Source: Raw Shorty

THEMES / BIODIVERSITY

B3: Representation of threatened species and ecological communities in conservation areas

Indicator assessment

CONDITION

TREND

DATA QUALITY

While many of the ACT’s threatened species and ecological communities are well represented in conservation areas (particularly upland species and communities), some flora and fauna species and ecological communities remain poorly represented. The least protected ecosystems and biodiversity in the ACT are the woodland, grassland and open forest communities, and the species that depend on them.

Indicator assessment legend

CONDITION

Environmental condition is healthy across the ACT, OR pressure likely to have negligible impact on environmental condition/human health.

Environmental condition is neither positive or negative and may be variable across the ACT, OR pressure likely to have limited impact on environmental condition/human health.

Environmental condition is under significant stress, OR pressure likely to have significant impact on environmental condition/ human health.

Data is insufficient to make an assessment of status and trends.

TREND

DATA QUALITY

Adequate high-quality evidence and high level of consensus.

Limited evidence or limited consensus.

Evidence and consensus too low to make an assessment.

Assessments of status, trends and data quality are not appropriate for the indicator.

Introduction

For information on this indicator see Background: Biodiversity.

The ACT’s conservation areas contribute to the National Reserve System, Australia’s network of protected areas designed to conserve biodiversity. To ensure that the ACT’s reserve system meets the standards for comprehensiveness, adequacy and representativeness, it is essential that conservation areas protect the range of ecosystem types and biodiversity present in the region. This includes both threatened and common species and ecological communities.

Terrestrial fauna

Figure 5 shows the reservation of known and potential habitat for threatened terrestrial fauna. Bird species are excluded from the assessment due to the lack of data required to assess protection.[1] Four threatened species have all, or close to all, of their known and potential habitat in ACT reserve areas (includes dedicated reserves and other ACT Parks and Conservation Service managed land). These are the Northern Corroboree Frog (Pseudophryne pengilleyi), Broad-toothed Rat (Mastacomys fuscus mordicus), Smoky Mouse (Pseudomys fumeus) and Southern Greater Glider (Petauroides volans). The Pink-tailed Worm-lizard (Aprasia parapulchella) also has around 82% of its known and potential habitat in reserve areas.

Figure 5: Reservation of known and potential habitat for selected threatened terrestrial fauna, 2023.

Data sourced from: Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate.

Notes:

  1. Habitat assessment is based on single records, known habitat and modelled habitat.
  2. Reserved land is public land under the Territory Plan zoned as Nature Reserve, Wilderness Area, National Park, some Special Purpose Reserves (Tidbinbilla) or Protection of Water (Lower Cotter Catchment).
  3. Other land managed by ACT PCS includes additional areas of land managed for nature conservation that are not part of the reserve system, including some Special Purpose Reserves and unleased land.
  4. Not reserved land includes all other land not managed for nature conservation, including but not restricted to urban open space, road reserve, some special purpose reserves (recreational reserves), railway reserve, cemeteries, horse paddocks, private lease and other unleased land not managed for nature conservation.
  5. National land is land owned by the Commonwealth and not under the jurisdiction of the ACT Government.

Despite having significant proportions of their known and potential habitat in ACT reserve areas, around a third of the Key’s Matchstick Grasshopper (Keyacris scurra) and Spotted-tailed Quoll (Dasyurus maculatus maculatus) habitat are not reserved. The Golden Sun Moth (Synemon plana) and Perunga Grasshopper (Perunga ochracea) also have around 20% of their habitat outside of reserve areas.

Several species have large areas of habitat on National Land including 50% for the Grey-headed Flying Fox (Pteropus poliocephalus), 42% for the Canberra Grassland Earless Dragon (Tympanocryptis lineata), 28% for the Golden Sun Moth, 28% for the Perunga Grasshopper and 22% for the Striped Legless Lizard (Delma impar). Management of threatened species on national lands is undertaken by the National Capital Authority as required under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.[2]

Some of the species listed as threatened in the ACT have not been considered for this analysis because they only occur in managed sanctuaries. These include the Eastern Quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus), Eastern Bettong (Bettongia gaimardi), and New Holland Mouse (Pseudomys novaehollandiae), all reintroduced to Mulligans Flat Nature Reserve; the Southern Brown Bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus obesulus), Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby (Petrogale penicillate) and Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), all reintroduced to Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve. This means that 100% of their currently occupied habitats are in managed reserves.

Aquatic fauna

Potential habitat for threatened aquatic fauna is well represented in ACT conservation areas, as most of the major rivers in the ACT are included in reserves.

It should be noted that the majority of threatened aquatic fauna are mostly restricted to reserves and that terrestrial reserve systems do not always adequately support the conservation of aquatic species. For example, dams within terrestrial reserve networks can impact on aquatic ecology values. In addition, the Murrumbidgee Reserves in the ACT are often places for high intensity recreation which can also impact on aquatic species, especially as recreation tends to be situated around large, deep pool habitats such as Kambah Pool and Casuarina Sands. Such habitats are not common and are likely to form key refuges for aquatic species during low flow periods, droughts and climate change scenarios.

Four of the ACT’s threatened aquatic species have around 90% to 100% of their potential distribution in ACT conservation areas (Figure 6).[3] This includes the Two-spined Blackfish (Gadopsis bispinosus), Trout Cod (Maccullochella macquariensis), Macquarie Perch (Macquaria australasica) and the Murray River Crayfish (Euastacus armatus). Silver Perch (Bidyanus bidyanus), while listed as a threatened species in the ACT, is found in Googong Dam and the Queanbeyan River in NSW but has no wild distribution in the ACT.

Figure 6: Potential distribution of threatened aquatic fauna in ACT conservation areas, 2023.

Data sourced from: Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development.

Notes: This data reflects the potential expected distribution of threatened aquatic fauna species, not actual surveyed distribution or historic distribution. The majority of species are currently known only from reserves.

Although Murray Cod is not listed as a threatened species under ACT legislation, it is managed as such due to its listing as vulnerable under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Only 55% of the Murray Cod’s potential distribution in the ACT is in the reserve system; wild populations exist in the Murrumbidgee River, including within the various reserves along the river. Murray Cod also occur in the Molonglo River and are stocked in Canberra’s urban lakes, this distribution accounts for the relatively low representation in reserves compared to other species.

In addition to the listed threatened species, there are two other crayfish species of concern in the ACT. In September 2023, Reiks Crayfish (Euastacus reiki) was listed as endangered under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Reiks Crayfish has all of its potential distribution in ACT conservation areas. This species occurs in the upland bogs and creeks of Namadgi National Park. An estimated 95% of its range was impacted by the 2020 fires which has resulted in population decline. The Mountain Spiny Crayfish (Euastacus crassus) is protected under the Fisheries Act 2000 and likely has a more restricted range than Reiks Crayfish. The Mountain Spiny Crayfish has 80% of its potential distribution in ACT conservation areas.

Flora species

There are 1,245 records in the ACT Protected Plants Database for the 13 threatened plant species listed in the ACT. This has increased from 605 records in 2019. Data on threatened plants is collected from targeted surveys undertaken by the ACT Government and from citizen science records provided through Canberra Nature Map.

Over 60% of the known threatened plant sites in the ACT are located in reserves or on other land managed by the ACT Parks and Conservation Service (Figure 7). An additional 13% occur on National Land, which is managed by the National Capital Authority, and 22% occur on non-reserved lands in areas such as urban open space, road reserves, railway reserves and cemeteries. There are also threatened flora species located in plantation forest, although this accounts for only 3% of occurrences. Most of the records for plantation forest are for the Murrumbidgee Bossiaea (Bossiaea grayi).

Figure 7: Percentage representation of threatened plant locations in conservation areas, 2023.

Data sourced from: Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate.

Notes:

  1. Data taken from records in the ACT Protected Plants Database. Number next to plant name is the number of plant records.
  2. Data is based on incidental sightings, no analysis of survey effort is reflected in this data (e.g. urban areas and road reserves are more likely to have records than remoter places off track).
  3. Reserved land is public land under the Territory Plan zoned as Nature Reserve, Wilderness Area, National Park, some Special Purpose Reserves (Tidbinbilla) or Protection of Water (Lower Cotter Catchment).
  4. Other Land managed by ACT PCS includes additional areas of land managed for nature conservation that are not part of the reserve system, including some Special Purpose Reserves and unleased land.
  5. Not reserved land/Other/Unreserved includes all other land not managed for nature conservation, including but not restricted to urban open space, road reserve, some special purpose reserves (recreational reserves), railway reserve, cemeteries, horse paddocks, private lease and other unleased land not managed for nature conservation.
  6. National land is land owned by the Commonwealth and not under the jurisdiction of the ACT Government.

Seven of the ACT’s 13 threatened flora species have all or most of their locations in reserves. However, there are six species with a substantial proportion of known locations outside ACT reserve areas, including:

Ecological communities

Of the three ecological communities listed as endangered in the ACT, only High Country Bogs and Associated Fens are fully protected in ACT reserve areas (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Percentage representation of Endangered Ecological Communities in reserves, 2023.

Data sourced from: Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development.

Notes:

  1. Does not include areas mapped as native grassland that may contain some areas of Natural Temperate Grasslands.
  2. Comprises mapped vegetation communities of Blakely’s Red Gum—Yellow Box tall grassy woodland and Yellow Box + Apple Box tall grassy woodland, not all of which will meet the condition threshold required to be assigned to the Yellow Box/Red Gum Grassy Woodland Endangered Ecological Communities.
  3. Yellow Box/Red Gum Grassy Woodland also includes secondary grassland.
  4. The Natural Temperate Grassland community includes both upland and lowland grasslands. These have been assessed separately for this analysis.

For Natural Temperate Grassland, whilst 100% of upland grasslands are within ACT reserve areas, only 60% of lowland grasslands are reserved. Yellow Box/Red Gum Grassy Woodland has 77% of its representation on reserved land. This has increased significantly since 2019 because estimates now include secondary grassland — it is not due to changes in reserve extent.

National Lands contain 28% of lowland grasslands and 22% of Yellow Box/Red Gum Grassy Woodland. Consequently, only 11% of lowland grasslands and 1% of Yellow Box/Red Gum Grassy Woodland are on non-reserved land. Although National Land is not managed by the ACT Government, threatened communities on ACT national lands are managed for conservation purposes by the National Capital Authority as required under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.[5]

The high representation rates of threatened ecological communities in reserves or on National Land is beneficial for the ongoing protection and management of these communities.

Vegetation

Vegetation classes

Figure 9 shows the percentage of selected vegetation classes protected in reserve areas. All classes occur in the ACT’s reserve estate with eight having more than 90% of their extent protected in reserves and another two with over 80% of their extent protected.

Figure 9: Proportion of selected vegetation classes reserved in ACT conservation areas, 2023.

Data sourced from: Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate.

Notes: Based on Keith Class level classifications of structural formations separated by dominant overstorey species.

The vegetation class most underrepresented in the reserve system is Southern Tableland Grassy Woodlands which only has 36% of its extent protected. This is a 5% increase from 2019 due to the creation of additional reserve areas. However, these woodlands remain significantly underrepresented in the ACT’s reserve systems.

Other vegetation classes underrepresented in the reserve system include Upper Riverina Dry Sclerophyll Forests (63% protected in reserves) and Tableland Clay Grassy Woodlands (69% protected in reserves).

Vegetation communities

Figure 10 shows the least-protected vegetation communities, those with under 50% of their extent protected in reserve areas. These woodland, grassland and open forest communities are the least represented in the ACT’s conservation areas. The low levels of protection for these communities, and for the Southern Tableland Grassy Woodlands vegetation class, are the result of the historic and current use of these communities for agriculture and potential urban development. The low levels of reservation add to the pressures on these communities and the species they support.

Figure 10: Proportion of selected vegetation communities reserved in ACT conservation areas, 2019 and 2023.

Data sourced from: Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate.

Notes: Native grassland does not include Natural Temperate Grasslands.

With the exception of the Red Stringybark–Broad-leaved Peppermint community, there were increases in the reserved area of all these least protected communities between 2019 and 2023, including:

Although the increases in reserved area were mostly small and still leave much of these communities unprotected, they are important to help protect these vegetation communities in the future.

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