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Recreating the Country blog

Kangaroo Grass communities on roadside reserves   - Part 2                                                                                by guest blogger John Delpratt

10/5/2018

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John Delpratt
John is an Honorary Fellow with the University of Melbourne.

He was a lecturer in plant production and seed technology at the University’s Burnley campus for 25 years prior to his retirement.

His involvement with native grassland conservation focused initially on cultivation and seed production systems for grassland forbs and later on the reconstruction and management of diverse native grassland communities for both ecological and horticultural applications.

Over the past few months, Steve has introduced the native grasslands and grassy woodlands of temperate Australia; what we know of their management and why we are losing the battle to save them – a compelling story in four Blogs. I have the privilege of adding my own contribution to this discussion.



PictureRokewood Cemetery (mid-summer) is a beautiful and diverse Kangaroo Grass dominated flora reserve. It also retains one of the largest remnant populations of the nationally-endangered daisy Button Wrinklewort (Rutidosis leptorhynchoides). It serves as an important reference community for regional grassland restoration
Last month I wrote about the on-going, incremental loss of native grassland on our public roadsides, but also of the recent progress in restoring these communities, primarily by direct sowing.

This month, I’d like to explore the value of restoration for conserving these critically endangered communities and how a small community in south-western Victoria is approaching this issue. I will argue that local community action is an achievable method for kick-starting the replacement of large tracts of exotic, high biomass, summer-dry roadside vegetation with lower biomass native grassland communities, dominated eventually, in most instances, by summer-growing Kangaroo Grass.



PictureA high-quality remnant on Chatsworth-Wickliffe Rd, a 3 chain (60 m) wide road reserve just west of Woorndoo.
The many benefits of roadside grassland reserves

There are numerous reasons why rural roadsides are potentially very valuable for long-term native grassland conservation, and simultaneously, why remnant and restored native grasslands are so well suited to our roadsides.
  • In many districts rural road verges retain stretches of remnant vegetation that can serve as local reference communities, as a source for the measured collection of local seed, and as a point of species radiation, over the longer term, into adjoining restored areas.
  • Unlike private property, where ownership and land-use priorities can change over time, roadsides are likely to remain in public ownership into the foreseeable future.
  • Roadsides provide habitat corridors and connectivity over large distances, within an otherwise fragmented landscape.
  • Although there is a very high ‘edge to area’ ratio on a roadside, the adjoining land on one side is a gravel or sealed road and often, on the other, a managed fire break, cropping or pasture, potentially limiting the area occupied by invasive exotic species.
  • Many rural roads are offset within a wide reserve (3 chains; 60 m), leaving a 40 to 50 m width available for restoration.

  • The more that road verges are restored to native grassland, the greater the opportunity to conserve these beautiful and complex habitats and their component species.
  • Properly managed, a Kangaroo Grass community provides an open, low-biomass, spring and summer-growing plant community that is significantly less fire-prone than exotic grasses such as Phalaris, with significantly lower potential fire intensity and flame height.
  • The open structure of managed Kangaroo Grass allows much greater visibility for drivers than the tall, dense wall created by Phalaris when fully grown.
  • Again, from a human perspective, a diverse Kangaroo Grass roadside is a fine sight from mid-spring until late autumn – and if burnt in autumn, it produces an emerald-green sward within a very few weeks. As such, it provides interest and a powerful sense of place for the traveller.

PictureDetail of a reference species-rich remnant on Woorndoo-Streatham Rd, immediately adjacent to the Woorndoo restoration site.
Coming to a roadside near you?
A case study in community action
.

Woorndoo is a small agricultural community in south-western Victoria. Along with its surrounding districts, its road reserves and public lands (Woorndoo Common, Woorndoo Cemetery) support some of the richest remnants of critically-endangered natural temperate grasslands and grassy woodlands. However, these precious remnants are under constant threat and incremental damage from road and roadside works, and the ingress into disturbed areas by competitive exotic species.


PictureA detail of some of the diversity established in the 2013 restoration; a combination of sown species and wind-dispersed spores and seeds.
In 2013 The Woorndoo Land Protection Group, with the support of Moyne Shire, restored a strip of approximately 250 m (1.25 ha) along the Woorndoo-Streatham Rd from its intersection with the Bolac Plains Rd. The site had a history of roadside cropping. They had available to them the expertise of local farmer and nursery operator David Franklin. David had been a member of the GGRP team (lead by Paul Gibson Roy - see Part 1) from its inception a decade earlier.

To read  an interview with David Franklin click here

David immediately adopted, then helped refine, their innovative approach to grassland restoration. As summarised in Part 1, the technique relies on preparing a low nutrient seed bed, with a reduced soil weed bank, which is direct sown with a native grassland seed mix. The complexity of mix depends on the number of species available as seed and the objectives of the project.


Success inspires support

Largely based on the success of this initial sowing, the Woorndoo group were able to win a two-year State Government Community Action Grant in 2017. The grant is funding the expansion of the regional seed production area (SPA), detailed experiments towards expanding the range of techniques available for increasing species diversity and population size within existing and new restorations, and a further 1.25 ha direct sowing in 2019. The first round of experiments is due to be planted and sown into the existing restoration later this month. The Woorndoo Project has a strong emphasis on volunteer involvement and the communication of results through workshops, field days, social media (fb: Woorndoo Land Protection Group) and publications.

Although the initial restoration at Woorndoo was driven by local experience, the techniques are accessible to any community with land management skills, and a willingness to share and apply those skills to restoring diverse native roadside vegetation in their local area. One of the great beauties of this process is that well-restored areas quickly become a seed source for further restoration – and so on.

PictureThe view from the 2013 Woorndoo restoration into the site for the 2019 restoration. The cropped area extends for approximately 10 km north-east towards Nerrin Nerrin. Perhaps, in the future, local community organisations may find that harvesting seed and fodder from native perennial grasslands is at least as rewarding as annual cropping, with improved outcomes for the environment.
The industry needs to expand to meet the need
I am under no illusion.
To achieve a large and sustained increase in the area of restored diverse native grassy habitat, the industry will have to become more professional. Regional seed supplies, particularly of the many non-grass species that contribute to diversity, must be available in reliable and sufficient quantities. Contractors must be able to develop viable enterprises to encourage investment in well-trained staff and appropriate machinery for the initial sowing and on-going management. Road managers such as VicRoads and rural shires must be able to plan new sowings with confidence and at a reasonable cost. This has been achieved in other jurisdictions.












In the US roadside grassland restoration is a big industry
When Paul Gibson Roy visited seed producers and restorationists in the US for his Churchill Fellowship in 2015, he was amazed by the size and sophistication of an industry that is underwritten, in part, by Federal Government regulations mandating the use of native vegetation for some Federally-funded projects.

Read Paul’s full report and his specific recommendations for Australia here


For now, local communities are well-placed to make a difference in their own districts. Greater diversity in restoration sites and in the individuals undertaking the work will inevitably lead to increased innovation, and demand for seed and operational resources – the beginnings of a viable market place. But let us all keep in mind that wisest of principles: “First do no harm”.

Part 1 of this blog summarised the broad requirements for successful grassland restoration, and sources for more detailed information. Within the next couple of years, the Woorndoo Project should be able to expand the suite of techniques and approaches that prove successful for a small community organisation relying heavily on volunteers.
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    Stephen Murphy is an author and ecologist. He has worked as a nurseryman and designer of natural landscapes for over 30 years. He loves the bush, actively supporting Landcare and conservation initiatives throughout Australia
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  • Home
  • be Challenged
    • Design to restore lost biodiversity >
      • Diversity >
        • Making a list of plants for revegetation
      • Structure >
        • Ecology Snapshot - wildlife and their habitat
      • Species survival
      • Location - connections
      • Blueprint for Recreating the Counrty
    • Biodiversity and profit >
      • Designing for profit
    • Managing sustainable biorich landscapes
  • be Informed
    • Indigenous flora of the Geelong district >
      • Indigenous plants - what & why
      • Acacias, wattles of the Geelong Region
      • Acacias - the cafes of the bush
      • Allocasuarinas/drooping sheoaks, Black Sheoak & Callitris glaucophylla/cypress-pine
      • Bursaria spinosa, Sweet Bursaria
      • Eucalypts, The Sentinals
      • Exocarpos cupressiformis, Cherry Ballart
      • Moonah, Melaleuca lanceolata
      • Small riparian myrtles
      • Wedge-leaf/Giant Hop-bush, Dodonaea viscosa
      • Wild Plants of Inverleigh
      • Tree Violet - as tenacious as a terrier
    • Nurseryman's diary >
      • Regent Honeyeater - a good news story
      • Give me a home among the gum trees
      • Symbiotic fungi
      • The joys of seed collecting
      • Landcare, who cares?
      • The last Silver Banksia
      • Neds Corner
      • River Red Gums and the Tuscan monks
  • be Entertained
    • Stories for children >
      • Amie and the intoxicated kangaroos
      • The Little Green Caterpillar
      • B'emus'ed - a Christmas tale of bursairas and emus
    • Stories about the natural world >
      • Brushtail
      • Cormorant
      • Eastern Bettongs. 'Truffle junkies' or 'ecosystem engineers'
      • Richards Sweet Rewards
      • Coxy's Curse
      • How the River Red Gum came to be - A dreamtime story
  • RtC bookshop
  • Blog
    • Easy blog finder
  • Contact