Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo Recovery Team Meeting
West Wimmera Shire Offices - Edenhope
30 November 2005
Present: Mark Bachmann, David Baker-Gabb, Richard Hill, Jim McGuire, Colin Mibus, Sue Mudford, Bryan Haywood, Julie Kirkwood (phone link- part meeting), Evan Roberts, Vicki-Jo Russell (phone link – part meeting).
Apologies:Graham Carpenter, Justin Cook, Peter Copley, Dan Harley, Troy Horn, Paul Koch, Martine Maron, Rob Mengler, David Paton, Tania Rajic, Dean Robertson, Dave Ryan.
1Business arising:
1.1Draft Recovery Plan action on pines: Alana Baird (DEH) has advised that the Recovery Plan is on the DEH website comments are due by 4 January 2006.
Check website version for action regarding pines. If this has not been included in the final version then send in comment. Action: David Baker-Gabb
Mark Bachmann suggested a levy on plantations for control of wildling pines. Priority areas for control need to be identified. Also extent of invasion requires documentation. This links in with the current assessment of remnant vegetation by plantation companies.
Suggested that pines should be lopped prior to burning this was done at Rennick SF, the site of a field day to be held early in 2006 (Green Triangle Plantation Committee attending). Mark Bachmann and Justin Cook are talking to the GTPC about developing a cross-tenure approach to wild pine management. Sue Mudford suggested developing a project through RCIP to fund a mapping/GIS model. Action: Justin Cook and Mark Bachmann to follow up.
Note that pines were identified as a lower priority than bridal creeper, Sollya, olives etc.
1.2Commonwealth Games Funding
A CD-Rom (Commonwealth Games Integrated Learning Units) has been circulated to all schools. It includes a powerpoint display prepared by the Recovery team which highlights key issues relating to RtBC.
Jim McGuire commented that at a regional meeting of Neighbourhood Watch Secretaries in Horsham, none of 60 attendees knew that the CWG mascot was from their area!
1.3Website – site on-line, looks good
1.4New nest colony searches
Lynn Pedler was unavailable during Spring 2005– need to employ someone for Spring 2006. 2 volunteers participated in searching for nests in new areas, and Dick Cooper has continued his efforts searching and documenting nests in the Casterton area.
Action: Richard Hill to contact Rob Mengler (Forestry SA) with offer to provide training in nest searching and to visit Comaum FR (potential nest sites).
Dick and Richard have found 3 active nestsnearCasterton.
Action: Richard to send details of these known nests to Jim McGuire. One nest found in September subsequently failed.
1.5Tree fruiting cycles
Action: Richard to chase up buloke data from Evan Roberts, Bill Wallace etc and draw up table.
1.6Pre-fire assessment methodology
On advice from Paul Koch RH has proposed that we annually monitor seed production across the range by stringybark. 11 control sitesare to be monitored across the range using Paul’s capsule count methodology.
Action: Richard to describe methodology, select 11 sites across the range and arrange for Parks Victoria/DSE/Forestry South Australia and summer crews to do assessment.
1.7DSE Guidelines for applications to clear Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo habitats
DSE has sent draft interim guidelines to the West Wimmera Shire – the aim is to amend the Environmental Significance Overlay to include provisions for dealing with applications to clear all Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo habitats.. The Shire has responded with an alternative version and want to meet with the Minister.
Colin Mibus advised that WW Shire have recently increased requirements for offsets. New applications lodged through the Shire - applicants are being advised to reduce/minimize the number of trees they are seeking to clear . Compliance has been investigated for cases arising over the last 2 years. The Shire will now be addressing permits where work was undertaken from 3 to 4 years ago
There was substantial discussion about assessing applications to remove Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo buloke feed trees in Victoria. We discussed using tree health in assessments of conservation value and agreed that tree health is subjective and difficult to assess consistently. Advice from Martine Maron indicates that buloke trees are able to recover rapidly in good conditions so poor tree health in any one year may not indicate poor health overall. Also if poor health leads to a downgrading of offset requirements, it rewards farming practices which damage tree health. Extensive discussion then ensued about the proposed responses to very high conservation value vegetation. The current response guidelines mean that an application to remove a single tree of very high conservation value (eg paddock tree > 30cm DBH) would be rejected in all but exceptional circumstance (state significant projects). The discussion agreed that this was too restrictive on farmers and would encourage non-compliance or use of the exemptions which, in Victoria, allow clearing without permit for a range of farm activities. We also agreed that the offsets required for the removal of very high conservation value trees (8 mature trees of the same species and 40 new seedlings recruited) might provide better outcomes than the business-as-usual scenario in some cases. These applications can provide rare opportunities for the protection and enhancement of buloke. We agreed that large >30cm isolated paddock trees should be treated as high conservation value for the purposes of response, permitting removal of up to 10 of these trees per application, but that the offset provisions for these trees be as for very high (ie 8 trees protected etc for each tree removed).
Offsets should follow the following advice prepared for DEH Canberra which target scattered trees in particular where the gains through protection and enhancement are greater than from the protection of already fully-stocked buloke remnants (Hill et al. 2003). "Natural densities of Buloke trees are estimated at 31 trees per hectare on clay soils (Morcom, in prep). Any offset plantings should aim to approximate this at maturity. As the slow growth rate of Buloke predisposes it to high mortality of young plants, a much higher density at planting time will be necessary to achieve this target. However, the value of the revegetated area to the RtBC relates only to the target number of trees, not the total number initially planted in order to achieve this target. Mortality rates of approximately 95% over the 100 year period may be expected and should be allowed for (Hill et al 2003)." We also agreed that Martine Maron's suggested modelling of various rates of tree loss, protection of mature trees and protection of smaller trees and recruitment of new trees was a high priority to evaluate the impact on future buloke food availability.
Hill, R., Maron, M. and Kirkwood, J. 2003. Advice on the development of significance guidelines regarding clearance of Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo habitat. Unpublished report to DEH, Canberra.
ACTION: David Baker-Gabb and Richard Hill to discuss with Adrian Morrees, Peter Menkhorst etc.
1.8Roadside Strategy
Draft strategy (West Wimmera Shire) prepared but council didn’t approve – changes will be put to council. Should be out for public comment in February.
Action: Jim McGuire to send DSE comments on Ararat roadside strategy to Colin Mibus.
1.9Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo Communication Strategy
A draft will be produced early next year for the recovery team
2.Project Officer report (attached)Action: Jim McGuire to get aerial photos for burnt areas to assess crown scorch in Wimmera. DON’T REMEMBER THIS AT ALL!
3.Extension Officer Report (attached)
- SA Funding
SENRM Board has not funded the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo Recovery Program in their draft Investment Strategy for 2006/07.
Action: Lobby regional NRM board to have RtBC project included on their list of project priorities. A letter has been sent to Mary-Anne Healy listing Recovery team activities and impact of withdrawal of SA funding. Concerns need to be presented to NRM board. Peter Wilcock offered to provide support. The SENRM Board provided a letter of support for the multi-regional bid in February ‘05 identifying it as a priority. From highest priority in 05/06 the Recovery Program has fallen off the priority list for the Board in 06/07, potentially due to the $1.3M in federal regional funding.
- Regional RtBC/Buloke Project
The Schedule has been developed by WCMA with input from the steering committee. The project will run as a market-based instrument/bush tender style program. Julie Kirkwood suggested that the Recovery Team needs to outline it’s concerns regarding facilitators and the steering committee revisit the issue of bush tender vs. incentives.
- the scope of facilitators – the landholder survey identified the need for facilitators to provide ongoing one on one support to landholders.
- Will landholders be advised of all incentives available?.
- Threatened species actions potentially overlooked in agreements.
- Hidden costs – eg. covenanting
Action: Recovery team to put together a 1 page summary for Monday’s steering Committee meeting. - Trust for Nature
Lisa Moore is the TFN Wimmera Conservation Officer (see report). Incentives and covenant programs with management agreements are delivered via a one person/one stop shop.
TFN applied for funding for an additional position for covenanting which includes Red-tail area.
TFN is a partner in a linkages project developing links between Glenelg NP/Coboboonee to remnants in the north. Proposed project at this stage with GA, GTRPC, GHCMA, TFN and Wilderness Society.
It was asked whether TFN is promoting the freecall number and other communication programs. Eg newsletter, bird sightings, distribution of info kits, support at field days, etc. [Sue Mudford followed up after the meeting and advised that TFN are
actively promoting these opportunities and Sue will report relevant information to each recovery team meeting.]
It was also requested that TFN pass on the contact details of landholders who
have sighted the birds on their property. Regarding these contact details TfN
are bound by privacy laws, however, with the landholders' permission TfN have
been providing this information and will continue to do so to the RTBC team
- specifically Richard Hill for nest sites wherever possible.
- Dead Tree Protection in SA
Under the Native Vegetation Act in SA large, hollow bearing trees are protected. Included in a suite of new exemptions is a proposed exemption to the Native Vegetation Act in cases where approval to remove the trees has been granted by the EPBC Act. The exemptions have not gone to the Native Vegetation Council as yet but require serious lobbying. Birds Australia has written. The South Australian Ornithologists Association has also lobbied.
The proposal could allow for clearing of scattered trees where significant environmental benefit can be demonstrated eg through offsets. There is no process to determine SEB or whether recovery team would have any input to identifying SEB.
Action: RH/MM/DBG/TR: Advice to Vicki-Jo Russell on identifying SEB’s for RtBC in SA. - Other business
8.1 Buloke Seed Biochemistry
DSE and DPI have proposed a project to investigate the nutrient value of buloke feed trees vs non-feed trees which aims to try and identify buloke feed trees so that they can be targetted for protection, and to trial enhancing non-feed trees to increase their likelihood of becoming feed trees. Martine’s work has already demonstrated that individual bulokes can be feed trees in one year, and not in a subsequent year thus feed tree status is not a constant. Martine has also already demonstrated that cockatoos do select trees which have seed with higher calorific content. The Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo Recovery Plan identifies information gaps for buloke and Red Tails and the recovery team recommends that any funding proposals should target those information needs. We do not support this proposed project.
Action: David Baker-Gabb Letter regarding proposed buloke project to Wimmera CMA/Biodiversity Implementation Committee. cc Dean Robertson, Craig Whiteford, Peter Wilcock.
8.2 Stubble burning
Jim McGuire advised that Wimmera has very good crops this year. Stubble will be high so stubble fires will be bad this year. Evan Roberts mentioned that Naracoorte District Council administers burning off permits in the prescribed fire period and requires farmers to create firbreaks around paddock trees before stubble burning,
Action: Investigate the potential to amend the proposed West Wimmera ESO to require raking of trees prior to burning. Get copy of Naracoorte DC requirements from Dean Brooksby.
Next Meeting: Tuesday 4 July, Mt Gambier.