Forest wildlife and habitat management in southwestern Australia: knowledge, research and direction

Abstract

BfffA review is provided of research concerning forest wildlife and habitat management in southwestem Australia. We divide the research into biogeography, fauna and disturbance ecology. ^ Many community studies have been earned out in the Darling Botanical District but no attempt 1 has yet been made to define the overall pattern of any group of biota in that district or any of L the four subdistricts of the area. Methods to assess the extent of representation of species and assemblages in the reserve system are reviewed and will require adoption as land-use demands on the forests continue to intensify.Studies on fauna have concentrated on vulnerable and rare species, especially mammals, and some are the subject of detailed management programmes that have attracted funding and provided focus for research and management effort Habitat requirements and factors influencing distributions of many species remain poorly understood.Most research in the Darling District has been directed to disturbance ecology including mining, logging, fire and plant disease. Rehabilitation following bauxite mining and the dynamics and management of dieback disease caused by Phytophthora dnnamomi in the jarrah forest has been studied in considerable detail. Apart from clearing for agriculture, plant diseases caused by Phytophthora spp. pose the greatest threat to plant and animal communities of the Darling District Process understanding remains inadequate to predict responses following disturbance and integrated studies on the response of the biota to disturbance will be necessary to allow the development of predictive models. Funding for an expanded programme of research on the impacts of exploitation on forest wildlife should come from relevant forest-based industries.

Why the integration of demographic and site-based studies of disturbance is essential for the conservation of jarrah forest fauna

“…However, the intensity and extent of some of these influences have been considerably exacerbated, and many new forms of disturbance have occurred since European settlement (Mills 1989, Havel 1989, Wardell-Johnson and Nichols 1991, Burrows and Wardell-Johnson 2003, Calver and Wardell-Johnson 2003. For example, Figure 5 demonstrates changes associated with the introduction and intensification of dieback caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi in jarrah/ Banksia woodland on aeolian sands, while Figure 6 provides a photographic synthesis of the recent history of disturbance in a lateritic site in the northern jarrah forest.…”

“…Burrows and Wardell-Johnson (2003) argued that the interactions between various agents of disturbance might be of greater importance in nature conservation than the impacts resulting from any particular event. For example, links have been hypothesized between plant disease, introduced species, fire and logging (e.g., Shearer and Tippett 1989, Wardell-Johnson and Nichols 1991, Young 1994, Garkaklis et al 2003. Interactions between disturbance regimes such as fire and the establishment of introduced species also have conservation consequences (e.g., Bond and van Wilgen 1996).…”

“…The marsupial fauna of the jarrah forest declined substantially during the 20 th century such that by the 1970s only a few forest sites retained most of their marsupials (see Davey andNorton 1990, Wardell-Johnson andNichols 1991). For example, by the 1970s the Brush-tailed Bettong Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi, known locally as the Woylie, the Western Ringtail Possum Pseudocheirus occidentalis, and the Quokka Setonix brachyurus ( Figure 7) had been lost from the bulk of their pre-European settlement habitat while the Chuditch Dasyurus geoffroi had declined to almost undetectably low densities by the early 1980s and the Bilby Macrotis lagotis had been lost from the jarrah forest faunal assemblage (McKenzie et al 1996, Abbott 2001.…”

“…Reviews of the impacts of environmental disturbances were provided in the early 1990s by Wardell-Johnson and Nichols (1991) for the south-west forests, and Wardell-Johnson and Christensen (1992) for the forested ecosystems in which karri Eucalyptus diversicolor forms a component. Christensen (1997a) reviewed the impacts of environmental disturbances on fauna in the south-west of Western Australia for the Western Australian Regional Forest Agreement, taking an optimistic view of the long-term conservation status of the fauna if environmental disturbances are managed carefully.…”

The use of science in environmental policy: a case study of the Regional Forest Agreement process in Western Australia

“…A number of Western Australian scientists expressed concerns about forest management in light of what they perceived to be insufficient knowledge of complex forest ecosystem functions (e.g., Wardell-Johnson et al, 1989;Wardell-Johnson & Nichols, 1991;Calver et al, 1996.…”