Two Ecosystems - One Property

So you have both Rainforest and Grassy Eucalypt Forest on your property? Lucky you! But... How on earth do you manage both?

The Issue

I have two very diverse ecosystems on my property that both contain different and overlapping fauna and flora as well as threatened ecological communities. How do I maintain both at a landscape scale.

The Challenge

Keeping the balance. How do I protect both ecological communities and maintain a healthy ecotone?

The Response

Step 1: Habitat Management Plan
Getting a habitat management plan done by your local ecologist is the first step to understanding your property, particularly at a landscape scale. This will include the history of the site, the soil and geological features, threatened species, vegetation types and most importantly, how all these components contribute to the ecosystem and what you, as a landholder, can do to maintain a healthy and diverse environment.
Step 2: Assess what you've got
So you have two or a few different ecosystems? Time to assess what flora and fauna you have and if there're any threatened ecological communities. If you're a bit of a nature lover yourself, it can easily be done by walking your property, assessing the vegetation types and monitoring fauna presence using cameras and song meters. Another easy way to discover threatened species in the area is to have a look on Bionet and the Atlas of Living Australia. These websites contain all publicly available fauna records. However if you're new to this, identifying most flora and fauna species may be a bit daunting. So, contacting an ecologist could be the option for you. If you have chosen to get a habitat management plan recommended in Step 1, then this should be included but just be sure to ask.
Step 3: Ecotones
"An ecotone is a transition area between two biological communities, where two communities meet and integrate. It may be narrow or wide, and it may be local (the zone between a field and forest) or regional (the transition between forest and grassland ecosystems)."
- Britannica, T. Editors of Encyclopaedia (2017, December 15).

Keeping your ecotone healthy is probably the most crucial step when managing both forests. Performing regular walk throughs and applying bush regeneration to keep weeds down and to ensure rainforest vegetation is not slowly invading the Eucalypt forest and vice versa.
Step 4: Caring for each habitat
Maintaining forest health is key. Each habitat will have specific vegetation thriving whilst some species will overlap. Ensuring these two forests remain healthy will mean trees are alive, regenerating and providing adequate food and shelter for the species that inhabit it. So its important to take note of what weed treatment needs to occur and where some assisted revegetation might help gain a head start on forest rehabilitation. If you have created a habitat management plan in Step 1 then you're most likely planning this already. If your habitat is majority weed free and healthy then lucky you, your action plan will be about maintaining these areas to ensure forest resilience. 
Share by: