Appendix A:

CPBR Proposal –

Species for Vegetation Regeneration

The Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research (a collaborative venture between CSIRO Plant Industry and the Australian National Botanic Gardens) will undertake to prepare a list of appropriate candidate species for regeneration of vegetation in the Harden Landcare area, approximating the reconstructed original native species of the region.

The current list for revegetation in the Harden area prepared and distributed by the State Forests of N.S.W. is considered unsuitable both in terms of its biodiversity content (both taxa and life-form) and its inclusion of a number of undesirable and potentially noxious exotic species.

Interpretation and reconstruction of the likely natural flora of the area is necessary because of the near total removal of the natural understorey through past land-use and farm management practices. Re-establishment of a tree cover approximating the original species will not be sufficient; an understorey flora will have to be reintroduced as well.

This list of candidate species will be based on recent surveys, historical records in the literature and on specimens in the herbaria, as well as the known occurrence of plant species in surrounding areas. Staff from the Centre will visit sites identified via satellite imagery and documented in the Harden Shire Remnant Vegetation Management Plan, to ground truth and assess vegetation components. Local knowledge through on-ground liaison and the knowledge of botanical experts will also be applied to the construction, interpretation and assessment of these lists.

Existing propagation and revegetation literature as exists will be taken into account. These data will be supplemented by drawing on local knowledge, and particularly those involved with plantings (and aged tree lots) in the area during the past 20 years.

Through the use of local and scientific knowledge bases, the list of species will be prioritized and rated for preferred habitat and other growing conditions to maximise survival of individual plants in the reintroduction process. Recommendations will be in accordance with the "Guidelines for the Translocation of Threatened Plants in Australia".

• The database of the Australian National Herbarium will be interrogated for plant records from the target Harden Landcare area.

• Known published species lists (eg. White-box Woodland Study, etc.) will be surveyed for candidate species.

• Herbarium specimens of species known to come from the target area will be inspected to extract associated species where recorded on the field notes.

• The database will be queried against the species list for the surrounding botanical region (including Young, Yass areas) obtained from our sister herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney; this will broaden the list to include species likely to have occurred in the target area in the past.

• Habitat notes for species covered will be extracted from botanical specimens and from the literature (floras, revisions, monographs, etc.)

• Botanists will inspect the list of taxa and note, in their professional opinion, species that would perform well in particular habitat types in an artificial regeneration context.

• The database or list of candidate species will be made available on the World Wide Web (WWW) for inspection and comment by landowners, land managers and botanists in other institutions.

• The final annotated lists will be made available in printed, electronic and on-line form.

• New locality records established, as part of this project will be made available to the Environmental Resources Information Network (ERIN) land-cover project.

• There will be a number of products arising from this project:
• A final report including checklists of plants from the study area and surrounding regions.

• A pamphlet appropriate for distribution to land managers giving selected species and further information about each.

• An assessment of those species suitable for revegetation.

• Comments on the establishment requirements for candidate species.

• A database of species involved in this project.

• A website containing the species database and other floristic and vegetation information relevant to this project.

• It is estimated that this phase of the project will take between 10 and 12 weeks, and will be completed in the first six months of the project.

The Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research is prepared to undertake this project for $10,000. These funds will be used to employ a person skilled in the technical aspects of database interrogation and interpretation and data collation, as well as covering some of the cost of consumables.