BURDEKIN DRY TROPICS NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN 2016-2026
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Objectives
Terrestrial habitats and environments are of sufficient size and condition to maintain functioning ecosystems and support healthy and viable populations of native plants and animal species( cont.).
Riparian vegetation is maintained in a way that protects:
• habitat connectivity throughout a catchment;
• bank stability;
• stream processes; and
• water quality.
Strategies
d) Ensure land development does not compromise the contiguity and connectivity of remnant vegetation at property, landscape and regional scales in local and state planning instruments. For example: retaining existing clumps of vegetation that provide connectivity across a landscape.
e) Support land managers to implement best management practices to maintain or improve the size and condition of remnant vegetation and reduce threatening processes.
f) Educate land managers and the wider community about the role of fire management in our regional landscape, and provide support where its application is appropriate.
a) Identify critically fragmented riparian corridors for rehabilitation.
b) Provide extension and encourage the community to implement land management techniques that rehabilitate riparian habitat corridors such as:
• riparian fencing;
• rotation wet season spelling; and
• planting vegetation.
Natural wetlands’ conservation values and ecological processes are protected, including their water quality, aquatic and terrestrial habitat, naturally-occurring aquatic species and hydrological cycles. c) Maintain existing partnerships and networks between parties undertaking works and rehabilitative measures within waterways including landholders, government, river improvement trusts, NRM groups, researchers and industry.
d) Include appropriate watercourse buffers in land use planning and development design decisions.
a) Identify priority systems and, where required, implement waterway / wetland rehabilitation / conservation programmes.
b) Provide extension and encourage the community to employ land management techniques that improve wetland ecosystem processes and habitat such as:
• maintaining buffers;
• water management practices that allow for natural seasonal drying; and
• managing pest species within the wetland.
c) Include appropriate wetland buffers in land use planning and development design decisions.
d) Remove unnecessary barriers to allow natural flow regimes.
e) Conduct fishway and fish passage design, monitoring and rehabilitation to ensure native fish can move along watercourses and between freshwater wetlands and lagoons.
f) Re-establish connections between freshwater wetlands and lagoons so they are able to support native aquatic species expected for that system.
g) Identify groundwater-dependent ecosystems and determine their requirements to maintain their health and sustainability.
h) Manage the Bowling Green Bay wetland in a way that maintains its ecological character.
BIODIVERSITY