Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland in the South Eastern Highlands, Sydney Basin, South East Corner and NSW South Western Slopes Bioregions - endangered ecological community listing

The Scientific Committee, established by the Threatened Species Conservation Act, has made a Final Determination to list the Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland in the South Eastern Highlands, Sydney Basin, South East Corner and NSW South Western Slopes Bioregions as an ENDANGERED ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITY in Part 3 of Schedule 1 of the Act. Listing of Endangered Ecological Communities is provided for by Part 2 of the Act.

NOTE: The Scientific Committee placed a Preliminary Determination regarding this ecological community on public exhibition under the name Tablelands Frost Hollow Grassy Woodlands in the South Eastern Highlands, Sydney Basin, South East Corner and NSW South Western Slopes Bioregions. The Committee considers that Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland in the South Eastern Highlands, Sydney Basin, South East Corner and NSW South Western Slopes Bioregions is a more appropriate name for this ecological community.

NSW Scientific Committee - final determination

The Scientific Committee has found that:

1. Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland in the South Eastern Highlands, Sydney Basin, South East Corner and NSW South Western Slopes Bioregions (hereinafter called Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland) is the name given to the ecological community characterised by the species assemblage listed in paragraph 2. In NSW all sites are within the South Eastern Highlands, Sydney Basin, South East Corner, and NSW South Western Slopes Bioregions (sensu Thackway and Cresswell 1995).

2. Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland is characterised by the following assemblage of species:

3. The total species list of the community is considerably larger than that given above, with many species present in only one or two sites or in low abundance. The species composition of a site will be influenced by the size of the site, recent rainfall or drought condition and by its disturbance history. The number of species, and the above ground relative abundance of species will change with fire and grazing regime. At any one time, above ground individuals of some species may be absent, but the species may be represented below ground in the soil seed banks or as dormant structures such as bulbs, corms, rhizomes, rootstocks or lignotubers. The list of species given above is of vascular plant species; the community also includes micro-organisms, fungi, cryptogamic plants and a diverse fauna, both vertebrate and invertebrate. These components of the community are poorly documented.

4. Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland typically forms an open-forest, woodland or open woodland that transitions into grassland at low tree cover. The canopy is dominated by Eucalyptus pauciflora (Snow Gum),  E. rubida (Candlebark),  E. stellulata (Back Sallee) and  E. viminalis (Ribbon Gum), either as single species or in combinations. Other more localized  Eucalyptus species may also occur within this community such as  E. aggregata and  E. parvula. A shrub layer may be present and sub-shrubs are often a component of the ground stratum; characteristic species include  Hymenanthera dentata and  Melichrus urceolatus. The ground layer is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous species including  Themeda australis,  Poa spp.,  Austrostipa spp.,  Austrodanthonia spp.,  Leptorhynchos squamatus,  Chrysocephalum apiculatum, and  Asperula conferta. This community may also occur as secondary grassland where the dominant trees have been removed but the ground stratum remains.

5. Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland mainly occurs on valley floors, margins of frost hollows, footslopes and undulating hills between approximately 600 and 1400 m in altitude. It occurs on a variety of substrates including granite, basalt, metasediments and Quaternary alluvium. Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland occurs as a part of a mosaic of native vegetation communities including swamps, bogs, wetlands, grasslands and sclerophyll forests. Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland falls within the structural formation of Grassy Woodlands and the vegetation classes of Subalpine Woodlands and Tableland Clay Grassy Woodlands (Keith 2004).

6. Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland includes communities described as Frost Hollow Grassy Woodlands (Tozer et al. 2010) and Tablelands and Slopes Herb/Grassland/Woodland VG 153 (Gellie 2005). Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland is included in a number of previously identified map units and vegetation types including Map Units 44 and 45 (NSW NPWS 2003), Broad Vegetation Type (BVT) 25 (DEC 2006a and 2006b), Map Units 11 and 15 (DEC 2006c), and community 5 (Hunter 2002). Various high altitude woodlands of the Australian Alps, South Eastern Highlands and Sydney Basin Bioregions dominated by  Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp.  niphophila,  E. pauciflora subsp.  debeuzevillei, and  E. lacrimans are not covered by this determination. The Endangered Ecological Community Ribbon Gum, Mountain Gum, Snow Gum Grassy Forest/Woodland of the New England Tableland Bioregion has a similar structure to Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland but differs in its floristic composition. A number of Endangered Ecological Communities are known to inter-grade with the nominated community and are thus considered to be related. These include: White Box Yellow Box Blakely’s Red Gum Woodland (NSW TSC Act 1995 EEC) (Costin 1954; Keith 2004; Fallding 2002); Montane Peatlands and Swamps of the New England Tableland, NSW North Coast, Sydney Basin, South East Corner, South Eastern Highlands and Australian Alps Bioregions (NSW TSC Act 1995 EEC); and Natural Temperate Grassland of the Southern Tablelands of NSW and the Australian Capital Territory (Commonwealth  Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 Threatened Ecological Community) (Costin 1954; Keith 2004; Fallding 2002).

7. Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland has been recorded from the local government areas of Bathurst, Blayney, Bega Valley, Blue Mountains, Bombala, Cabonne, Cooma-Monaro, Eurobodalla, Goulburn-Mulwaree, Lithgow, Oberon, Orange, Palerang, Shoalhaven, Snowy River, Tumbarumba, Tumut, Upper Lachlan, Wingecarribee and Yass Valley local government areas (within the South Eastern Highlands, Sydney Basin, South East Corner, and NSW South Western Slopes Bioregions [sensu Thackway and Cresswell 1995]) and may occur elsewhere in these Bioregions (Tozer  et al. 2010).

8. Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland occupies a total estimated extent of 14100 ha which is estimated to be a 72% decline in area since European settlement (Tozer et al. 2010). Clearing for agriculture has fragmented the community and in one region (Lake Bathurst) it has been estimated that no current patch exceeds 60 ha and that 70% of patches are smaller than 20 ha (Gellie 2005). Less than 4000 ha is currently represented in conservation reserves in NSW (Crooks  in litt. 2009).

9. Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland is known to contain the following threatened animal and plant species listed under State and Commonwealth threatened species legislation:

10. Threats to Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland include climate change, clearing, fragmentation, fertilizer application, tree dieback, trampling and grazing by domestic livestock, weed invasion and altered fire regimes. Many of these threats are escalating due to the intensification of agriculture, pine plantations, and residential development in southern NSW. Intensive livestock grazing changes the dominance of native grasses and causes their replacement by introduced species (Costin 1954; Hancock 1972; Tremont and McIntyre 1994; McIntyre et al. 2002; Lunt  et al. 2007) and, together with simplification of vegetation structure, consequently changes the fauna associated with the plant community (Maron and Lill 2005). In combination with the addition of superphosphate, grazing also leads to an increase in exotic annuals, loss of native tussock grasses and decreased abundance of native forbs (Hobbs and Yates 1999; McIntyre  et al. 2002;  Prober  et al. 2002; Garden  et al. 2003; Clarke 2003). Restoration of the ground stratum of temperate grassy communities requires intensive remediation (Prober  et al. 2005). The community is threatened by the invasion of exotic perennial grass species including  Eragrostis curvula (African Lovegrass),  Nassella neesiana (Chilean Needlegrass), and  Nassella trichotoma (Serrated Tussock). Other herbaceous exotic species that also threaten this community include  Echium plantagineum (Patterson’s Curse), and  Hypericum perforatum (St Johns Wort). Woody exotics that threaten this community include  Crataegus monogyna (Hawthorn),  Pinus radiata wildlings (Radiata Pine) and  Rubus introduced  Rubus spp. (Blackberry) (Williams and Wardle 2005). The dominant feral herbivores are the European Rabbit ( Oryctolagus cuniculus)  and the Brown Hare ( Lepus  europaeus) resulting in changes to the structure and composition of the vegetation (Costin 1954). The presence of grazing, feral herbivores, pasture improvement and weeds results in tree death and limits the recruitment of understorey plants and tree species giving rise to the rural tree dieback phenomenon (Hobbs and Yates 1999). Altered fire regimes, and/or climate change, may also change the composition of these communities where the woody component is affected (Leigh and Holgate 1979; Knox and Clarke 2004, 2006; Lunt  et al. 2010). Lack of fire may also be limiting the recruitment of herbaceous and woody species as fire is a seed dormancy-breaking cue for many grassy woodland species (Clarke  et al. 2000; Hill and French 2003; Clarke and French 2005). ‘Anthropogenic climate change’, ‘Clearing of native vegetation’, ‘Competition and grazing by the feral European Rabbit  Oryctolagus cuniculus (L.)’, ‘High frequency fire resulting in the disruption of life cycle processes in plants and animals and loss of vegetation structure and composition’ and ‘Invasion of native plant communities by exotic perennial grasses’ are listed as Key Threatening Processes under the  Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995.

11. Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland in the South Eastern Highlands, Sydney Basin, South East Corner and NSW South Western Slopes Bioregions is not eligible to be listed as a Critically Endangered Ecological Community.

12. Tablelands Snow Gum, Black Sallee, Candlebark and Ribbon Gum Grassy Woodland in the South Eastern Highlands, Sydney Basin, South East Corner and NSW South Western Slopes Bioregions is eligible to be listed as an Endangered Ecological Community as, in the opinion of the Scientific Committee, it is facing a very high risk of extinction in New South Wales in the near future, as determined in accordance with the following criteria as prescribed by the Threatened Species Conservation Regulation 2010:

Clause 17 Reduction in geographic distribution of ecological community

The ecological community has undergone, is observed, estimated, inferred or reasonably suspected to have undergone or is likely to undergo within a time span appropriate to the life cycle and habitat characteristics of its component species:

Clause 19 Reduction in ecological function of ecological community 

The ecological community has undergone, is observed, estimated, inferred or reasonably suspected to have undergone or is likely to undergo within a time span appropriate to the life cycle and habitat characteristics of its component species:

as indicated by any of the following:

Dr Richard Major
Chairperson
Scientific Committee

Proposed Gazettal date: 15/04/11
Exhibition period: 15/04/11 – 10/06/11

References:

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Costin AB (1954) ‘A Study of the Ecosystems of the Monaro Region of New South Wales with Special Reference to Soil Erosion’. Government Printer, Sydney.

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