PEEL-HARVEY BIODIVERSITY PROJECT

Project Title:	Peel-Harvey Regional Rural Vegetation Officer			Project Code:	N/A
Funding Source:	Natural Heritage Trust, a joint initiative of the Australian and Western Australian Governments administered by the South West Catchments Council
Start:	July 2003	End:	June 2004, some aspects ongoing	Project Officer:	Dr Peter Hick

 

Project Title:	Biodiversity DSS Training			Project Code:	B5-04
Funding Source:	South West Catchments Council Regional NRM Investment Plan 2005-06 with funding provided by the Australian and Western Australian Governments.
Start:	July 2005	End:	June 2006	Project Officer:	Dr Peter Hick and Kim Wilson

In July 2003 funding was approved from the Australian Government through the National Heritage Trust to engage a regional rural vegetation officer for the Peel-Harvey Catchment. This position evolved into the Peel-Harvey Biodiversity Project and Dr Peter Hick was appointed as a consultant in November 2003 to undertake the required work.

The project was split into three phases:

• The first to December 2003 involved contacting all the various stakeholders and agencies and making an inventory and assessment of the existing biological and physical data and information system retrieval systems residing with them.
• The second phase to March 2004 assembled the datasets and produce target areas for analysis. Those areas were visited to validate their selection and biodiversity ranking and to seek refinement from local stakeholders.
• The third and final stage to June 2004 was to present a final report and associated maps and data in an agreed form that permitted adoption and demonstration.

The two major outputs from the project were:

1. a primary set of maps covering the catchment based on the Land Monitor dataset that will characterise all the remnant vegetation.
2. the development of a conceptual model, based on the work done by others in Government, which is applied to some representative areas.

The project has produced a report on the nature and condition of biodiversity assets within the Peel-Harvey catchment (below).  The biodiversity project and this report is based on a study of Land Monitor, AgMaps and CALM GIS data sources, with field validation at about 150 sites considered to be statistically representative of most landscape positions within the three bio-regions encompassed by Peel-Harvey catchment.

Maps covering vegetation trend (1998-2004) and current relative vegetation condition have been produced and integrated with landscape position, landform and CALM threatened species locations.  These data sets are available on the P-H Biodiversity DSS Toolbox.  The final official report for the project was submitted in July 2004 but work on this project still continues through the training of PHCC and Local Government Officers in the use of the data and mapping produced by the project and through the development of web-based toolbox, updates will be provided as this work progresses.

In addition to the report a web-based toolbox has been developed that enables a menu of biodiversity attributes to be compiled for any selected area; this interactive Geographic Information System, called the Peel-Harvey Biodiversity Decision Support System Toolbox can be used for many purposes including the assessment and ranking of natural biodiversity for use by land managers within the catchment.

The second aspect of this project titled Biodiversity DSS Training provided the required funds to run a series of training courses for NRM, state government and local government officers and members of the community in the use of the P-H Biodiversity DSS Toolbox and the data gathered in the original P-H biodiversity Project and to develop the users manual for the Toolbox.  These workshops were conducted at various venues throughout the catchment in 2005 and 2006.

Biodiversity in the Peel-Harvey Catchment Report

 

Part One:	Introduction
Part Two:	Biodiversity Setting
Part Three:	The Bioregions
Part Four:	Field Validation and Results
Part Five:	The Data Processing Model and Technical Specifications