Blink and you’ll miss it- Biodiversity on the brink

Biodiversity month just finished…did you notice? Held in September each year to focus on the variety of all living things it was a blink in the calendar of life. You can make the memory last though. The CPPA has started an iNaturalist project, https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/projects/coal-point-landcare to collect and share images of the wonderful wildlife that surrounds us. Inaturalist is easy to use. You can download the app and when you see something you know or don’t know, take a picture and the team of specialist behind the scenes will assist in identifying your discovery. 

We can’t protect what we can’t see, love it or lose it. Recently the Department of Environment and Heritage produced the NSW Biodiversity Outlook Report 2024.

There were several key findings in the report:

• only 50% of threatened species are expected to survive the next 100 years
• only 29% of the capacity of habitat to support native species remains
• past habitat loss and future climate change will significantly reduce the capacity of landscapes to retain biodiversity over the next 50 years
• for the first time, land permanently secured for conservation has exceeded 10% of the state, increasing from 8.6% in 2007 to 11.2% in 2023.

It’s no secret the CPPA’s focus over the past few decades has been on protecting and preserving the local environment. Long-term locals can recall a time when little birds, like pardalotes, use to flit through the abundant bushland understorey, the chorus of frogs resonated after rain, blue-tongue lizards were about, the foreshore didn’t need fortification and big trees provided hollow-homes for parrots, possums, squirrel gliders, sugar gliders and microbats.  

More recently locals have been witnessing the fragmentation of our biodiverse bushland through sub-division and larger building footprints, the loss of small birds and ground dwelling animals as uncontrolled cats and the odd fox roam at night and kill, the smothering of the relatively fragile native flora as robust exotic plants and grasses are dumped into local reserves, the incursion of possums into roof spaces as their hollow bearing trees are felled, and the disappearance of canopy connectivity that allows the local wildlife to navigate space but also provides shade, shelter and the backdrop of our bigger bushland backyard.

We know a fair bit about our local biodiversity. From 2012 to 2018 the CPPA completed a $1million project, Threatened Species Last Stand (TSLS), on the Coal Point peninsula. There were many great outcomes from that project. There was a successful environmental burn, which you can read about as part of the journal Ecological Management & Restoration .The Landcare activity around our 12 local reserves trebled and allowed the landcare team to get the upper hand on many of the long-term weed incursions. There was a shift in the recovery trajectory of the reserves and in the capacity of the landcarers from despair to hope. Flora and bird surveys were regularly undertaken and for the first time threatened species were formally identified; the very cute Squirrel Glider, the ever graceful plant, Tetratheca juncea, and the majestic Powerful Owl. During this period Council undertook plans of management for these three threatened species and noted both their presence and the tenuous nature of their existence on the Coal Point peninsula due to the isolated nature of the populations in an increasingly fragmented bushland.

Another major finding from the TSLS project was that, because of the mosaic of public-private land along the bush-dominated ridge tops and the dearth of public land along the foreshore mid-slopes, unless private landholders also do their bit to support the local wildlife and the bushland it depends upon, our public reserves run the risk of becoming little more than silent islands of isolation and uniformity. In addition, options for wildlife dispersal on a peninsula are somewhat constrained by being surrounded by water.

Retaining our local biodiversity requires a multi-pronged approach involving boosting the options that are available for wildlife and their habitat on public and private land, whilst ensuring that future housing models do not further fragment and destroy the basic integrity and connectivity of the bushland that remains.

TAFE students survey two Coal Point Reserves

During the first half of the year a class of TAFE students, under the guidance of Trisha Barker conducted biological surveys at two local reserves, West Ridge- Tiirabeynba and Stansfield- Nikinba

A student report from Jacqueline Brown is available to read in its entirety online and some of the findings and recommendations from her report follow, providing a glimpse of the local biodiversity and steps we can take to retain and enhance it.

4.4 Threatened animal species at West Ridge Reserve

Our animal surveys and observations at West Ridge confirmed the likely and potential presence of two threatened animal species.

Our second spotlighting survey recorded the sighting of one squirrel glider. This validated the two squirrel glider sightings recorded for this location in BIONET Atlas NSW.

The discovery of a regurgitated pellet (with small mammal skeleton inside) at Stansfield Reserve suggested the potential presence of a Powerful Owl hunting at this locality. BIONET Atlas NSW species sightings records and visual sightings from members of CPPA confirmed Powerful owl sightings at West Ridge.

Our spotlighting surveys also recorded the presence of numerous ringtail possums which are a common food source for the Powerful owl.

Section 5- Survey recommendations

Based on our site survey findings and conclusions, suggested remedial actions and recommendations are as follows:

REMEDIAL ACTION 1

Enhance nesting sites for squirrel gliders.

CPPA as part of the Threatened Species – Last Stand on Coal Point Peninsula Project designed and completed a mass installation of nesting boxes for squirrel gliders across the Coal Point bushland reserves. Squirrel gliders are hollow-dependent and require natural tree hollows or nesting boxes to survive.

It was evident during our site surveys that some of these nesting boxes are being occupied by rainbow lorikeets, which are numerous in number across Stansfield and West Ridge reserves.

REMEDIAL ACTION 2

Address the ‘edge effect‘ issues at Stansfield Reserve

Stansfield Reserve is particularly subject to the ’edge effect’ due to the following factors:

Small, fragmented core of native bushland with extended, disturbed edges,

Asset Protection Zone on north-western edge exposes reserve to weeds and garden escapees,

Walking tracks dissect the reserve creating additional ’edges’ and encourage spread of weeds especially weed grasses and

Residential development on edges of reserve is encouraging erosion, stormwater run-off, and the spread of exotic and invasive species.

RECOMMENDATION 1

Conduct a survey of squirrel gliders at Stansfield and West Ridge Reserve including their use of tree hollows and nesting boxes.

Consider modifying existing nesting boxes and hollows to enhance use by squirrel gliders and to discourage use by other species.

This may require augmentation of hollows using Hollow Hog designs and adaptations https://www.hollowhog.com.au/

RECOMMENDATION 2

Expand Stansfield Reserve with native species planting and connection of bushland corridors

The planting of endemic native species on the residential edges of the reserve will assist in providing a buffer to the exposed edges and protect habitat and remnant vegetation. The planting of native tree, shrub and groundcover species by private property owners should be encouraged along with targeted planting of understorey species in adjacent streets and public areas.

The aim should be to connect existing reserves to create an extended vegetation corridor to enhance wildlife movement and minimise edge effects.

Fantastic fauna face triple threat of rats, roads and removal of logs

There have been some amazing sightings lately of friendly fauna visiting our community. A spotted-tailed quoll was seen at Robey Rd, along with a Pheasant coucal, a large, long-tailed, pheasant-like cuckoo

Ecologists Chris Mclean and Gordon Patrick both assured us that they are relatively common in Lake Mac, occurring at both Glenrock SRA and the Watagans NP.This one was probably a roaming male on the lookout for a mate when he went as far east as he could.

Wildlife carer Catherine said “the fact that the quoll and pheasant coucal are down our way, shows just how important our bushland, trees and native gardens are for our wildlife that are having to extend their range to find more food and suitable habitat.”

The Threatened species website says “Quolls use hollow-bearing trees, fallen logs, other animal burrows, small caves and rock outcrops as den sites” so it’s really important to let the logs lie in our bushland reserves as they are important homes for our fauna nomads.

Quolls also eat a variety of prey including gliders, possums, small wallabies, rats, birds, bandicoots, rabbits, reptiles, insects, carrion and domestic fowl. With the current explosion of rodents this can potentially be devastating for the quoll. Second generation rodenticides can cause death beyond the target rodent by building up in the fat reserves of every animal further up the food chain, eventually killing them too.

The first generation warfarin-based rodenticides, which don’t accumulate, are less likely to impact on non-target animals like quolls and owls.

The other local threat for this uncommon community quoll will be the roads. Driving carefully, especially at night, will help.

Local bird surveyors Rob & Michael have also noted that the Satin Bowerbird on the West Ridge is active again - “he has moved it a bit but that’s a good sign that the hormones are flowing again” .

Adult male Satin Bowerbirds build and decorate stick bowers to attract females for mating. Females choose among males based on these complex bowers, decorations placed at these bowers, and displays consisting of vocalisations and posturing. These bowers are amazing, if you happen to come across one please stay a respectful distance, it is their home that they’ve invested a lot of time in decorating it.

Bioblitz botanical bonanza -Tetratheca time

Whilst out installing nestboxes the eagle eyes of flora focussed fanatics spied some Black-eyed Susan (Tetratheca juncea) in full bloom…most exciting for all concerned, a real botanical bonanza!

This plant is difficult to spot most of the time as its leafless stems are pretty insignificant but these patches were beautiful. The T. juncea plant is a very pretty, delicate low shrub that forms a ‘tussocky clump’, which is slow growing, some bigger clumps are estimated to be more than 100 yeas old.

Tetratheca juncea grows mostly in Eucalyptus woodlands on low nutrient soils in association with fungi filaments (mycorrhiza) and around Coal Point it is in the Coastal Foothills Spotted Gum Ironbark Forest ecotone, this is the vegetation community along the ridge.

Nationally the species has a very restricted range with only two meta-populations, in the Central Coast and North Coast areas. The Lake Macquarie LGA is part of the Central Coast population.

Tetratheca juncea is a bit of a ‘toughy’ known to withstand slashing and nearby clearing and it can even persist in areas of weed invasion but weed infestation over the long-term appears to gradually diminish the size of the T. juncea population. Dumping of garden waste into reserves is the biggest local threat to its ongoing survival.

T.juncea is listed as a threatened species under both the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 and the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999. It is also listed as a Rare Or Threatened Australian Plant (ROTAP) with status 3VCa. 

Factual information above was gleaned from Table 1 Summary of important characteristics of T. juncea in the Lake Macquarie T juncea Planning and Management Guidelines 2014.

The Threatened Species Last Stand on the Coal Point peninsula project has funds available to cover the cost of some bush regeneration on private land for landholders who have Tetratheca juncea on their block.  Now is the time to have a good look for it because its flowering is peaking. 

Recently a 2 hour survey along the West Ridge located 10 clumps in a relatively small area. A significant population by national standards, would mean 20 clumps/hectare. 

Do you know where there are T juncea clumps? 

Would you like some bush regeneration support? 

Please contact Suzanne to share the joy.

Woo Who

The Draft Interim Large Forest Owl Planning and Management Guidelines has been released by LMCC for comment.  It discusses why the Powerful Owl, Masked Owl, Sooty Owl and Barking Owl are all listed as threatened (Vulnerable) species. 

“All species continue to be threatened by clearing of forest and woodland for agriculture, urban development, major infrastructure, mining, pine plantations and intensive harvesting practices for wood production in native forests (Kavanagh, 2002).
In particular, these species are susceptible to the felling of old growth forest and woodland as they and their prey are dependent on large hollow bearing trees (Kavanagh, 2002).”

The guidelines are packed full of amazing pictures and maps and puts in to context why corridors and landscape connectivity are so important for the survival of these amazing birds.