Saving our Species Update

The Australian Plantbank team, at the Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan have been researching conservation strategies for rainforest plants including Carronia multispealea. There have already been several collections of seed from the Carronia and initial investigations into seed biology, including germination and seed storage behaviour have begun. Understanding the seed biology of the host plant and identification of other factors that may limit its occurrence will contribute to increasing the number of host plants as part of a species recovery strategy for the southern pink underwing moth.

Initial results from the germination experiments indicate that the seeds may have a dormancy that limits germination. The relatively large seeds may prove problematic for seed storage and other germplasm conservation options, such as cryopreservation, may need to be investigated. Future investigations will aim to maximise germination and refine germplasm storage techniques.

Many plants are dependent on the emu for germination and distribution of their seeds over distances of up to 50 kilometres. No other species can fill that vital role.

Recent decades have seen a dramatic decline with as few as 100 coastal emus remaining. Much of the impact is felt at the nesting stage of the emu’s lifecycle with ground-nesting exposing the adults, eggs and chicks to a range of threats from predators, fire, machinery and other human disturbance.

In the short term, instigating in-situ conservation activities is most likely to be feasible with nests and family groups temporarily enclosed in the wild to provide protection until the chicks reach adult size, have adopted key learnings from the adult and can run and/or defend themselves from predators.  Protecting nest sites and supporting family groups through the first year of life may be the key to viability for this dwindling population – but how to find the nests?

An increasingly important tool in threatened species recovery is the use of specialist tracker dogs that can detect the scent of elusive species and lead a trained handler to their location. Penny, a springer spaniel, has been trained in coastal emu detection and locating their nest sites. (See issue 3 for a story about Penny and eastern bristlebirds).

Allowing more targeted and efficient detection of emu nest sites, will guide key research and management actions to build knowledge and allow proactive in-situ conservation activities to improve the survival rates during the nest/egg/chick stage of the emu lifecycle – hopefully contributing to a recovery of the north coast population.

The Office of Environment and Heritage will partner with the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) and the Wildlife Restoration and Management Partnership led by the University of NSW (UNSW) to deliver this project.

The project will be undertaken at Sturt National Park by the UNSW led partnership whilst the AWC will deliver the project at Mallee Cliffs National Park and Pilliga Nature Reserve.

The final list of species for each park will be confirmed following further discussions but among the species likely to be included are the greater bilby, brush-tailed bettong, burrowing bettong, greater stick-nest rat, bridled nail-tail wallaby, numbat, western barred bandicoot and western quoll.

Pest animals will be removed from fenced areas before the mammals are introduced. Intensive pest control programs in adjacent park areas will be a key focus with the long-term aim of releasing reintroduced mammals outside the enclosures. Many other threatened species are expected to benefit as a result of the intensive pest control work.

All aspects of the program, including fence locations and construction, are still being finalised through contract negotiations and will be subject to standard environmental impact assessment processes.

This initiative will be a significant contribution to the state’s Saving our Species program, which aims to secure the maximum number of threatened species in NSW over the next 100 years.

For further information: http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/SavingOurSpecies/extinct.htm

Floods of March 2012 pummelled the only known phantom wattle population in NSW which was restricted to a single creek line within Woomargama National Park.  The known viable population of hundreds was reduced to around 100 plants, many battered by tumultuous flood waters to a third of their original size.

Sandy O’Flanagan and Judy Kirk together with ranger Dave Pearce had just formed the Woomargama National Park Volunteers, comprising a mixed bunch of locals captivated by the magic of the richly diverse park. The group jumped at the opportunity to work on the threatened phantom wattle to re-establish a greater population back in the wild.  Judy Kirk recalls, “We were extremely motivated and felt privileged to work on a threatened species in such a pleasant environment”. 

With the collective knowledge of the ranger, Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) threatened species officers and the volunteers, a program was put in place to re-establish a bigger population back in the creek line. The volunteers collected cuttings and seeds, and replanted over 500 seedlings back into the wild over three years.

In 2014, a survey by helicopter discovered many new plants in difficult to access reaches of a steep sided catchment above a waterfall.  For OEH threatened species officer Geoff Robertson, the survey and the work of the volunteers has been a windfall.  “The volunteers have done a terrific job of lowering the risk of extinction of the phantom wattle in NSW.”

As the initial group of transmitters started to fail (batteries go flat after about 10 weeks), a further 15 were attached in early July to extend the monitoring period. 

Volunteer participation has been crucial for radio-tracking birds with transmitters, as well actively searching for banded-only birds and making behavioural observations.  Despite the often cold and wet weather we have had well over 100 people involved to date, with many volunteers from NSW travelling to the release site to help out.  A huge thank-you to everyone who has been involved!

Our post-release monitoring has provided encouraging results to date, with over 70% of birds still being seen at the 12 week mark (again exceeding our expectations).  We have again observed interesting movements of birds, with some staying close to the release site while others ventured off into other parts of the park or adjacent private property – they really know how to find food!  The birds have been feeding on flowering Mugga ironbark trees (now starting to lose their flowers) and white box blossom (becoming increasingly available). They have also been observed foraging on insects with ‘hawking’ late in the day - a joy for the volunteers to observe. 

We are now planning detailed video monitoring of expected nests and hope to gain an insight into potential reasons for success or failure of nests post-release.  This project has been funded by the Office of Environment and Heritage Saving our Species program (NSW), the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (Vic), the Australian Government via the North-East CMA, and BirdLife Australia.

From a handful of cuttings and just over 12 months of careful propagation, the population of delicate pomaderris has been increased from less than 100 to more than 600 plants. In May 2015, staff from the partnership agencies and local volunteers planted out over 500 additional shrubs near Tarago and Goulburn with the aim of improving the viability of the populations at both sites.

Keith McDougall, OEH Senior Threatened Species Officer, said that after initial unsuccessful attempts to build the population from a small number of collected seeds, the decision was made to attempt propagation by cuttings.

“Given their specialist expertise in this area, we sought the assistance of the Australian National Botanic Gardens (ANBG) in late 2014. The result was almost 600 healthy plants for translocation, all grown from the original cuttings,” Dr McDougall said.

David Taylor, Curator of Living Collections at ANBG, said that the plantings are a significant step towards securing the future of a priority threatened species. 

“This successful initiative will provide guidance for future threatened species recovery actions and open the door for similar efforts where seed is unavailable or is challenging to germinate.”

The propagation project was a collaborative effort. It began in 2013 following the collection of stem cuttings and seed, involving the Royal Botanic Gardens (Sydney) and TAFE (Blue Mountains Institute) and produced 59 new plants. The plants, grown under strict nursery conditions, took 18 months before they were ready to be planted out.

Volunteers from the Murrumbidgee Field Naturalists group arrived with shovels in hand and worked hard to plant, water and cage all 59 plants. According to local NPWS ranger Allan McLean, they decided to cage the plants on advice from the Royal Botanic Gardens to help minimise any chance of disturbance by wildlife that might occur to the young plants. Once the plants are established and up to size, however, the cages will be removed and this will allow uninhibited access to flowers for natural bird pollinators.

Wet weather gave the plants a helping hand to get established but regular monitoring and watering over the first few weeks, and especially as the weather was starting to warm up, was required.

Without this collective effort, it looked likely this plant would disappear from NSW so it’s amazing that in just one day the numbers of holly-leaf grevillea known to exist have been boosted from three to 62.

Ranger Allan McLean says that there is still a long way to go yet and that ideally they’d like to collect more propagating material and look at establishing the grevillea into other areas where it once occurred. Mr McLean said, “We are hoping for a good rate of seed set in future years and ideally the natural emergence of new seedlings.”

Frances works each summer as a shorebird volunteer and manages the volunteer contribution to the little tern nesting program. Endangered pied oyster catchers and migratory shorebirds also benefit from the program. Along with ornithologist Joy Pegler, Frances undertakes bird counts each month and has documented over 100 species of birds which depend on the lake.

Frances feels a special responsibility for the little tern. With ongoing threats from predators and human pressures, Frances and her colleagues give up their time to educate beach visitors about the little tern’s nesting behaviour and the threats to their survival. Signs alerting visitors to the presence of the nesting little terns, fencing and a no dog rule assist the volunteers with their education campaign.

Birds aren’t Frances’s only passion. Since the early 1990s, she has monitored the lake’s population of the endangered green and golden bell frog which breeds in the wetlands on the northern shore. With their distinctive green and gold markings, Frances has been able to recognise individuals each year. The green and golden bell frog disappeared from Lake Wollumboola for several years, however, to the delight of Frances and her friends, they have been recorded again in 2015.

Since 1999, Frances has been an active member of the Lake Wollumboola Bushcare Group which works to regenerate the bangalay sand forest and coastal saltmarsh endangered ecological communities.

For Frances, the environmental volunteer experience continues to be an enriching journey of discovery in understanding the natural lake environment and the fascinating species it supports. She hopes to inspire others to join her in the challenge.

Lake Wollumboola volunteers with Frances (second from right)