9.1.4.How good is that patch of bush?
As a rule of thumb, larger patches of vegetation are more viable than small ones, with five hectares being a suggested minimum for a block. Avoid fragmenting existing areas of native vegetation, including remnant grasslands.
If new fence lines, access tracks or services are being constructed, consider placing them around an area of native vegetation, rather than through it.
Without intervention, areas of degraded vegetation will continue to degrade even further, ultimately dying. But it is easier and cheaper to look after these areas now than repair land degradation problems and plant trees later on.
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Signs of degradation in existing areas of native vegetation include:
• eucalypts being mainly of a young age with no shrub understorey species
• a predominantly grassy understorey with perennial spring and summer growing native grasses replaced by annual grasses such as barley grass and weeds
• less than a dozen species of native plants
• less than a dozen bird species, usually dominated by large aggressive species such as Noisy Miner, Crimson Rosella, Mudlark and Cockatoos
• only about five species of mammals, usually kangaroos, Brushtail and Ringtail possums and bats
• only one or two reptile species, such as brown snake, and
• an abundance of insects but only a few species.
Signs of a healthy plot of native vegetation include:
• eucalypts of various ages
• a shrub layer
• a mostly grassy ground layer, with a range of native grasses, native legumes and other native herbs, largely free of weeds and introduced grasses
• an abundance of fallen timber
• 60–100 species of native plants
• 30–40 species of native birds, mostly insectivores such as thornbills (2–5 species), robins (1–5), whistlers (1–2), pardalotes (2), honeyeaters (2–10), treecreepers (1–2), and a number of others such as owls, flycatchers, kingfishers, doves and birds of prey
• more than a dozen mammals, including echidna, gliders (1–5 species), bats (2–8), marsupial mice (1–3), and kangaroos, possums and wallabies
• up to 10 species of reptiles, including geckos, legless lizards, goannas, snakes and pythons, and lizards, and a diverse range of insects.
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