Threatened Ecological Communities (TEC) Banksia Woodlands of the Swan Coastal Plain not only provide food and habitat for our native fauna and flora, they comprise a complex ecosystem with high biodiversity.
Invasive pests, disease and environmental weeds pose one of the most serious threats to the biodiversity, composition and function of the banksia woodland ecosystems.
Intense clearing of land for agriculture and development has also caused fragmentation and further degradation to these significant areas.
Development and the need to protect people and property, together with climate change, places a greater pressure on an already declining ecosystem.
Banksia woodlands have been thriving for eons, providing vital food resources and habitat for over ‘20 nationally threatened species.
Thick scrubby Kunzea (spearwood), synonymous in some banksia systems have an important role to play. Having a successional role, Kunzea provides shelter to those longer maturing plants, and to smaller native animals such as bandicoots.
On the downside, the scrubby bush is seen as a fire threat as people encroach into what is left of these significant bushland areas.
The Landcare SJ team in an effort to reduce and manage threats facing TECs in the Serpentine-Jarrahdale reserves are working closely with the SJ Shire and the Peel-Harvey Catchment Council (PHCC), to implement key actions to help manage key threats to banksia woodlands, particularly in semi-rural areas.
Within the northern sections of SJ, the Landcare team is focusing on banksia woodlands at three shire reserves.
At Craghill Way Reserve the team has been busy working to remove rubbish, including 53 tyres, metal, road signs and other debris.
More importantly, a serious weed invasion of Solanum nigrum (Blackberry Nightshade), covering 1.2 ha of the reserve has been hand-pulled and removed from site by the team, post clearing by the SJ Shire as part of a fire mitigation strategy.
The next step in the team’s ongoing mission is to raise awareness of how close these people live within significantly Threatened Ecological Communities and to engage residents living close by in future plantings and other community activities.
Aside from Craghill Reserve, Pony Place Reserve and Oakford Community Hall are also priority TEC banksia woodlands which Landcare SJ are working on, as part of the PHCC funded ‘Banksia Woodlands’ project.
All of these sites will undertake some revegetation this coming planting season and volunteers are most welcome in these stewardship activities.
The ‘A world for woodlands – reducing threats to Banksia Threatened Ecological Communities through land stewardship’ Serpentine-Jarrahdale Project is proudly managed by Landcare SJ through funding from the Peel-Harvey Catchment Council Australian National Landcare Program ‘Banksia Woodlands’ project.
