Native vegetation area

This Native vegetation area and all other indicators in the Land Manager’s Monitoring Guide series are provided in PDF format to allow you to either read it on the screen, or from a version that you print, that can be used in the field as a reference to guide your monitoring activities.

Content for the Native vegetation area follows the heading structure below:

• What is it?
• Why monitor this indicator?
• Planning monitor this indicator
• How do I measure it?
• Level 1 monitoring
• Level 2 monitoring
• How to record your results
• What does your data mean?
• What are some management options?
• Other information sources
• Glossary
• References
• Acknowledgments

To decide if you want to download the Native vegetation area, read the following introductory information that describes what it is and why you would use it.

What is it?

Native vegetation area (sometimes referred to as vegetation extent) refers to the extent of native vegetation covering an identified area on your property. According to the National Land and Water Resources Audit (AG 2001), 18 percent (30.4 million hectares) of Queensland's native vegetation has been cleared, mainly in the coastal lowlands and floodplains from Cairns south to the New South Wales border and in the inland Brigalow Belt. Retaining, maintaining and restoring an adequate proportion of native vegetation on properties and across catchments and regions are a national natural resource management priority.

Monitoring native vegetation area involves mapping the boundaries and location and calculating the current area of each site of native vegetation on your property. The boundaries between different types of native vegetation and pastures are often indistinct and may change subtly each time you monitor. It is important to decide where the boundaries are located and map them accurately, as they are used to calculate the area of native vegetation. An area of native vegetation may have two or three different groups of dominant plant species or vegetation communities. You may need to map these as different vegetation map units.

The size of an area of native vegetation determines the impact of edge effects. The term ‘edge effects’ refers to things that affect vegetation and wildlife that occur at the boundary between two vegetation types, for example where pasture meets a forested area.  Edge effects can include changes in species composition, gradients of moisture, sunlight, soil and air temperature and wind speed. The edge of native vegetation areas may be more susceptible to weed and pest animal invasion. The smaller the area of native vegetation area the more susceptible it is to edge effects.

Why monitor this indicator?

Monitoring the long-term change in the native vegetation area on your property will give you an indication of whether the area of native vegetation is increasing, decreasing or remaining static. It will also give you an indication of the impacts of your management actions. After mapping your native vegetation and collecting data on change in native vegetation area over a few years you will be able to obtain:

• Initial (baseline) information on the location, boundaries and area of native vegetation on your property, including grassland, shrubland and remnant vegetation
• Trend data relating to changes in the area of native vegetation over time
• Information on how you are progressing towards any vegetation area targets
• A series of Geographic Information System (GIS) layers or plastic map overlays that can show your progress against targets
• Information to develop management strategies that maintain a target area of the vegetation on your property.

 

Downloads

• The print-friendly version of this indicator (PDF, 178kB*) that contains a copy of all the pages from the native vegetation area indicator section of the Land Manager's Monitoring Guide.
• The datasheets associated with the native vegetation area indicator (PDF, 22kB*). For your convenience the datasheets have also been provided as a zipped and an executable Excel file (ZIP, 11kB)(EXE, 79kB). These datasheets will help you to record and analyse your monitoring data and including metadata, field recording, data recording and example sheets plus example charts.

*Requires Acrobat Reader 

If you experience any difficulty downloading or accessing the materials within the Land Manager's Monitoring Guide please contact the LMMG Team.

 

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