................................................................................37 5.6 APPENDIX 6. SIGNIFICANT SPECIES MANAGEMENT................................................................................................40 5.7 APPENDIX 7 MANAGEMENT AND MONITORING OF TRANSLOCATED LITTLE RAPIER SEDGE AT THE CENTRAL CREEK GRASSLAND RESERVE ............................................................................................................44 5.8 APPENDIX 8 SIGNIFICANT SPECIES REINTRODUCTION / PLANTING......................................................................46 5.9 APPENDIX 9. REINSTATEMENT PLANTING................................................................................................................51 5.10 APPENDIX 10 CENTRAL CREEK GRASSLAND MONITORING STRATEGY ...............................................................55 5.11 APPENDIX 11 SUMMARY OF HISTORICAL EVENTS AFFECTING CENTRAL CREEK GRASSLAND (NGARRI- DJARRANG) ............................................................................................................................................69 5.12 APPENDIX 12 MCMC GRASSLAND MANAGEMENT WORKS....................................................................................72 Central Creek Grasslands Works Plan 2009-2014 page 3 1 Introduction Central Creek Grassland (Ngarri-djarrang) is located south of Mahoneys Rd and directly east of Central Creek, a tributary of Merri Creek, in Reservoir. It is a remnant Western Basalt Plains Grassland of State Significance. Native grasslands were once widespread in southern Victoria, but there is now less than 0.1% of their original extent remaining (Craigie, 1998). As of September 2008 the ecological community has been listed as a nationally threatened under the Environment Protections and Biodiversity (EPBC) Act 1999 as ‘Natural Temperate Grassland of the Victorian Volcanic Plain’. The grassland supports three different Ecological Vegetation Classes; EVC 132-61 Heavier Soils Plains Grassland, EVC 649 Stony Knoll Shrubland and EVC 125 Plains Grassy Wetland. These correspond to the (Plains Grassland, Stony Knoll Grassland and Grassy Wetland respectively identified in Williams, (2000). There have been 121 species of indigenous flora recorded (see Appendix 1 Central Creek Grasslands (Ngarri-djarrang) Flora Species list), 93 species of exotic plant and 29 species of indigenous vertebrate fauna recorded (5 frog species, 3 reptile species, 23 bird species and 1 mammal species) (Williams, 2000) but more fauna species are likely to occur on the site (Meredith, 2000). A number of these indigenous species are considered significant: of the flora species, two are nationally significant, one is of state significance and 51 are regionally significant (Barlow et al., 2000). Of the fauna species, one is of national significance and 4 are of regional significance; it is possible that a further one species of national significance and two species of state significance are also present on or near the site (Williams, 2000). Since 1993, Merri Creek Management Committee (MCMC) has been actively managing the grassland’s environmental values. Works initially focused on the south block due to uncertainty about the future reserve boundaries north of Davidson St (Appendix 2). MCMC’s work has been funded by direct grants from Council including Parks Victoria Agency Grants and by Australian Government Envirofund grant. In 2002, 9 hectares of the grassland was gazetted to create a crown land grassland reserve with Darebin City Council as the Committee of Management. The remaining 6.65 hectares of open space on the northern and eastern side of the grassland north of Davidson St has been developed for housing by the Urban and Regional Land Corporation (URLC). In mid 2010, only six house blocks facing the creek remained to be developed. As part of the development and reservation process, a Grassland Environmental Management Plan (GEMP) was prepared to provide management guidelines for the grassland (Barlow et al., 2000). The GEMP was intended to guide the development of a specific works program for the grassland reserve. In 2002, Darebin City Council engaged MCMC to prepare a specific works program for the grassland reserve, based on the GEMP. This Works Plan set out the specific grassland management tasks for the five years from 2003-2008, within an annual budget of $20,000. The Works Plan described and elaborated the minimum necessary tasks to maintain current environmental values and to allow clearly planned, detailed implementation of the goals and objectives of GEMP and other grassland management guidelines (e.g. Bush and Faithfull, 1997). This current document is an update of the original Works Plan, including assessments of the actions of the previous plan. It has been expanded with inclusion of results from monitoring to date and inclusion of a detailed monitoring program. Taxonomy has been updated and new actions reflecting the adaptive management approach and developments in the science of Native Grassland management have been included. This Works Plan should be read in conjunction with the GEMP and not as a stand-alone document. Central Creek Grasslands Works Plan 2009-2014 page 4 2 Management Elements The Central Creek GEMP (Barlow et al., 2000) outlined a proposed 12 month work program, under the following 6 management element headings: · Biomass management · Fire management · Weed management · Significant species management · Visitor & edge management · Monitoring This Works Plan elaborates a five year detailed works program, based on the GEMP’s works program and utilising the same management element headings. These headings have been retained as the structure for the 2009-13 action plan. Detailed guidelines for implementation of each of the management elements are elaborated in the following sections. Background notes on the rationale for actions are contained in the Appendices. All management actions require a high standard of grassland management expertise; particularly important are plant identification skills and high standards of hygiene of vehicles, plant and operators to ensure weed seeds are not imported into the grassland reserve. All spray equipment must be in good working order to ensure no inadvertent leaks, and all herbicide applicators should have completed certificated training in herbicide use and have substantial experience in weed