Trust for Nature (Victoria)

Goulburn Broken

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Pimelea conservation trust

Our Pimelea Conservation Trust Fund supports landowners and property managers who have Spiny Rice-flower (Pimelea spinescens) present on their land and wish to conserve this highly threatened plant species. Funding is available annually by application for activities that are directly related to the objectives of the Pimelea spinescens Recovery Plan.

The Fund was established in 2005 as part of a Conservation Agreement with Multiplex Developments in relation to the protection and conservation of Spiny Rice-flower (Pimelea spinescens subsp. spinescens), under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. A Trust Committee has been established, with representatives from Federal, State and Local governments to administer the funds in accordance with the Conservation Agreement, with Trust for Nature acting as trustee for the fund. The Conservation Agreement outlines an annual program of funds to be allocated by the Trust Committee for Pimelea Recovery Activities. Generally, the total amount available each year is $12,000. However, this amount may vary should the Trust Committee assign more funds to an annual allocation or allocate future funding to multi-year projects.

Download the Pimelea Recovery Plan

Apply for funding

Grant applications open 10th June

Applications for funds to support activities to conserve Pimelea are open from 10th June and close 30th August.
All applicants will be reviewed and recommended by the Pimelea spinescens Recovery Team.
Successful applicants will be selected from the Recovery Team’s recommendations PCTF Committee in November.
A project’s time frame will be dependent on the project, and all applicants will be informed of the outcome in January/February via email. Successful applicant(s) will receive a formal letter in the post.

Download the application form

Impact of the Fund since 2005

Each year, the Fund supports the management of two reserves which contain Spiny Rice-flower: Altona Nature Conservation Reserve and Pimelea Nature Conservation Reserve.

Since 2005 the Fund has supported both regional and Melbourne metropolitan environmental groups, the Country Fire Authority, consultants, Melbourne’s Royal Botanical Gardens, and private landowners in:

  • An examination of the species genetic diversity and population structure by the Royal Botanical Gardens, helping to set conservation activities for the species and ensure Spiny Rice-flower’s long-term survival;
  • Development of a new Spiny Rice-flower Recovery Plan;
  • The employment of a Pimelea Conservation Officer to support both the Pimelea Conservation Trust Fund and Pimelea spinescens Recovery team;
  • An assessment of all the Spiny Rice-flower translocations that have been carried out to date, providing analysis of ways to improve future translocation activities (see Resources below);
  • The development of a Spiny Rice-flower monitoring protocol endorsed by the Pimelea spinescens Recovery Team;
  • Research, asking if supplementary planting will improve the recruitment capacity of populations;
  • Four local community education days about the species, its environment and optimal management;
  • Optimal management in the form of an ecological burn and monitoring at nine different Pimelea spinescens sites;
  • Stock/rabbit proof fencing installed at four sites;
  • Weed control at five sites over a period of five years;
  • Vermin eradication at two sites;
  • The production of the Pimelea and Her Grassland Friends children’s book (see Resources below).
  • Seed collection has occurred from eight sites that are not currently represented in the Pimelea spinescens seed bank.
  • Supplementation has occurred at  four Brimbank Council sites that have small and isolated P. spinescens populations.
  • A direct seeding project has just been implemented to learn what is the best method to germinate P. spinescens from seed in the field.
  • A research project that is tracking the gender presentation of individuals during a flowering season and then accessing the female’s and hermaphrodite’s seed quality.

Pimelea spinescens Recovery Team

In 2007, a Pimelea spinescens working group was formalised as the Pimelea spinescens Recovery Team. The Pimelea spinescens Recovery Team is a group working towards better conservation and management strategies for Pimelea spinescens subsp. spinescens and Pimelea spinescens subsp. pubiflora.

The Recovery Team coordinates the implementation of the Recovery Plan via:

  • Openly sharing information regarding our experiences with this species;
  • Regularly reviewing and updating protocols/guidelines for the species conservation;
  • Review funding applications and recommend to the PCTF Committee;
  • Review past and present conservation management methods, to be critiqued and recommendations made;
  • Encourage research and regularly provide technical advice around processes that would impact Pimelea spinescens;
  • Review and advise all publications, translocation plans and reports regarding Pimelea spinescens, which will inform future practice.

The current Recovery Team comprises of representatives from Trust for Nature, state government (Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Parks Victoria and VicRoads), 22 local governments, six Catchment Management Authorities, Country Fire Authority, environmental consultants, Landcare groups, and universities.

Meetings

Meetings occur three times a year, at various locations in Western Melbourne or regional centres. The formal meeting is held in the morning and after lunch attendees visit several local Pimelea spinescens sites. Meetings are open for any Pimelea spinescens manager or community member to attend and/or raise an issue concerning this species. The meetings usually occur in March, July and November. If you’re interested in attending the next meeting, contact Trust for Nature’s Pimelea Conservation Officer.

Guidelines and protocols

The Recovery team have several endorsed documents available which have been developed to guide the management of this species to achieve best practice, available in the Guidelines and Resources below. These documents are constantly evolving to incorporate the most up to date research and on ground observations.

Contact the Pimelea Conservation Officer

Resources

Guidelines

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Council rebates for covenants

Do you know that around one third of the 48 regional and rural councils in Victoria offer some form of rate rebate or concession to covenantors? Councils take differing approaches to this issue so it is worthwhile knowing the approach of your local council.

These rebates can make a difference to landowners’ ability to take care of their land as they recognise the cost it takes to steward land.

The City of Greater Bendigo and the Macedon Ranges Shire Council offer a full rate rebate to ‘acknowledge and  reward conservation efforts of private landholders’. The Pyrenees Shire Council offers a 50 per cent rebate, while others such as the Cardinia Shire Council, Mansfield Shire Council and the Greater Shepparton City Council offer a per hectare rebate (between $20-$50 up to a specified capped amount). The City of Greater Geelong calculates  covenanted land at the lowest ‘farm rate’ (37% deduction).

Native habitat on private land in Victoria continues to be lost but the extinction trend can be reversed by protecting key remnants, building ecosystem resilience and increasing connectivity of habitat. The protection offered by  conservation covenants make a vital contribution to this process and rates concessions or exemptions are recognition of this contribution by generous landowners.

If you would like to know more about rates rebates or concessions in your shire, check your council website or  contact our Policy Advisor Cecilia Riebl (Monday to Wednesday) on (03) 8631 5819 or ceciliar@tfn.org.au.

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Detecting Squirrel Gliders

Squirrel Gliders Petaurus norfolcensis are enigmatic animals whose survival is under threat. The species now has a patchy and fragmented distribution across Victoria, where its habitat has been reduced to roadsides, creek-lines and patches of native vegetation on private property.

The Longwood Plains, near Euroa, is the most southerly extension of the Victorian Riverina bioregion. Its original woodland vegetation is substantially degraded and highly fragmented, due to almost 200 years of grazing, ring- barking, timber harvesting and cropping. An on-going threat is the loss of hollow-bearing trees. This landscape’s flora and fauna have done it tough, yet several threatened species, including the hollow-dependent threatened Squirrel Glider, cling to survival.

At numerous sites across Victoria, recently regenerated native habitat, often lacking in natural tree hollows, is supplemented with nest-boxes for hollow-nesting species.

For nest-boxes to work, they need to be installed where gliders are known to occur, yet the most recent glider records from the Longwood Plains are over 20 years old. To complicate matters, Squirrel Gliders are difficult to find; they don’t have bright eye-shine (for nocturnal detection), they don’t vocalise (unlike the Sugar Glider), and their body colouration camouflages them in the tree canopy.

Increasingly, thermal imaging (infra-red) technology is supplementing traditional, direct detection of cryptic species, like the smaller gliding possums. Using thermal imaging, we were able to efficiently detect Squirrel Gliders on three Longwood Plains covenants. Then, with support from the Urquhart Charitable Fund, we installed 80 nest boxes on these covenants, at locations where natural hollows are few.

Real-time viewing of the natural world through thermal imaging is a powerful tool; as well as improving detection of hard-to-find species like the Squirrel Glider, it provides experiences and ecological insight that previously could not have been imagined.

This study looked at the prevalence of Squirrel Gliders in an area in the Goulburn Broken region.

For more information about projects in the Goulburn Broken region contact Shelagh Curmi (03) 8631 5888 or shelaghc@tfn.org.au

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Learning to live with mistletoe

The Ruffs bought a 132-hectare grazing property in Wirrate 21 years ago. They removed the sheep and the property has been managed for conservation ever since with over 140 species of birds recorded. It is protected by a covenant and they’ve done a lot of work to restore plants and wildlife including erecting 30 nest boxes.

The Ruffs have erected two ex-closures designed to keep herbivores out. One of them is in an open grassy area which would be heavily grazed by herbivores such as rabbits and kangaroos, the other ex-closure is in a woodland area, less preferable to herbivores. They are part of a long term monitoring project to compare the browsing behaviours between each of these landscapes. The main vegetation type on the property is Box Ironbark Forest with areas of nationally threatened grassy woodland. The property received funding from the Australian Government through the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority to manage the woodlands.

Mistletoe has challenged the native trees, killing them in fact. So it was surprising when a mistletoe expert told people at a field day held on the property that the mistletoe plant benefits biodiversity.

Professor Dave Watson from Charles Sturt University says we need to understand the whole landscape to understand why mistletoe becomes a problem.

The landscape is recovering and the environment has changed, fire frequency has changed and many of the remaining trees were used as sheep camps, increasing nutrients around the trees. This still effects the health of the trees today, so extra pressures such as mistletoe have an added impact.

Mistletoe does have predators, one of the main ones being Common Brush Tail Possums, which love the sweet and juicy leaves. However the Brush Tail Possum population hasn’t recovered from recent culling history, (contrary to over population in some urban areas).

Butterflies are also predators – the Imperial White Butterfly lays its eggs on mistletoe and the voracious caterpillars reduce mistletoe growth.

Solution

Professor Watson recommends increasing the shrub layer on the property with plants such as Bursaria sp. to encourage butterflies, to trial some cool burns to kill the lower mistletoes and put up nest boxes specifically for the Common Brush Tail Possums and if there is more mistletoe in a tree than eucalypt remove the mistletoe to prolong tree life. But Professor Watson warns the mistletoe will be back!

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On the tail of the Striped Legless Lizard

The Striped Legless Lizard (Delma impar) was once common across Victoria and parts of the ACT, South Australia and New South Wales. It’s believed to be extinct in South Australia and habitat loss has led to a drastic population decline and local extinctions in Victoria. Though widely distributed in northern Victoria, it had not been seen for several decades in the north east.

Striped Legless Lizards are difficult to find. They aresmall, rare and look similar to several other species. Between 2016 and 2019, Trust for Nature and members of the local community set out to raise awareness of this disappearing species.

Starting with the most recent Striped Legless Lizard records from the Rushworth, Benalla and Wangaratta districts, we sought help from local landholders, conservation groups, and government agencies and surveyed more than 35 sites. We didn’t find any of the Lizards until we received a blurry photo of what looked like a Striped Legless Lizard from a locality called Greta West in 2017. This was followed by a confirmed record from Whorouly South in 2019, the first record of the Lizard in this area for almost 40 years! Trust for Nature projects have now found Striped Legless Lizards at three new sites in north east Victoria, suggesting they may be more widespread than anyone had previously thought.

More surveys are planned to better understand the extent of the Whorouly South Striped Legless Lizard population and help them survive. This project was funded with the support of the Victorian Government. Help from landholders, covenantors and community groups was invaluable.

For more information about projects in the Goulburn Broken region contact our Senior Conservation Officer Bert Lobert on (03) 8631 5888 or bertl@tfn.org.au.

Tips

  • provide habitat for grassy woodland animals, like the Striped Legless Lizard, by leaving rocks, logs and other natural debris in the paddock. If you have to, move them into piles or rows rather than remove them
  • try to avoid cultivating the soil; it is the main threat to Striped Legless Lizards
  • if you find a legless lizard, take photos, especially the scales on its head and send to Bert on 0409 433 276.