Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Box 3.3.
Management objectives for plantings
There can be different reasons why a landholder might wish to establish revegetated
areas on a farm. These may include establishing a wind break, providing shade for
livestock, limiting soil erosion, tackling salinity, enhancing property value, improv-
ing aesthetics, firewood production (or some other kind of farm forestry activity), or
improving conservation values. Key questions for guiding any management activity
are: What are your objectives? What do you want to achieve from your manage-
ment intervention? These are important questions to pose
before
embarking on any
project. This is because objectives can (and usually will) significantly influence what
you do and the way you do it. For example, the size, structure and species composi-
tion of a planting will be different if it is primarily for farm forestry, as opposed to
creating shelter for livestock.
Our focus in this topic is on improving conservation outcomes, and the way a
planting is established can make a big difference to how suitable it is as habitat for
particular species as well as the overall diversity and abundance of plants and ani-
mals. Indeed, you might do a planting quite differently if an objective is to maximise
the number of bird species (i.e. species richness), as opposed to creating habitat for
a particular species of bird such as a threatened or endangered one.
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For example,
if the aim is to encourage species such as the Glossy Black Cockatoo then a high
proportion of the planting would be made up of Drooping She-oak. If the aim is to
establish areas suitable for the Squirrel Glider, then plantings might be located in
and around existing remnants such as paddock trees.
In some cases it will be possible to derive multiple kinds of environmental ben-
efits from the same action. For example, establishing a wind break planting is not
only valuable for improved stock production but it also can create useful habitat for
some species of native animals. A narrow wind break planting will be different in its
biodiversity values than a wide wind break planting, however, with many species
more likely to breed successfully in wider plantings.
Plantings in gully lines appear to be used more
frequently for feeding by species like the charismatic but
threatened Squirrel Glider. In some cases, however,
plantings in gully lines need careful management to
address issues like weed invasion. This is because
plantings in gully lines are more likely to support larger
numbers of exotic weed species than plantings elsewhere in the landscape.
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Plantings established near
other plantings or areas of
remnant native vegetation
will support the most
species of birds
Near other plantings and areas of remnant native vegetation
An emerging principle from an array of studies is that many species of animals
respond strongly to the overall amount of habitat in a landscape. Plantings
established near other plantings or close to areas of existing remnant native
