Do add 'Land of Sweeping Plains' to your books on natural resources

Land of Sweeping Plains is the book to read for those of us who are curious about the native grasslands of south-eastern Australia. It brings grasslands into the room and onto the table, where we can begin to understand them.

Maybe you haven’t been aware of grasslands before? I’m sure many people see them as wasteland, and I’m not surprised. I used to do that too. However, this book has made me enthusiastic about the large (to me, dull-looking) patches of grass (with or without evident weeds) which I drive past in ACT and Victoria.

Because we don’t recognise their value, native grasslands have largely disappeared as an ecosystem in SE Australia – which is why they are listed in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Over the last thirty years or so, however, ecologists and land managers have learnt that native grasslands are integral parts of the landscapes of Tasmania, Victoria, southern NSW, ACT and South Australia, and very important. This book helps more people to see grasslands in that light, and although it focuses more on grassland in Victoria than in the other states, the principles of management and restoration will apply ecosystem-wide.

SCOPE

Starting from the fossil record of 11 million years ago and ending at the future, Land of Sweeping Plains paints for us an outline that includes most aspects of grasslands in this south-eastern corner of the continent. We are led from plant roots to whole landscapes; from mites to people; from grasslands’ value to Aboriginal people in the past to the growing recognition of their value in today’s agricultural and urban areas. If we want to add greater depth to the outline, the chapters give plentiful references for further reading. 

The book's subtitle is ‘Managing and restoring the native grasslands of south-eastern Australia’. Clearly therefore it is not a book about the individual plant species. It does discuss some of the individual fauna species that characterise grasslands and depend on the sward being well structured and floristically diverse. It is a book that explains how the grassland ecosystem is believed to function and how we can therefore maintain this vanishing ecosystem and recover its values.

WHAT WE LEARN ABOUT GRASSLAND MANAGEMENT

Grasslands certainly don’t have to be set aside as if in a museum – in fact that would be the death of them. This is an ecosystem that needs active management.

Land of Sweeping Plains lets us meet grasslands as they were managed by the Aboriginal families of this part of Australia (Chapter 1). In a later chapter we see them as part of a modern farming system (Chapter 3). We are shown their beauty after intelligent restoration, rivalling the wildflower carpets of Western Australia (Chapter 12). And – this is particularly valuable – we begin to understand how grasslands are viewed and thought of by people who live near them (Chapters 7 and 8).

Understanding other people's viewpoints is important to grassland management. Such understanding acts as a bridge. It makes conversations possible between managers and people who live in or beside the grassland. For example, Chapter 13 shows how land managers can raise residents’ appreciation of grasslands in their suburbs, by setting up ‘cues to care’ – such as recreational and educational structures that demonstrate that public-land managers value the grassland area and want us to share in enjoying it.

IS IT WORTH READING?

 ‘[T]his book is excellent value for money for anyone at all associated with grassy ecosystem conservation. It is extremely informative, collates many different experiences and explains the latest research. I would not say it is definitive; grassland conservation and restoration is a work in progress.

The book should be used, as it was intended, as a resource on grasslands. It is worth collective study and would be an authoritative source for our advocacy work. Learn and enjoy!’

Those words were written by Geoff Robertson, of Friends of Grasslands Inc., as published in our July-August 2015 newsletter (see http://fog.org.au/newsletter.htm). Geoff’s review looks at the book’s two earliest chapters, and also reports some comments made by Richard Groves on launching Land of Sweeping Plains in May 2015. Richard was one of the first ecologists to begin pointing out the value of SE Australia’s native grasslands, several decades ago.

Here is part of Richard’s summary, as reported by Geoff:

‘First, that the book addresses the many facets of grassland management and restoration, embraces many scientific disciplines and describes the experiences of a wide range of institutional managers and community organisations. Second, it includes a delightful mosaic of descriptions, text boxes, informative illustrations and images. Third, it is easy to read. Fourth, it is possibly best read some-at-a-time. He had been reading a little each day.’

I concur with Geoff’s summary, and with Richard’s recommendation. The book is physically heavy – and therefore not something I can comfortably read on my lap in an evening (where I do most of my reading)!

The designer has added subtle touches, especially using a sequence of colours for the chapters: grey in Chapter 1, then olive, then dark brown, then other browns, and fading to orange for Chapter 14. I presume the purpose is to help readers find particular sections or remember where they are by colour association. For that mapping one would expect to use the Contents and Index, but I found these quite disappointing.

While both the Contents and Index are ‘okay’, they could be much more useful, in my opinion. The index is apparently accurate in listing page numbers but there are omissions. For instance, I couldn’t find entries in either the Index or Contents for the ‘vignettes’ – the enlightening case studies that are included in each chapter. Neither the topics nor the vignettes’ authors seem to be signposted, though some vignette authors are listed for other parts they have contributed to. Therefore, I suggest it is better to decide to read the whole book rather than rely on the index to find particular subject matter.

That disappointment, together with the book’s physical weight, are the only substantive criticisms I personally have of Land of Sweeping Plains. Yes, there are minor errors here and there – an example is reference to the ‘National Heritage Trust’ rather than the ‘Natural Heritage Trust’. The errors I spotted don’t detract from the information presented nor from the easy to read style the authors have used.

Please read this excellent book. You can deal with its weight by reading it at a desk, and you can make your own list of the vignettes as you go. Read it and enjoy it and learn about these amazing ecosystems – and then go out and walk in your local grasslands or grassy landscapes, and see how much more clearly you understand what they are about! When you come back to the office, this volume provides copious leads for further reading and study. This readable book therefore is also a fantastically useful technical resource, assembling much-needed and formerly scattered knowledge in one accessible place.

Below I summarise each chapter to give you a taste before you buy. 

Land of Sweeping Plains: Managing and restoring the native grasslands of south-eastern Australia (472 pages) is available from CSIRO Publishing, at $59.95.
Copies may still be available at the Australian National Botanic Gardens bookshop, Canberra.
Friends of Grasslands Inc. has a few copies available at the launch price $48 (via booksales@fog.org.au).

Success for Land of Sweeping Plains will be measured partly by the number of readers who ‘become grassland champions’.

In a little more detail: Land of Sweeping Plains, chapter by chapter

This blog post follows on from the one above. This one summarises each chapter of the book ‘Land of Sweeping Plains: Managing and restoring the native grasslands of south-eastern Australia’ edited by N.S.G. Williams, A. Marshall and .J.W. Morgan, CSIRO Publishing 2015.

WHO IT IS FOR

The editors of Land of Sweeping Plains answer that question on page 3:

‘We hope this book provides local and state government conservation officers, farmers, friends groups and all those involved in grassland management and restoration the technical information required to conserve and enhance the native grasslands that they are custodians of. The examples of community engagement and management activities presented may also stimulate ideas that could be applied in local community or form the basis of funding applications. For those readers without the responsibility of management, such as students and those interested more generally in biodiversity conservation, the book will provide a detailed understanding of native grassland ecology, its management challenges and solutions and, importantly, inspiration to engage with this critically endangered ecosystem.’

RELIABLE AUTHORS & CLEAR TEXT

The 14 chapters are written by 14 authors altogether, and their bios show they may well be the very best 14 authors to speak about the native species in grassy landscapes, urban and rural, and how we as people interact with them.

The text flows easily, yet is informative, and the references listed for further reading occupy between 1 and 6 pages at the end of almost all of the 14 chapters.

A BRIEF OUTLINE, CHAPTER BY CHAPTER

1. Humans and grasslands – a social history
By Beth Gott, Nicholas S.G. Williams and Mark Antos (3 pp of references; 1 vignette)

Chapter 1 opens at the fossil record of 11 million years ago and skips quickly to grasslands as major sources of food for Aboriginal people during the last 50,000 years. It shows how grasslands provided vegetables and meat, and touches on use of fire and the effects of digging. The second half of the chapter summarises the era of European settlement and the changes to flora and fauna and land management we have wrought. ‘AWAY on the Bundian Way’, the vignette in this chapter, introduces the Bundian Way – an ancient Indigenous track from the NSW coast at Eden to Tarangal (Mt Kosciuszko). AWAY stands for Aboriginal Women And Yamfields, which is the name of a project that aims to restore the area and replant Yam species (including Microseris lanceolata Yam Daisy) in a proper cultural context, while also teaching young Aboriginal women their cultural history.

2. The native temperate grasslands of south-eastern Australia
By Nicholas S.G. Williams and John W. Morgan (3–4 pp of references; 2 vignettes)

In Chapter 2 we are introduced to the various types of lowland native grassland across south-eastern Australia, and where they occur (or occurred) on a map of Victoria, southern NSW, and relevant parts of Tasmania and South Australia. Nick Williams and John Morgan differentiate between eight grassland communities found in these areas. While all have a tussock/intertussock structure, their characteristic species depend on soil type, rainfall and past management. The eight types are: 

• Natural temperate grassland of the Victorian Volcanic Plain;
•  Gippsland Red Gum (Eucalyptus tereticornis subsp. mediana) Grassy Woodland and Associated Native Grassland;
• Natural Temperate Grassland of the Southern Tablelands of NSW and the ACT;
• Lowland Native Grasslands of Tasmania;
• Natural Grasslands of the Murray Valley Plains;
• Iron-grass Natural Temperate Grassland of South Australia;
• Seasonal Herbaceous Wetlands (Freshwater) of the Temperate Lowland Plains;
• Upland Wetlands of the New England Tablelands (New England Tableland Bioregion) and the Monaro Plateau (South Eastern Highlands Bioregion).

This chapter also touches on the past and continuing threats to grasslands, concluding that: ‘Due to the threats listed above, it is critical that the remaining native temperate grasslands in south-eastern Australia be managed in a manner that maintains their biological values’.

The first of the two vignettes gives a short account of the ‘large-scale connectivity’ offered by the extensive networks of Travelling Stock Routes and Reserves across Queensland and NSW. Many of these are thought to be important grassland remnants. The other outlines the first park established in South Australia to conserve grassland (‘Mokota Conservation Park’).

3. The ecology and dynamics of temperate native grasslands in south-eastern Australia
By John W. Morgan and Nicholas S.G. Williams (5–6 pp of references; 1 vignette)

Basic ecological topics are dealt with in this chapter, including species richness, life-cycle events, seed-based cycles (dispersal, storage, germination), and recruitment, competition and productivity or decomposition. Biomass of tussock-based grasslands with forbs and other plants in the gaps is modified by ecosystem processes – and the authors outline effects of fire, grazing, climate and nutrient dynamics (mowing/slashing is not a natural process). Pollination of forbs is not well studied, according to Anna Murphy’s vignette, which reveals intricate specialist interactions allowing one native bee species to separately pollinate each of three different Swainsona species.

The authors conclude: ‘compared to many other Australian ecosystems, a lot is known about the temperate native grasslands of south-eastern Australia. … [though] key factors driving the ecology of grasslands remain poorly understood. These include the impact of climate variation and droughts, interactions between plant and pollinators, fauna reintroductions and their effects on ecosystem processes…[and the] effect of interactions among species between disturbances.’

 4. The wildlife of our grassy landscapes
By Mark Antos and Nicholas S.G. Williams (4 pp of references; 7 vignettes)

A photo of an exquisitely marked Striped Legless Lizard on crisply defined lichen is the frontispiece to Chapter 4, which entices us to take notice of the wildlife of grassy landscapes. After general outlines of habitat and patterns of movement, the chapter sketches in the mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates to be found in grassland areas. The vignettes focus on kangaroo grazing, bandicoots, Plains-wanderers (now only known in four areas of Victoria), bats, artificial habitats, fauna activity season by season, and eight steps to help conserve native fauna on private land.

5. Planning, documenting and monitoring for grassland management
By Sarah Sharp, Georgia Garrard and Nathan Wong (1 p of references; 9 vignettes)

‘[F]irst consider what you want to achieve’… and set objectives for various time frames, say Sarah Sharp, Georgia Garrard and Nathan Wong on page 119. They advocate planning, documenting and monitoring for grassland management. The chapter lays down ‘a process for determining management actions, and for designing a monitoring program that identifies which outcomes are the result of applying those actions’, and takes us through it point by point (as if along a monitoring tape!). Subtopics are:

• Managing under uncertainty – adaptive management; 
• Planning actions and management (setting objectives and identifying desired outcomes), (understanding and documenting the condition of your site); 
• Identifying management actions; 
• Monitoring (what…, how ...); 
• The science of monitoring (replication, …analyses and inference, …use your data); 
• Citizen science and opportunities for engagement; 
• Good monitoring is more than just recording what you are doing; 
• Putting it all together.

The vignettes usefully bring in other aspects to this important chapter. Crucially, in this the first chapter to bring humans purposefully into grasslands, one vignette describes stakeholder analysis for grassland conservation planning – which is essential to identify people interested in grassland management. Three other vignettes are the first parts of the Neville Oddie story which, in nine parts spread through the whole book, shows how this man and his colleagues incorporate science and local place-based knowledge in managing their land. Two vignettes give examples of monitoring and management in ACT and the Monaro of NSW, and one outlines the Vegwatch program for robust, repeatable and reliable monitoring that can be mastered by community volunteers.

6. Understanding the social context of native grasslands.
By Kathryn J.H. Williams (1 p of references; 4 vignettes)

The chapter ‘assists managers to understand the social factors influencing management.’ It explores the question: Why are neighbours negative or indifferent towards grassland? It gives examples of the range of views people hold about grasslands, and their range of levels of understanding. Overall, the message coming from this chapter is that there will be strongly different views and people are likely to express their views violently, whether the landscape they are interested in is forested, woodland, waste land or grassland.

Seeing people’s fears and acting to reduce them, such as by cues to care (expanded on in Chapter 13 and in Start with the Grasslands, by Adrian Marshall), can lead to positive steps that improve the way grassland is perceived, at least in urban and peri-urban areas where the land title is not held by the local residents. In rural areas, legislation, either state/territory or the federal EPBC Act, can stop a landowner using his land the way he wants to, it being in his own title. Here, management change and new perceptions can be encouraged via alternatives such as penalties, covenants/agreements, offsets, and tenders for conservation and purchase and resale. The small table on p. 177 is a useful summary of programs often used to support grassland conservation.

7. Working together – grassland management in the community.
By Karen Reid (no references; 1 marvellous foldout ‘Volcano Dreaming’; 1 vignette)

‘This chapter is intended to assist anybody involved either professionally or as a volunteer in managing a grassland remnant to: understand who make up the divers communities who potentially have an interest in the grassland you work on; understand the different roles each of these communities can play in the protection and enhancement of grassland; and work together with diverse communities to realise the social and ecological benefits of protecting grassland.’

Karen Reid refers to actual on-ground organisations, including Friends of Grasslands Inc. and the Merri Creek Management committee in the Melbourne area. She gives ‘examples of strategies that have worked in a variety of settings and situations that may provide the inspiration for new managers to help build community relationships. … The key is to create ongoing opportunities to get to know people in your community and for them to get to know you. ‘

We are shown that it’s important to recognise that people have many different reasons for joining into environment work, and it’s also important they are not treated as free labour because if so they will rapidly become disenchanted. The author suggests we find easy ways to do the nasty jobs (e.g. use daubers not sprays), and show volunteers that their effort has broad implications (including by recording their impacts and using the data to secure grants; in turn, grants are easier to secure when applications are backed by on-ground experience.
Other tips in this chapter:

• citizen science means more data, over a longer time, and is an effective way to engage communities; 
• treat people with respect and make sure they benefit from the experience (the author mentions the Golden Sun Moth project of Richter, Osborne, Hnatiuk & Robertson in ACT).

‘Building community awareness is about creating the emotional connection between people and the grassland. … Attracting people to come into the grassland and see it for themselves has emerged as one of the most significant factors in winning new grassland ‘champions’.‘

8. Biomass management in native grasslands.
By John W. Morgan (1 p of references; 6 vignettes)

Biomass management is crucial to effective management of native grasslands. John Morgan ‘discusses why biomass accumulates in grasslands’, how to ‘assess when the amount of biomass might be considered high’, the implications of high biomass for biodiversity, and ways of reducing biomass to help reach management objectives. Fire and grazing are important methods. There is an interesting table on page 210, 'Summary of biomass control methods ...', which concisely compares the impacts of burning, livestock grazing and slashing on biomass, native species and introduced species. This is very similar to the table Sarah Sharp (lead author on Chapter 5) developed and has published a number of times in her work.  

Chapter 8 deals with these subtopics:

• Rates of biomass accumulation. 
• The relationship between biomass, vegetation structure and biodiversity. 
• Assessing biomass accumulation. 
• Grassland states, management triggers and preferred outcomes. 
• Methods of biomass reduction for biodiversity conservation (fire, grazing, slashing).

In the six case studies we learn, first, about the ecological impact of biomass reduction – this is essentially two diagrams comparing grassland condition with or without biomass removal. Next, the ‘golf ball method’ of rapidly assessing biomass. Other vignettes discuss ‘roadsides and frequent fire by rural fire brigades’; Neville Oddie’s ‘slow burns’; ‘planning an ecological burn’; and ‘the Long-term Ecological Grazing Project in western Victoria – impacts of season and duration of grazing on plant diversity.

9. Weed management in native grasslands.
By Randall Robinson (4–5 pp of references; 5 vignettes)

‘The most dramatic effect of the introduction of weeds into grasslands is to change the grassland structure by filling the intertussock spaces, which can remove flora and fauna habitat … Another significant impact… is the harbour they provide for other introduced organisms…’, such as Red-legged Earth Mite, which is the subject of one of the chapter’s vignettes.

This chapter covers weed control in grasslands and woody grasslands, not in detail but touching on the main and some less main methods, under three major subheads: Legislation, Managing weeds, Management tools. The chapter is encouraging and depressing alternately, showing how some Weeds of National Significance can be removed successfully, and then reminding us that the problem is multi-pronged, and while one weed may dominate, its removal may open the field for others. The vignettes here deal with weed population modelling, the practical case study of the Oddie property, and also the Nassella weed grasses Serrated Tussock (N. trichotoma) and Chilean Needlegrass (N. neesiana). A heartening vignette describes the recovery of Sydenham Park from an infestation with Serrated Tussock, and includes the great reminders that all the team needs to know what is going on to avoid mishap, and that there is likely to be more than one serious weed in the soil bank – removing one may make way for another. This vignette is continued in Chapter 12.

10. Integrating grassland conservation into farming practice.
By Nathan Wong and Josh Dorrough (2–3 pp of references; 7 vignettes)

Nathan and Josh point out: ‘the vast majority [of grassland areas are] owned and managed as freehold within largely agricultural landscapes’. In this chapter they set out principles that show how integrating grassland conservation into farming practice can work. They explain why native pastures are increasingly seen as valuable, in farming nowadays, and how land-managers can improve the quality of native grasslands and pastures, via grazing management, weed control and fire.

This chapter’s seven case studies of land management show how to boost grassland conservation. Two of them are from Neville Oddie’s property near Melbourne, one is in Tasmania, one is an excellent account of native pasture cropping (pp. 272–273), and the other three are in other parts of Victoria. Max Kerr, in one of these vignettes, is reported as saying he believes ‘people need the opportunity to learn how to identify native grasses and to gain insight into this magic and rare world in order to ensure remnants are valued and preserved’.

11. Sourcing seed for grassland restoration.
By John Delpratt and Paul Gibson-Roy (2–3 pp of references; 8 vignettes)

This chapter looks very useful indeed for practical restoration, bringing in the technical depth restorers need. The authors start by pointing out that a good supply of seed is essential, whatever restoration method you use, and they remind us that seed generally needs to be collected from the remnant patches and that few native species have been cultivated. Then, when you think it’s going to be a chapter about sourcing seed, as in the title, you find (paragraph 3) that it is also a botany and horticulture chapter, describing seed structure and how it forms and matures, and adapts … and you see that this is essential information if you are going to be effective and efficient in gathering seed at the best times and life stages, and in deciding on the quality of the seed you have – which also sets the price you have to pay for it as a buyer.

The first 10 pages outline the morphology and physiology of seeds. Then come 2 pages about seed sources, embracing a boxed 2 pages on using information from seed tests – it looks quite mathematical. Information on purchasing seed occupies one page. Collecting seeds from vegetation remnants occupies another page, but there are 4 boxed pages within this short section, focusing on the genetics of seed collection and their implications. Growing, harvesting, processing and storing take up the next 20 pages, with 5 boxed pages about actual producers, and one page about harvesting machines. There is also a two-page box about seed conservation in the Australian PlantBank.

12. The restoration of native grasslands.
By Paul Gibson-Roy and John Delpratt (5–6 pp of references; 4 vignettes; 1 species list)

Detail! This chapter is full of it. Restoration is ‘defined’ in two ways on the first page: the practice of renewing and repairing degraded, damaged or altered ecosystems and habitats’ (first sentence). And then near the end of that page, ‘Restoration fundamentally involves moving a site and its vegetation from one form or structure to another to meet a particular set of goals.’

After brief scene-setting, showing that grassland restoration by returning species has only begun in the last decade in Australia (compared to around 20–30 years ago in the US prairies), the chapter turns to practicalities. First it points out that native seeding is much more expensive – and germination and establishment much less reliable – than agricultural seeding; that people need to be involved and it’s worth developing that engagement at the start; and that speed and reliability are important stimulants to people’s enthusiasm, as well as often crucial to funding cycles. Here’s a telling sentence: ‘The challenge for grassland restorationists is to effectively articulate why grassland restoration is deserving of funding. In a world filled with worthy causes, restorationists’ calls must be convincing.’

And it’s not plain sailing even if all that above is covered. What to sow where? Why? These answers will depend on the intended use of the area once restored, as well as the locality. Grassland ecology is also a powerful factor in the decision, and leads to the suggestion of basing the choice on species’ community function – possibly therefore avoiding the extra costs of species that may not contribute usefully.

I reiterate - this chapter is detailed and valuable.

It advises and gives examples on:

• Site assessment and preparation; 
• Scalping; 
• Reverse fertilisation (with sugar for instance) and Nutrient stripping; 
• Techniques and machinery; and 
• Staging a restoration: What order if any, and why.

Examples come from the Grassy Groundcover Research Project (GGRP) as a whole and various sites that project has worked at. There is also a close look at a seed production business near Melbourne.

This is the longest chapter in Land of Sweeping Plains, mainly because of a 9-page appendix listing species used in GGRP work and some characteristics that will be of use to others without access to a Greening Australia Seed Production Area, including form, height, location of regenerative buds, and dispersal unit.

13. Designing and planning for native grassland in urban areas.
By Adrian Marshall (1 p of references; 3 vignettes)

Chapter 13 is another practical chapter. Adrian explains seven principles of planning and design, and then enlarges on them showing how this is working effectively in Melbourne. Native grasslands in urban areas add and give refuge to biodiversity. When designed and planned applying the principles, native grasslands can also ‘improve land values, create community and identity, and provide positive sustainability outcomes within a development’.  

Landscape architect Barbara Payne (Quandong Designs) reviewed this chapter for the News of Friends of Grasslands (referenced in relation to Chapter 1 above), saying: ‘We are guided through design development to construction and maintenance, starting – and this is the key – with the grasslands. Two case studies show that it can be done. … Who should read this chapter? Anyone involved in the care of grasslands, developers, planners, landscape architects and municipal landscape managers.’

14. The future of south-eastern Australia’s native temperate grasslands.
By Nicholas S.G. Williams, Adrian Marshall, John W. Morgan, John Delpratt, Paul Gibson-Roy and Nathan Wong (1 p of references; 3 vignettes)

The authors remind us: ‘grassland conservation also needs to move beyond the high-diversity patch and into the broader landscape. … The conservation of all isolated grassland reserves will not protect all species in the long term. … Connectivity is essential if we are to enable species to move within the currently highly fragmented system. … Australia’s ambition to meet the International Union for conservation of Nature (IUCN) goal of protecting 10 per cent of the former extent of each ecosystem (NRMMC 2010a) is impossible for the grasslands of SE Australia without large-scale restoration.’

Another take-home message is the importance of viewpoints. For instance, ‘A major remaining hurdle is a reluctance of some in the conservation sector to recognise that high-quality restored grasslands can be comparable to remnant communities’. The last four short sections of this final chapter emphasise the people and human will that need to be engaged.

Overall, the chapter looks at a positive future for grasslands, despite the quotes above. The three vignettes each give a ‘Vision for a future’, and they are inspiring!

The authors wrap up by restating the three main aims for the whole book (quoted here):

(i)                  to synthesise what has been learnt over the last four decades…;

(ii)                to communicate as widely as possible, bringing to the fore the natural beauty of temperate grasslands and the passion, commitment and enthusiasm of the people that work to protect, manage and restore them;

(iii)               to identify how society, planning and restoration … can contribute to a positive future for grassland conservation.

Success for Land of Sweeping Plains will be measured partly by the number of readers who ‘become grassland champions’.