Blundells Flat, Ex-coupe 427A, ACT. 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 Blundells Flat, ex-coupe 427A, ACT.

Pre-European benchmark-analogue vegetation: the site vegetation was originally brown barrel (Eucalyptus fastigata), growing in association with ribbon gum (E. viminalis).

Brief chronology of changes in land use and management:

• 1788: Unmodified and intact tall open eucalypt forest; forest unaffected
• 1860: Area burnt by severe wildfire
• 1915: Water catchment area declared for Canberra –forest unaffected
• 1939: Area burnt by severe wildfire
• 1915-1954: Area managed as water catchment area – frequent forest fires to control fuel loads
• 1955: Commenced selective logging of mainly brown barrel (E. fastigata)
• 1956: Clear-felled remaining wet sclerophyll forest and pushed timber into windrows with a bulldozer
• 1958: Felled timber burnt in February
• 1958: 1^st rotation radiata (Monterey) pine (P. radiata) planted by hand
• 1960: Controlled competing regrowth native vegetation, manually with axes, slashers, or hoes
• 1986: 1^st rotation trees logged and crawler tractor used to snig timber off site
• 1987: Slash left on the ground to decompose - no ripping - too steep
• 1988: Roundup sprayed to kill regrowth. 2^nd rotation P. radiata planted. NPK fertiliser spread around every seedling by hand
• 1990: Site hand cut the regrowth using brush hooks e.g. eucalypts, acacia and 1^st rotation pine seedlings
• 1999: 2^nd rotation pines thinned and pruned. Thinnings were left on the ground to decay
• 2003: Area burnt by severe wildfire killed all pines
• 2003: Sterile rye corn grass seed was sown across the coupe using light aircraft to stabilise erodible soils
• 2003: Killed pines and native regrowth pushed over and windrowed with a bulldozer
• 2004: Site declared minimal use - rehabilitation
• 2005: Contractors were engaged to manually remove pine seedlings - pines were defined as a weed. Other weeds not controlled
• 2005-2012: Site 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.