Conserving grassy woodland in Tasmania PDF Download

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Book Description
Tasmanian woodlands range from the coast to the climatic treeline, from some of the poorest soils in the world to some of the richest, from waterlogged ground to sharply drained dry ridges. They are unusual in temperate Australia in that they support a full complement of native marsupial herbivores, which can occur in high densities. This chapter covers the subset of these woodlands with understoreys potentially dominated by native grasses and herbs, henceforth called grassy woodlands. These grassy woodlands have been dramatically reduced and degraded in Tasmania (Kirkpatrick et al. 1988), but still cover large areas of private land, largely utilised for wool production (Kirkpatrick et al. 2007) (see map below). They also occur on some smaller areas of public land, largely utilised for recreation and nature conservation. The remaining areas of grassy woodland on both types of tenure are under severe threat as the State Government embarks upon a misguided program to turn the dry Midlands of Tasmania into an irrigated food bowl. One key to the conservation of those grassy woodlands that are fortunate enough to survive lies in a middle path, avoiding both the thinning and thickening of trees. The other key lies in preventing a native grass and herb-dominated understorey from losing significant species or transforming into heath, scrub or vegetation dominated by exotic plants. The prevention of the last of these transitions relates to land-use decisions, and therefore to the economic, social and political context. The other transitions involve ecological interactions between climate, soils, fire regimes and grazing regimes. While climate change cannot be altered in the short term, fire and grazing regimes, two of the most effective vegetation management tools, are fortunately more malleable. The task given for this chapter was to report the conservation implications of ecological and social studies of Tasmanian grassy woodland in which I have been involved. Particular r.