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How can I get help for grasslands?
There are lots of resources available to help you do what you want to do.
Try the links below for more internet resources to help with science, legal
aspects, growing your own grassland and managing grasslands. But
you may find what you really need is to talk to someone. One of the
easiest ways to meet people with interest, sometimes passionate interest, in
grasslands is to join one of FoG's activities.
Non members are always welcome. If you have a specific problem that you
can't fix yourself Contact Us and we'll see what we
can do to help. We are nearly always interested in visiting grasslands we
haven't seen before and can bring a range of expertise to your place if you
think you might have something valuable and want to find out more about what you
have got.
Let us know.
A good field guide, written for the NSW southern tablelands but useful
elsewhere too, is Grasslands Flora.
It covers both Australian and introduced species.
Friends of Grasslands has three brochures:
If you need help with the science of grasslands or identifying
species, try these links.
- Grassland quality indicator species lists.
See also the
Grasses: Habits and Habitats
brochure.
- Grasses of New South Wales (DJB Wheeler, SWL Jacobs & RDB
Whalley, University of New England) is designed to assist
identification of all grasses growing in the state. It includes a
section on the nomemclature of
the parts of grass plants to help you understand scientific descriptions
of grasses, as well as botanical keys, a description of each species, a
glossary and bibliography. A
fourth edition
was published in December 2008.
- Grasses: Habits and Habitats.
- A good field guide, written for the NSW southern tablelands but useful
elsewhere too, is Grasslands Flora.
It covers both Australian and introduced species.
- A
Census of the Vascular Plants, Hornworts and Liverworts of the Australian
Capital Territory
lists the scientific
names of the native and naturalised vascular plants, hornworts and
liverworts known to occur in the ACT (excluding Jervis Bay). Future versions
of the Census will provide complete coverage of all remaining cryptogamic
groups including mosses, lichens, algae, fungi and slime moulds.
- There is a
flora list for the Cooma-Monaro shire, and other NSW shires near the
ACT, published as part of the
2004 Australian Capital Region State of the Environment Report.
Other websites have privately published species lists e.g.
Mt Oak
- Interactive CDs and DVDs
can be a useful way of identifying plants and also an excellent way of expanding one’s
botanical knowledge. Two available from CSIRO Publishing or the
Botanical Bookshop at the ANBG are Families of Flowering Plants of
Australia, edited by Kevin Thiele and
Laurie Adams
($75) and
Euclid, Eucalypts of Australia, third edition ($120).
Further information.
- Photos of many grassland species are available at
http://thebegavalley.org.au/plants.html.
- The
Australian
Network for Plant Conservation runs more or less regular
workshops on identifying grassland species. See, for example,
http://www.anbg.gov.au/anpc/canberra20071122.html. It also has a
listing of useful web
resources.
- Information on reptiles is held by the
Australian Herpetological Society.
- For help with identifying birds you could
try Birds
in Backyards
- Google books and
Google scholar can provide
information you won't find in a standard web search.
- Australian libraries
catalogue will find books and other materials held by major Australian
libraries.
- Government agency websites can also provide scientific information.
Botanic gardens (eg ANBG) are major repositories of scientific knowledge.
If you need help with legal aspects, have a look at these.
- The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
(Commonwealth) provides
legislative mechanisms to protect
listed threatened ecological communities
and species.
'Native temperate grassland of the Southern Tablelands of NSW and the ACT'
is listed under the Act. Details are at the species profile and threats
database.
'White
Box-Yellow Box-Blakely's Red Gum Grassy Woodland and Derived Native
Grassland' is also listed. Details are at the species profile and threats
database
- In the ACT, the
Nature Conservation Act 1980 lists threatened
species and communities, and provides for management agreements.
- In NSW, the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 provides for
Voluntary Conservation Agreements which place legally binding covenants
on land titles to protect plants, animals and aboriginal heritage. The
Threatened Species Conservation Act 1993 lists threatened species and
ecological communities. Other jurisdictions have similar legislative
arrangements.
- Australian legislation can be accessed through
the
Australasian Legal Information
Institute.
If you want to grow your own.
For help with grassland management.
- The
Australian Network
for Plant Conservation runs courses and workshops
related to grassland management.
-
There are several Conservation
Management Networks (CMNs) which provide advice on grasslands. The
Grassy Box Woodlands (GBW) CMN
on the western slopes of NSW has shown that CMNs offer an effective
long-term conservation mechanism for ecological communities that are
difficult to conserve by other means. Established in 1998, the GBW CMN is
still growing in membership numbers and support. A CMN is a network of
remnants and their owners or managers, and other interested individuals.
They aim to provide support and stimulate partnerships between local
communities, government, educational institutions, scientists and
conservation practitioners to protect and manage important remnants. The CMN
provides an overarching framework to coordinate protection of sites and
implement adaptive management. An ecological focus allows a CMN to provide
highly targeted advice and support. Others in NSW include the
Monaro
Grasslands CMN,
the Far South
Coast CMN and the Southern Tablelands Grassy Ecosystem CMN, and others may emerge.
CMNs in Victoria include:
-
Northern Plains
- Wedderburn
- Broken-Boosey
-
Gippsland Plains
-
East Gippsland Rainforests.
- Burning is often an important part of grassland management in Australia.
In NSW, workshops are run by
Hotspots.
- See the Weeding to Restore and Protect Your Patch
brochure.
- CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems has published
Biodiversity in the Paddock, a 30 page practical field guide to help
graziers and land managers achieve biodiversity outcomes from native
pastures.
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