Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities

8 – Monitoring threatened ecosystems and ecological communities^117

of planning documents, with management and monitoring plans containing the
details of design, subject to approval of the regulator. Approval conditions typically
require monitoring outcomes to be reported periodically to the regulator. The data
summaries in these reports are generally accessible to the public, but it is onerous
to extract TEC monitoring results from multiple projects. As for government-
funded citizen projects, there is no central, publicly accessible repository for TEC
monitoring data and usually no requirement to make the raw data available, either
to the regulator or the public. Very few monitoring studies associated with impact
assessment or offset management are reported in peer-reviewed scientific
literature. Usually no accreditation is required for design or implementation of
monitoring programs, although required qualifications and experience are
occasionally specified in approval conditions (see EPBC 2013/6941 in Table 8.4).
Consequently the quality and reliability of monitoring data is likely to vary. These
features limit the ability of industry-sponsored monitoring to contribute to
management of TECs beyond development projects. However, some of this

Box 8.2. Threatened ecological community monitoring in an

offset area for an approved development

A development project was approved under New South Wales state and

Commonwealth (federal) laws subject to restoration of White Box–Yellow Box–

Blakely’s Red Gum Grassy Woodland and Derived Native Grassland on former

agricultural properties on the north-west slopes of NSW to offset clearing of those

TECs on the development site. The offset site comprises a mosaic of semi-cleared

TEC woodland, derived TEC grassland and retired grazing/cropping lands. The

management actions include livestock exclusion, weed and feral animal control,

with supplementary seeding and planting in the most degraded vegetation.

The EPBC approval requires offset areas to be monitored in a ‘statistically

robust’ manner using a set of measurable ecological indicators for detecting

changes to the vegetation and fauna on the offset site and to assess the success of

the management activities measured against the baseline condition.

The approved monitoring program includes a replicated sampling design for

vegetation, with eight sites located in each of semi-cleared TEC woodland, derived

TEC grassland and retired grazing/cropping lands where different management

actions will be implemented. The design includes a further eight control sites

located in derived grassland and retired grazing/cropping land to which

management treatments will not be applied, and a set of eight reference sites in

relatively undisturbed woodland to represent the baseline community. The design

includes three replicate plots at each site. Vegetation structure, vascular plant

species composition, recruitment of trees and habitat features are monitored at each

plot. Data were collected before the implementation of management actions and

monitoring is to be undertaken annually for 20 years thereafter in spring. The

monitoring data are to be retained by the company, but monitoring outcomes are to

be reported annually to the Department of Environment.