Our future reserves

Rod Fensham is Principal Botanist at the Queensland Herbarium, and is a supporter, adviser and regular volunteer scientist for Bush Heritage.

Western Queensland grasslands are not visually spectacular but support many threatened grassland species. Above Left: Detail from highly threatened grassland from northern Victoria. PHOTOS: DAVID BAKER-GABB

The acquisitions of the Australian Bush Heritage Fund should be directed to where they can make the biggest improvement to the status of Australian biodiversity. Precisely how this can be most efficiently achieved is worthy of a brief analysis, particularly as the readers of this newsletter are those that make such acquisitions possible.

The key principle is that Bush Heritage activities should be directed to acquisition and subsequent management which will alleviate some real threat and protect our poorly conserved landscapes with their distinct biodiversity. The most widely acknowledged threat to biodiversity is direct habitat destruction as a result of vegetation clearance for agriculture. Thus, the purchase of land that is under imminent threat from habitat clearance is one obvious target. Vegetation clearance is not the only threatening process as introduced predators, weeds and overgrazing have had a massive toll on our biodiversity.

The second principle for reserve selection may be that the area has biodiversity values that are not already protected by the existing network of Australian reserves. This is a fundamental goal but to my mind needs to be also considered in relation to the degree of threat. In terms of plants, many of the most diverse ecosystems are under no particular threat. The world heritage areas of western Tasmania and the wet tropics of Queensland (except the coastal lowlands and the Atherton Tableland) are examples of landscapes that are already well protected. The sandstone landscapes of eastern Australia, rich with the floral icons we know and love, are not as well protected by reservation but are too infertile to attract development.

The appreciation of the Australian bush for most donors probably comes through bushwalking in National Parks. The places that made a big impression on me and probably other donors are full of breath-taking scenery. There may be a temptation for Bush Heritage to reinforce these preconceived notions of protected areas. However, the reality is that many of the most threatened landscapes that provide habitat for our most endangered wildlife are not that sexy or charismatic to our mind’s eye.

Epping Forest National Park in Queensland. PHOTO: COURTESY OF QUEENSLAND PARKS AND WILDLIFE SERVICE.

The last stronghold of the northern hairy-nosed wombat is a small remnant of poplar box woodland in flat “cattle country”. (pictured above) Here it rains sufficiently rarely to appear dry and dusty most of the time, but not rarely enough to have the aesthetically stunning bare earth tones of our arid lands. When I take visitors for a tour of these landscapes they are usually disappointed. It just does not seem to excite the psychological nerves that many of us have inherited from our European ancestry or our bushwalking youth. Of course, when you get to know these landscapes they are very diverse (although it may be a plethora of grasses rather than banksias) and they vary in subtle ways. It is the harmony of composition in any area of bush that is the essence of true beauty.

Bush Heritage should select its reserves with our increasingly threatened biodiversity in mind. Inevitably this will mean that there may be acquisitions unable to be advertised with glossy photos of waterfalls and rugged ranges, but that is because Bush Heritage would be doing the job with which it has been entrusted.

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