The conservation significance of the Tasmanian Midlands, an agricultural region that is largely privately owned and has suffered significant land degradation and loss of biodiversity, has been recognised since the 1980s. Four decades of conservation planning and implementation has seen the evolution of biodiversity protection, revegetation, bush rehabilitation and climate-ready habitat restoration. Relationships and trust have been built enabling the development of capacity in the farming community and conservation sector. This paper presents for the first time the chronology of four decades of landscape conservation planning and implementation in the Tasmanian Midlands. Remnant protection, restoration and revegetation efforts have evolved from the site level to landscape scale, leading to a conservation approach incorporating ecological restoration in its broadest sense. Successive iterations saw key initiatives including Midlands Bushweb, Midlandscapes, the Midlands Conservation Fund and the Tasmanian Island Ark project. Spatial tools and models have grown from simple maps and aerial photos to early GIS products including farm plans (revolutionary in their day) and asset maps, to increasingly complex spatial models of corridors using least-cost path analysis and fine-scale multi-species models of functional connectivity. However, critical to success in these challenging agricultural landscapes has been the relationships of trust and collaboration built between local farmers and conservation planners.
SummaryWildlife management on a landscape scale is often complex, particularly where different land use practices occur in the same region. This is particularly so for the management of overabundant grazing species (both domestic and native) in a modified landscape, where anthropogenic activities and climatic drivers can influence their distribution and abundance beyond sustainable levels. In Australia’s arid rangelands, macropods benefit from pastoral activities including improved pastures, artificial watering points and the removal of apex predators. This paper addresses some of the challenges associated with managing Red Kangaroo (Osphranter rufus) in a conservation context on the privately managed Boolcoomatta Station conservation reserve in the South Australian arid rangelands. We reflect on the history of the region and how anthropogenic activities, associated with an unpredictable climate, have made macropod management so complex. Ecological monitoring at Boolcoomatta Station suggests that, along with the influence of rainfall, grazing by overabundant Red Kangaroo had a negative impact on vegetation and resident avifauna of chenopod plains. Fenced exclosures further demonstrate the grazing impact of Red Kangaroo, with perennial grasses found only where grazing was excluded. The closure of waterpoints (dams) failed to reduce Red Kangaroo impacts on the reserve, despite some evidence that persistence of Red Kangaroo near fenced dams may be reduced in the long term. Results of monitoring and management outcomes at Boolcoomatta highlight the need for an improved framework to manage Red Kangaroo. This should include consideration of improved regional stock management practices in the face of climate change; improving our understanding of the role of apex predators in agricultural landscapes; developing and setting grazing impact thresholds to instigate macropod management; improving and standardizing monitoring methods for assessing impacts; and lastly, consideration of the mental health and social well‐being of land managers in these areas.
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