Recreating the Country blog |
Restoring native grasslands - where to start? When faced with a daunting challenge like restoring native grasslands from a patch of bare earth or a paddock full of exotic weeds, sometimes the wisdom of a great sage can light the way forward. I couldn't do better than the often quoted words of the Taoist philosopher Tao Tzu; ‘The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’, His well-chosen words help to shrink the broad focus of a big challenge like grassland restoration, to a goal that is much more achievable. Though in the context of grasslands, Tao Tzu might have said; ‘Restoring a native grassland starts with sowing a single seed.’ Glimpses into the past - What history can teach us? The year is 1883, a little over forty years after Victoria’s ancient and fragile landscapes first felt the pressure of thousands of hard-hooved animals. Pioneer Edward Curr witnessed that indigenous grasses were already in rapid decline; ‘The most nutritious grasses were originally the most common; but in consequence of constant over-stocking and scourging the pastures, these have very much decreased, their places being taken by inferior sorts of weeds introduced from Europe and Africa.’ The signs of degradation and loss could be seen at the beginning. Edward Curr describes a destructive and careless system of farming that would have caused the loss of many plant species and the ecologies that they supported. What John Batman saw John Batman sailed into Port Phillip Bay and walked ashore at Indented Head on the Bellarine Peninsula on 29th May 1835. He wrote in his diary; ‘…nearly all parts of its surface covered with Kangaroo and other grasses of the most nutritive character, intermixed with herbs of various kinds.’ It’s surprising that Batman was able to make these enthusiastic observations in late May, which is a time when the spring blooms of wildflowers are long gone and most indigenous plants are dormant. Many are hidden underground as tubers or grasses and herbs that are no longer looking at their best. Two days later, after a 32 km walk east from Point Henry, Batman described the vegetation on Mt Bellarine; ‘…very rich light black soil covered in Kangaroo Grass two feet high and as thick as it could stand, good hay could be made in any quantity. The trees were not more than six to the acre, and those small sheoak and wattle. I walked for a considerable extent and (it was) all of the same description.’ It’s likely that Batman had one eye on the rolling hills of the Bellarine Peninsula and the other on marketing his proposed new settlement to the members of the Port Phillip Association. We know he promoted the landscapes around Geelong very well, from the tidal wave of new settlers that arrived soon after his deceitful and fraudulent 'land purchase' from the Traditional Owners, who would never have agreed to hand over the lands of their ancestors. The changes to grasslands were swift and overwhelming The rapid changes to the vegetation around Geelong are shown by the early loss of an important staple food of the Wadawurrung. It took only four years for the women of the Bangali Clan of the Bellarine Peninsula to report that the Yam Daisy, once plentiful and widespread, had already become difficult to find. This same intense grazing pressure from flocks of sheep, their population doubling every three years, would have affected other plants with edible roots like the Chocolate Lily, the Bulbine Lily and all the species of orchid. We know that the sheep were so fond of these edible roots that they unearthed them by digging with their hoofed feet. The leafy herbs would have also succumbed to this new and much more intense grazing pressure of sheep and cattle. Only the toughest and least palatable of the native grasses and forbs would have survived this severe level of disturbance. The plants had evolved with kangaroos, wallabies and emus that grazed more lightly for a shorter period and then moved on, creating a grassland mosaic of different ages and lengths. A more recent story illustrates how gradual change can be just as devastating to grasslands. The Sunshine Orchid, Diuris fragrantissima, described as dizzyingly beautiful, was so prolific in the western suburbs of Melbourne that it was known as 'Snow in the Paddocks'. An indigenous woman could dig enough of its sweet tubers in one hour to feed her family for a day. This regular harvesting with digging sticks made the soil loose and spongy, according to early settler records - a far cry from the hard and compacted basalt soils west of Melbourne today. Before the 1950s, locals would collect large bunches of the orchid blooms for their fragrant flowers. These orchid rich soils were ploughed, scraped, compacted, subdivided and finally built on. Now there are only 37 closely guarded Sunshine Orchid plants left alive in a location that remains a well-kept secret. A 'new' fire changed the vegetation The termination of Traditional Owner management practices would have also changed the composition of the ground flora. Early settler descriptions of the burning practices on the Bellarine Peninsula give important insights into their cool burning method; ‘…their burning practice was random enough to maintain a wide variety of plant species and to keep the woodlands of the Bellarine Peninsula open and grassy.’ This all changed soon after 1835 when fires across the Victorian landscape became much hotter. This would have had a substantial effect on all native plants. In February 1851, one-third of Victoria endured perhaps its first destructive wildfire for millennia. Many flora and fauna species would have declined and disappeared under the unfamiliar forces of this new pattern of uncontrolled and hotter fires. Note on studies of historic fires: Core samples of lake sediments show that carbon levels increased dramatically soon after the white races occupied Australia. These studies provide clear evidence that the practice of strategic Traditional Owner cool burning prevented the out-of-control hot fires that have become a familiar and devastating manifestation of our Australian summers. Do we know what our local vegetation looked like before 1835? To give you a sense of what was here before, native 'grasslands' could have been more accurately described as 'pantry-lands' or 'medicinal herb-lands'. This is because the Traditional Owners managed grasslands for their traditional uses as food and medicines, as well as the ecologies that the diversity of plants supported. Some of our best examples of remnant grasslands are found on roadsides, sustained by annual CFA burning to create firebreaks. Though, their practice of spring burning favours some plant species over others that need autumn burns, less frequent fires or cooler burns. This can be seen at the Rokewood cemetery, which is dominated by native herbs like its famous Button Wrinkewort, Rutidosis leptorrhynchoides, and has fewer native grasses. The annual spring CFA burning pattern has prevented grasses and some forbs (definition below) from flowering, setting seed and reproducing. This isn’t a criticism of the fine work that generations of country firemen and women have done to maintain this grassland and reduce fire risk locally. Their work has helped us understand how different patterns of burning can favour various plant species. Considering the dramatic changes in grazing pressure and burning temperatures since 1835, it’s probably not possible to find pristine remnant grasslands, exactly like those that were present two centuries ago. My own view has changed and I am now tempted to say that the composition of modern remnant grasslands is likely to be quite different to what was here pre white settlement. I feel we have very likely lost more species than we like to admit and the species grouping within plant communities has changed significantly. So here it is in a nutshell; ‘The remnant indigenous grasslands of Victoria, that we consider being in good condition, are likely to be floristically quite different to the grasslands that existed before the white races arrived in 1835?’ (A forb in botany is a flowering native herb. It excludes grasses, sedges and rushes as well as woody stemmed plants like shrubs and trees. Here is this handy rhyme to help you appreciate an important difference between a sedge, a rush and grass - 'sedges have edges and rushes are round, grasses have elbows that bend to the ground') To some of you, this may be an heretical statement, to others I’m likely stating the obvious. Though, it leads nicely into my next suggestion; Perhaps it’s time that we accept that we can't turn back the clock to a time before 1835. We should protect all surviving grasslands of course. The time has come to create new, robust and ecologically diverse modern versions of the 'lost grasslands of Victoria'. If we lay the right foundations and manage them with Traditional Owner style cool burning, Mother Nature will step in and guide its evolution towards a healthy sustainable balanced mix of species. Tao Tzu has something wise to say about this proposition as well; ‘Nature doesn’t hurry, yet everything is accomplished.’ In Restoring Native Grasslands - part 2, you can read the success stories of scientists and farmers who have restored grasslands. In Restoring Native Grasslands - part 3, I’ll set out a simple method of replanting native grasslands. Here is a glimpse of part 3; You have returned home from a community meeting, inspired to plant a native grassland on your own back lawn. After a morning of weeding, you have carefully removed all the grass from a patch the size of your four-year-old’s paddling-pool, so that it’s now loose bare soil. Your grassland champions from the nursery are well-watered and ready to plant, and a group of friends will soon arrive to be part of what promises to be the beginning of a new era. An era when the local plants begin to return to backyards across the country. Curiously, you have a 2 kg bag of white sugar to spread on the soil before you plant. Sweet ??!! You and your friends are part of a new nationwide movement to restore the lifeblood of the land – by planting back the remarkable plants that have made Australia so floristically unique. For some background reading on grasslands - Grasslands. Why we're losing the battle to save them
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Historically kangaroo grazing was important for the health of grasslands Grazing is a natural process in the life of a grassland or grassy woodland. Before British settlement mobs of kangaroos would randomly move about their home range and graze on the most succulent grasses and herbs. This chance grazing pattern created patchworks of long and short grass providing different habitats for wildlife. Where the grass was longer in a eucalypt woodland, the nocturnal Rufous Bettong would prosper. In the shorter grassed areas, many of the ground feeding parrot species could feed. Chance grazing was an important part of the grassland ecology and it provided habitats that supported hundreds of native insects and animals and the ecological services they provided. Today there are more kangaroos and fewer grasslands In the twenty-first century kangaroos are still important grazers in our parks and reserves, but two things have changed. There are now more kangaroos and less grasslands for them to graze. These grasslands are also in isolated pockets, forcing kangaroos to spill over onto private land. This allows the mobs to grow well beyond the capacity of the native grassland to support them, putting more pressure on the grassland plants often with disastrous results. This artificial ‘static’ grazing pattern is a radical change from the natural pattern of grazing mobs constantly on the move. A moving mob grazes more generally and doesn’t have time to target the tasty plants. Static grazing allows animals to pick and choose resulting in tasty plants being constantly overgrazed and potentially vanishing. Grazing is a species balancer Grazing also helps to ‘open up’ the grasslands. For example when a dominant native grass like Kangaroo Grass, Themeda triandra, is not grazed or burnt for more than ten years, it can become too crowded, choking-out neighbouring herbs and orchids. The Kangaroo Grass eventually declines because of a build-up of dead grass at its base. In contrast, if Kangaroo Grass is grazed or burnt regularly, there are inter-tussock spaces or gaps for other plants to occupy. The Kangaroo Grass is also healthier, each plant potentially living for more than 100 years. The overall result is a stable and diverse grassland plant and animal community. Grazing can control introduced grasses Aggressive introduced grasses that displace native species in grasslands are difficult to control. Hand weeding is a useful method for small areas but it is labour intensive and creates soil disturbance that encourages more weeds to grow. Spraying with herbicides is expensive, has associated health risks and there are only a few selective chemicals like flupropanate that target problem weeds like Serrated Tussock or Chilean Needle-grass that may be growing in a pristine grassland. Grazing is little used to maintain the health and diversity of grasslands but it has the potential to be a very useful tool. Associate Professor Ian Lunt commented on grazing in The Conversation in 2012; ‘In Tasmania, a number of threatened native plant species survive in grazed areas; if stock are removed the plants are smothered by thick grasses and decline’. Click on this link to read Ian Lunt's complete article; theconversation.com/can-livestock-grazing-benefit-biodiversity-10789 In Chinamans Lagoon, an 8ha reserve within the township of Teesdale, Victoria, the removal of grazing animals had a profound effect. Two horses and a few sheep had grazed in the reserve for decades suppressing Veldt grasses enough for 55 species of indigenous plants to flourish. In 2002 the grazing animals were removed and this enabled two species of South African Veldt grass, Perrenial, Ehrharta Calycina; and Annual, E. longiflora to spread, eventually swamping the native grassland species within ten years. In 2017 only 8 tree & shrub species and 5 grass species could be found. To read more about identifying and controlling veldt grasses click here; Merinos to the rescue In 2016 the wet spring produced exceptional veldt grass growth in Chinamans Lagoon which was a significant fire risk to the Teesdale community. Mowing or brush cutting the long grass wasn’t practical because of the native trees and the ground debris. Research suggested that heavy grazing is the Achilles-heal of Veldt grasses so in September 80 Merino sheep (10 sheep/ha) were introduced over four weeks. This trial was hoping to stress the invading veldt grasses and also open up more inter-tussock spaces for the indigenous grasses to recolonise. The Merinos did an excellent job of reducing the fire risk and preferred eating the exotic veldt grasses and avoided the native spear grasses and wallaby grasses for the first two weeks. The long term plan is to graze the lagoon annually in early spring to weaken the hold of the veldt grasses to allow the native flora to recover. Ian Lunt in another grazing study observed that it took three years for the benefits of grazing became apparent. ianluntecology.com/2011/11/08/restoring-woodland-understories-4/. Pulse grazing to restore grasslands The ecology of a grassland benefits most from a large mob of kangaroos grazing randomly and then moving on. Pulse grazing with a mob of sheep mimics this pattern of grazing and potentially can be used as a grassland restoration tool. Sheep left to graze for long periods create an even heavily grazed grassy landscape. This may look attractive, but for wildlife it spells loss of habitat and for the grassland it spells loss of biodiversity. Pulse grazing produces an uneven landscape. To achieve this effect a large number of stock are introduced for a very short time. Also called crash/patch/mob grazing, the short grazing time avoids ‘tasty’ plants being targeted and results in more general grazing. In essence the mob is slowly walked through the grassland nibbling as they walk like the kangaroo mobs of old. The number of sheep needed to mimic a mob of kangaroos is likely to be very high. The flock sizes will be much higher than recommended stocking rates. Normally a native grassland would support 1 – 2 sheep/ha if the sheep are left to graze in a paddock for months. Pulse grazing stocking rates over 1 – 2 days, are likely to be 10 – 20 times higher than the recommended rates. For example a 20 ha reserve may require a flock of 200 - 400 sheep. Dividing the grassland into small areas with portable electric fencing would enable flocks to be moved daily, producing a desirable patchwork landscape. This would be quite time consuming, but the grazing process would only need to be repeated every 1 – 5 years to keep the grassland healthy. A less time consuming alternative could be found by experimenting with smaller flocks in larger patches over 1 – 2 weeks. To find the right formula some monitoring of the grassland would be necessary. The sheep would be moved when prominent, easy to observe indicator plants were starting to be heavily grazed. Whatever strategy of pulse grazing is adopted, deciding on some management goals like increased species diversity and reduced dominance of certain native grasses is important. Set up photopoints at marked fence posts and in patches containing key species, marked with a hardwood peg, for a valuable aid to recognise change. The plan is to come back each year to the same locations at a similar time and point the camera in the same direction to get the same photo. Comparing the photos over time is a wonderful reminder of where you started and how much the landscape has changed. Below is a set of photopoints that I took in the Teesdale Grassy Woodlands Reserve to monitor Gorse, Ulex europaeus control. Hover over the images for an explanation. Pulse grazing is working miracles in Africa Ecologist Allan Savory, who is reversing desertification in 15,000,000ha on five continents, promotes ‘Holistic Management and Planned Grazing’ which is very similar to pulse grazing. Savory advocates using huge flocks of sheep or huge herds of cattle. With his grazing system he is turning bare deserts into lush grasslands, but the critical ingredient is that he mimics the constant movement of the wild herds of Wildebeest grazing on the savannahs of Africa. See his TED presentation below, already viewed 4.5 million people, to be inspired with his simple solution to climate change; www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change Pulse grazing - something to chew on Pulse grazing with large flocks of Merinos mimics the historic grazing pattern of mobs of kangaroos. This should benefit grassland ecologies if it is done when the soil is firm, to avoid compaction caused by hard hooves. Flowering and seed set times will be less important for pulse grazing as many plants will be undamaged in this short grazing cycle. For longer periods of grazing of 1 – 2+ weeks, monitoring grazing will be an important trigger for sheep removal. Flowering and seed set times in spring are times when the sheep should be removed to allow plants to complete their reproductive cycle. To read more on monitoring grazing in native grasslands for conservation click here In Part 5 of the Grassland series guest blogger and respected grassland expert John Delpratt will consider the future of Kangaroo Grasslands in roadside reserves. How they are faring and how we can best look after or restore them To be posted in April I respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of this country past and present. I acknowledge their comprehensive understanding of Australia’s living landscapes. Their culture nurtured this land for over 3,000 generations and used fire as a dynamic management tool. It’s time to listen and learn from the wisdom of Indigenous Elders. It’s time to adopt Traditional Owner burning methods to nurture and to heal the wild landscapes of rural and urban Australia? ‘Fire Stick Farming’ Anthropologist Rhys Jones changed the way the world thought about Indigenous Australians when he published ‘Fire Stick Farming’ in 1969. He began his article about Aboriginal use of fire with a question. “We imagine that the country seen by the first colonists, before they ring-barked their first tree, was ‘natural.’ But was it? Jones went on to describe a managed Australian landscape that had been changed by burning to produce a land full of wild vegetables and rich hunting grounds. He proposed that fire had many uses to the First Australians and importantly it was used to alter the vegetation. For example to push back forests and replace them with grasslands and grassy forests which were richer in animal and plant foods. Early explorers observed the effects of indigenous burning In 1848 explorer Major Thomas Mitchell observed ‘fire stick farming’ in New South Wales and suggested it was used to create a comfortable open living environment; “The native applies fire to the grass at certain seasons, in order that a young green crop may subsequently spring up and so attract and enable him to kill or take the kangaroo with nets. In summer, the burning of the long grass also discloses vermin, birds’ nests, etc., on which the females and the children, who chiefly burn the grass, feed. But for this simple process, the Australian woods might have been as thick a jungle, like those of New Zealand or America, instead of open forests”. Explorer Charles Sturt famously described lands around the Murray River in 1830, “In many places the trees are so sparingly (and almost judiciously) distributed as to resemble the park lands attached to a gentleman’s residence in England”. The country that the first explorers described was managed with many small mosaic burns (mostly less than 50ha) that minimised the risk of uncontrolled natural fires. This type of burning conducted every 3 – 4 years produces diverse grasslands and grassy woodlands of varying ages which provides ideal habitat for a diversity of wildlife. Indigenous Australian’s use of fire was sophisticated Bill Gammage in his book ‘The Biggest Estate on Earth’, puts into context what many of the early settlers thought was a natural phenomenon; “In 1788 people shepherded fire around their country, caging, invigorating, locating and smoothing the immense complexity of Australia’s plant and animals into such harmony that few newcomers saw any hint of a momentous achievement”. Gammage contends that Indigenous Australians developed complex patterns of burning that favoured desirable plants and animals. For example, a landscape with belts of well spaced gums next to a wide strip of open grassland and permanent water was perfect for hunting kangaroos. Each native animal has its preferred habitat and a detailed traditional knowledge enabled the first Australians to replicate these habitats with the sophisticated use of fire. By doing this they always had a good supply of root vegetables and plenty of the animals they needed for food, tools and clothing. They also knew in which landscapes to find them. Since 1788 fire has become a constant threat Burning changed after the traditional burning practice progressively stopped in Southern Australia as the white settlers moved in. The fires became unplanned, much hotter and dangerous. This brought about a dramatic change in the type and density of vegetation as the ‘gentleman’s parks’ became dense tangled thickets. On Black Thursday February 6th 1851 a devastating fire burnt nearly a quarter of Victoria. A farmer from the Barrabool Hills near Geelong described the aftermath; ‘It was so awful in its aspect, so sudden in its accomplishment, so lamentable in its consequences, that it can only be equaled in those pages of history where invading armies are described as laying countries waste with fire and sword’ Eventually fuel reduction burns became a necessary and accepted part of rural life. Roadsides were burnt as fire breaks and National Parks and Reserves were regularly burned to reduce the fire risk. But did it? Anecdotal evidence suggests that current burning practices are adding to the overall fuel loads. This is because they are often too hot, too infrequent and the timing is based on a pre-set timetable for fuel reduction. Timetables don’t take into account the unique needs of wildlife, the character of the vegetation, the variable seasons or even the local weather conditions that can change radically without notice. Hot burns result in high rates of germination of fast growing pioneer species like acacias and an increased density of highly flammable fuel within five years. It is still a commonly held belief of people that manage control burns that ‘a hot burn is a clean burn’ and that the fire should be as hot as possible. This type of burn in a grassy woodland can result in an increase in thick understorey and shrub growth that competes with grasslands species. It also kills significant mature trees with hollows. Both of these outcomes are undesirable for the park/reserve and its wildlife, as well as for rural communities. Indigenous traditional knowledge is alive and well Indigenous elders are now in demand to conduct Traditional Owner burns because of the recognised benefits to the natural environment. For indigenous Australians burning is a spiritual practice that connects them to Country. Burning is also a social occasion even though it is a finely tuned procedure. You can read an account of a recent Traditional Owner burn at Bakers Lane Reserve, Teesdale at this link ancient-australian-culture-cool-burning.html Traditional Owner (T.O.) burns are very different to modern control burns.
A fifty year old prophecy I’ll leave the last word on Traditional Owner burning to Anthropologist Rhys Jones who prophetically wrote nearly 50 years ago in ‘Fire Stick Farming’; “Probably for tens of’ thousands of years fires were systematically lit by Aborigines and were an integral part of their economy.… we must do what the Aborigines did and burn at regular intervals under controlled conditions. The days of “fire-stick farming” may not yet be over”. My thanks to Dale Smithyman, an enthusiastic supporter and student of Traditional Owner burning practice, for his guidance with this blog A regressive step by the National Landcare Program. Sadly the visionary funding through the National Landcare Program, to employ Indigenous Natural Resource Management Facilitators at the Catchment Management Authorities, will not be offered in the National Landcare Program Phase 2. This decision is extremely disappointing and could be seen as a subtle form of racism that is just as damaging to the re-emergence of a strong indigenous culture as the overt forms of racism that we all despise. It’s time that we question the deep seated and unconscious bias behind a decision like this. It may have been justified with words like ‘restructuring’ and 'cutting costs', but it is a form of racism that is particularly destructive because of it's frequency and because it often goes unnoticed under our radar. If you need a brief escape from reality, 'Seeds the monthly Chronicle' is now into chapter 5. Chapter 6 will be posted very soon. Click here to explore> This blog describes a Traditional Owner cool burn in detail Ancient Australian culture - the traditional skill of cool burning |
Stephen Murphy is an author, an ecologist and a nurseryman. He has been a designer of natural landscapes for over 30 years. He loves the bush, supports Landcare and is a volunteer helping to conserve local reserves. |