The native vegetation of the Nattai and Bargo reserves
Overview
This report describes the distribution and composition of the native vegetation within and immediately surrounding Nattai National Park, Nattai State Conservation Area and Bargo State Conservation Area. It provides detailed information on the type, extent and condition of the area's native vegetation communities.
The Nattai and Bargo reserves have many variations in soil and geological substrates, topographic variables, rainfall and elevation gradients. They support a high level of floristic diversity, varying between rainforest, tall forest, open forest, woodland, heath, mallee and swamps.
Among the findings of the report:
- over 800 native plant species have been identified in the area, from field sampling and searches of existing literature
- three endangered ecological communities (listed under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act) were located, and a further 14 were classified as vegetation communities of regional significance
- 22 of the plant species recorded are either threatened in NSW or listed on the Rare or Threatened Australian Plants list (ROTAP). Of the threatened species, four are listed as endangered and a further five as vulnerable.
A 1:25,000 scale map of the vegetation communities of the study area was completed as part of this project. This map was constructed using detailed Aerial Photograph Interpretation (API) of 1:25,000 photography (1994) in conjunction with environmental data layers that describe the patterns in geology, elevation, rainfall and aspect.
Digital data layers for use in ARCView GIS are available, which describe the distribution of vegetation communities as well as other landscape features such as exposed rock and cleared land. The derived mapping can now be used to display vegetation communities, vegetation structure, disturbance, amount of rock present, understorey type, canopy density and tree species present.
The project addresses a long-standing need for detailed vegetation information that can be used by park management staff in such areas as:
- water catchment protection
- management of wilderness
- management of World Heritage conservation values.
- fire management planning
- conservation-related assessments.
All the records collected during the survey have been entered into the Atlas of NSW Wildlife, which can be accessed by park management staff and members of the public.
Documents to download
This report is available in two versions.
If you have a broadband internet connection, you may wish to download the complete 13.0MB file:
If you have a dial-up internet connection, you can download sections of the plan below.
Page last updated: 14 March 2012
