Managing Grasslands and Grassy Woodlands in temperate Australia - Part 1 Why we're losing the battle to save them

A grassland near Rokewood, Victoria. Photo Dale Smithyman

Native grasslands and grassy woodlands are delightful to visit in spring because of their tranquil beauty and absolute uniqueness. Every incredible flowering grassland is as different as the location, climate and soil where it's found.

Tragically these native grasslands are fast disappearing and there are not many unspoiled grasslands left to visit. Of the one third of Victoria that was once covered in native grasslands and grassy woodlands in 1835, less than 0.5% remain today.

The second bitter pill to swallow is that around 40% of Victoria’s threatened animal species depend on these grasslands. So we’re losing a lot more than the wildflowers. We’re losing our irreplaceable, rich and complex grassland ecology as well, that is an integral part of our distinctive Australian heritage.

If you’re reading this blog then you’re likely to agree that protecting these natural assets is worthwhile and needs urgent action. It has become critically important that we make sure that this part of our natural heritage isn't completely lost in the coming decades.

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The Humble Rice-flower, Pimelea humilis. Politicians take note.

Saving grasslands and grassy woodlands

How can we keep our remaining grasslands healthy and in good condition in future years for all Australians to enjoy?

The answer is both cultural and practical.

• The cultural answer is summed up by one word - caring. By caring we could stop the losses today. More on getting Australians to care in Part 2.
• The practical answer involves using management techniques like;

(The following methods will be discussed and expanded in future blogs in this grasslands series)

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Traditional Owner method of cool burning is the key. Photo Tracey McRae

• Indigenous cool burning – we have a lot to learn from Australia’s traditional owners. Their knowledge and practices hold the key to protecting and restoring the natural areas that we still have.
• Click here to read more on traditional owner burning
  

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Merinos prefer to eat the exotice weedy grasses

• Strategic grazing with sheep. Sheep prefer to eat introduced pasture grasses that have become weeds in natural areas.  Eastern Grey Kangaroos graze differently and prefer native grasses as you might expect. They are both part of the solution.
  Larger hooved animals like cows and horses can damage the soil structure and they break native plants by rubbing against them
  
• Click here to read more on grazing with Merinos to manage grassy weeds

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• Slashing and removing the cut grass. Straw from cut grass is part of the problem. It adds nutrients and suppresses the emergence of native plants. Nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in grasslands need to be kept at low levels. Increasing these nutrients favours exotic weeds.

Spraying with herbicide is a necessary temporary solution. Its tedious and expensive

• Spraying with selective herbicides. This is tedious work  and an expensive process. There is always the risk of collateral damage through the loss of some native plant species. This method is presently widely used but because of the associated risks, it should be minimised when possible and ideally phased out.
  

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Rabbits were introduced on Christmas day 1859 and they continue to thwart all efforts to eradicate them.

• Controlling rabbits is an ongoing commitment. 158 years after they were introduced near Winchelsea Victoria, we have to accept that the rabbit is here to stay. We can aim to keep their numbers low enough to minimise damage to bushland
  

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Paul Gibson-Roy in one of his planted grasslands. Photo: Sandy Scheltema

• Replanting grasslands is time consuming and meticulous work with a low success rate. The most reliable method developed by Dr. Paul Gibson-Roy costs up to $50,000/ha but it does give excellent results. These costs can be reduced significantly using volunteer labour to collect the indigenous seed needed to sow new grasslands.
  

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Bob Hawke planting a tree. Photo courtesy Australian National University

Current government policy won’t save our flora and fauna.

My skeptical view after years working with the system is that governments are only willing to ‘toy’ with the practical solutions because doing the job properly is seen as a mine field of expenditure black holes.

They choose to provide little bits of funding through grants to Landcare and community groups. This practice permits them to boast about all the good work and millions of trees they’re planting. For politicians, planting trees is the environmental equivalent of kissing babies. It’s an opportunity for a newspaper photo but it does little to solve the real problems.

Sadly there doesn’t seem to be any kudos for politicians if they boast that they have protected or restored a grassland. They seem to prefer to have their environmental credentials measured by the numbers of trees that were planted on their watch.

Remember Bob Hawke’s famous election pledge in 1989;
"Bob Hawke crossed his heart and hoped to die if his Labor government didn't honour his 1989 election pledge to plant "a billion trees".

What about saving a billion trees Hawkey?

The present Federal Government Landcare funding has 'lowered the bar' from Bob Hawke's flamboyant boast, but the marketing principal is still the same. Its current funding program is called Twenty Million Trees by 2020.

The sad truth is that governments have to be dragged kicking and screaming to protect a tree, a grassland, a woodland or a forest. It’s much sexier to plant a tree than protect a tree.

There is a widely held view in the community that only tree hugging greenies protect trees and cynically I can imagine a politician asking, 'where's the photo opportunity'?

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The inadequate funding system is built around a drip feed of grants for tree planting

The current biodiversity funding system is unworkable

What we have been lumbered with is an extremely inefficient system built around a drip feed of grants for tree planting.

What we need is a system that prioritises protecting and enhancing the bushland reserves that we have while building substantial vegetation corridors connecting them. Some significant new reserves could be part of this new system

To be fair there is some grant money for biodiversity protection which focuses on the control of invading introduced pest species like grassy weeds and rabbits. This is a lifeline for conservation volunteers who spend their weekends trying to hold back the tide of exotic invaders. However this money is grossly inadequate to do the job properly. It’s also far too short term because it's usually provided for just one or two year’s work.

Haven’t politicians and their advisers heard the age old gardener’s mantra? ‘One year’s seeding leads to seven years weeding’. Biodiversity grants should be ongoing to enable pest plants and animals to be managed in the long term.

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The present grant system 'burns out' a lot of good people

We are ‘burning out’ good people.

This system also ‘burns out’ a lot of good people who spend days and weeks fruitlessly applying for grants. Since the grant system was introduced it has without exception returned unacceptably low levels of success. The average Landcarer very quickly loses heart because applying for grants is seen as a waste of precious time. As a consequence many worthy projects have never been started.

Little or no monitoring.

The other side to this frustrating system is that we are getting a tragically low ‘bang for our buck’ as taxpayers. This is because there is little or no monitoring of the outcomes of tree planting. No one knows how many plants survive each year and how the results could have been improved. There are many great results but there are also many very poor results where there is not a tree surviving to show for a multi-thousand dollar project.

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Our taxes have funded the planting of millions of trees, but we have no idea how many have survived

A local farmer who planted around 10,000 indigenous plants in 2016 mentioned that he achieved only 20% survival because of the dry spring.

Governments don’t seem to be interested in these statistics, but they are statistics that are critical to understanding how to achieve better planting results in the future as well as the best use of these tax payer dollars.

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The very rare and beautiful Pussy Tails, Ptilotus erubescens. Going, going ..........

We’re losing the race

The sad indictment is that we are still losing more native vegetation than we are planting or saving.

"Approximately 1,600 ha of woody vegetation and 3,000 ha of rare grassy native vegetation continue to be lost annually in Victoria, only a small proportion of this is matched by vegetation offsets”
   Matt Ruchell : Executive Director Victorian National Parks Associations (March 2012)

A simple solution that politicians don’t want to hear.

A simple solution that would dramatically accelerate restoration work is tax incentives for landowners. This is an effective and historically successful method of changing spending behaviour. It also returns the initiative to the landowners who are more likely to be aware of the problems to address and assets to protect on their properties. 

This isn't a popular idea with governments because it takes away their control of some of the environmental budget's spending. If they thought it through more thoroughly, they would have to acknowledge the potential to bring about huge environmental changes far more efficiently.

For example, if the Federal Government offered 150 - 200% deductions on all private money spent on protecting and restoring the natural environment, we would engage a lot more farmers. This single initiative would also free up Landcare facilitators from the thankless task of writing grant applications. Their time could be better spent in the field advising farmers, improving their success and auditing the years revegetation projects.

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The long term answer involves cultural change.
Part 2 on 'raising the profile of the natural environment' will be posted in January 2018

'Have a safe and enjoyable Christmas & New Year'
Good cheer,
Steve