Healthy Grazing Country Indicators: native plants and animals Published 2009 | Page 14

Maintaining Biodiversity – top 10 tips
• Use grazing strategies that regularly spell country during the wet season so that desirable native grasses can be maintained and exotic pastures do not become a monoculture ( i . e . occur almost exclusively ).
• Carefully plan the use of introduced pasture plants so that impacts on special areas are reduced .
• Prevent introduced pasture plants from establishing outside of areas used for production . If they are not being grazed , they can become weeds .
• Remember that introduced pastures may help prevent erosion but they reduce biodiversity . For every benefit there is a cost .
8 . Be excited by biodiversity
• Ongoing presence of threatened species on your property is a testament to good land management .
• Learn about the special habitats and species that occur on your property .
• Observe and record annual and seasonal patterns of wildlife on your property .
• Identify special management practices required to maintain biodiversity .
• Seek and share advice and information from others ( e . g . friends , neighbours , specialists ).
9 . Watch and wonder why
• Changes in wildlife patterns can be subtle or dramatic , regular or episodic , localised or wide scale .
• Consider the links between wildlife patterns ( e . g . feeding , breeding , shelter ), uncontrollable factors ( e . g . climate ) and controllable factors ( e . g . new management , spelling , timing of fires , control of stock ).
• Ask questions such as whether species are declining or disappearing or whether some are getting more common .
• Relate wildlife pattern changes to climate and management changes .
• Keep a record of your biodiversity observations and take photographs .
• Remember that biodiversity goes beyond the property boundary .
• Seek and share advice and information from others .
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