South Brooman State Forest, NSW. VAST-2: Tracking the Transformation of Australia's Vegetated Landscapes 

The aim of this project is to compile land use and management practices and their observed and measured impacts and effects on vegetation condition. The results provide land managers and researchers with a tool for reporting and monitoring spatial and temporal transformations of Australia’s native vegetated landscapes due to changes in land use and management practices. Following are the details about South Brooman State Forest, NSW.

Pre-European reference-analogue vegetation: The site was originally eucalypt tall open forest, multi-aged open, dry sclerophyll forest. The main overstorey species were spotted gum (Corymbia maculata), Eucalyptus muelleriana, E. paniculata, E. pilularis. The main understorey species were Acacia spp., Acmena spp.

Brief chronology of changes in land use and management:

• 1830: Unmodified
• 1880: Area picked over for high quality sawlogs
• 1945: Area picked over for high quality sawlogs
• 1949: Sawlog harvesting - 85% of area
• 1959: Sawlog harvesting - 85% of area
• 1968: Commercial Thinning - 25% of area
• 1969: Area left to rehabilitate
• 1994: Wildfire - 100% of the area
• 1996: Pole harvesting - 5% of area
• 1998: Sawlog harvesting - 20% of the area
• 1999 and 2003: Hazard reduction
• 1997: Site was burnt (prescribed fire) followed by drought
• 2004-2011: Area left to rehabilitate

 

We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. This work was funded by ACEAS, a facility of Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), an Australian Government National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) project. 

Data not provided. 

Information is compiled by year from published and unpublished sources. It includes qualitative and quantitative observations. It represents a structured narrative. Once compiled this narrative is translated into 22 indicators of vegetation condition which are grouped into three condition components: vegetation structure, species composition and regenerative capacity.

The pdf is a compilation of historical land use management of the site using 12 core attributes which describes the transformation of a native vegetation community relative to its reference state.

The spreadsheet provides the scores on the effects of the land management practices on the 22 indicators. Each indicator is scored from 0 to 1 for each year of the historical record; where 1 represents the reference state for each vegetation and environmental indicator, and 0 is where that vegetation indicator and/or ecological function is absent. The spreadsheet is used to sum and weight the indicators into the respective components of vegetation condition i.e. regenerative capacity, species composition and vegetation structure. The weighted transformation scores are then added to produce a single transformation index of vegetation condition for each year of the historical record. The results could be graphed and annotated to show the response of the plant community under different land use and management regimes.