Page 1536 - Week 04 - Thursday, 7 April 2011
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The Namadgi plan of management commits the ACT government to prepare a policy document to guide the assessment of applications for events in the park. The events policy will cover different types and sizes of events, including large events, and will take into account the need to protect the natural and cultural heritage values of the park.
The natural world operates in a complex and unpredictable manner. It is foolhardy to assume that our knowledge is complete or unchanging. The plan of management establishes the fundamental and simple concept of evidence-based management. Evidence-based management is achieved through scientific inquiry carried out through survey, monitoring and research. Surveying ecosystems and species aims to build an inventory of vegetation communities and individual plants and animals, where they occur and their associations with each other.
Monitoring focuses on key populations, species or environmental conditions and how they change over time, while fundamental research aims to tease out and deepen our understanding of the relationships between species and the functioning of landscapes and ecosystems. In particular, the plan of management advocates research that is applicable to park management and long-term studies that are suited to building an understanding of the dynamic nature of natural systems over time.
Over the years there has been a considerable survey effort to build an inventory of the natural assets of Namadgi national park. We now know, for instance, that there are 20 different vegetation communities in the park. In relation to native fauna species, there are at least 35 mammals, 14 frogs, 41 reptiles, four native fish and over 130 bird species. Many of these species are rare and 15 are listed as threatened. Monitoring is generally focused on these species which have restricted distributions and are under greatest threat of extinction, or on ecological conditions that are indicative of wider threatening species.
I will take this opportunity to highlight several examples of ongoing monitoring for individual species to indicate the scope of monitoring being undertaken. One example, for instance, is that of the Brindabella midge orchid, which is only found in the ACT and is only known from a one-hectare area near Bendora dam. It was first discovered in 1992, with a total known population of 70 plants. In 2003 the site was burnt during the bushfires and monitoring of the site after the fires showed a decline in orchid numbers. Action was taken to reduce shading from other plants that sprouted post-fire and in 2010 78 orchids were counted. A more comprehensive monitoring program which tags individual plants has now been established.
The northern corroboree frog has been monitored for over two decades. It suffered a dramatic and rapid decline and it is estimated that there are fewer than 100 frogs left in the wild. The main reason for the decline seems to be the spread of the amphibian chytrid fungus. Concern about the rapid decline of the species led the government to establish a captive breeding program. There is now an assurance population of over 100,000 frogs maintained in special housing at Tidbinbilla. Without monitoring of the species, the government would not have known of its decline and no action would have been taken. Without these actions, the species would undoubtedly become
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