CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT OF TUSSOCK GRASSLAND COMMUNITIES - WORKSHOP SUMMARY
Russley Hotel, Christchurch
17th October 1996
INTRODUCTION
This workshop was run as a continuation of the "Managing conservation values - seral tussock grassland workshop" that was held in on Tuesday 10 September in the Landcare Research Seminar Room, Dunedin. Accordingly, the focus of this particular workshop was to develop conservation management guidelines for tussock grassland communities.
The workshop represents an integral part of a joint Dept of Conservation/Office of Crown Lands/Ministry for the Environment funded participatory project to provide decision support for key issues and areas identified by South Island conservancies. Because sound management
is dependent - in the first instance - on the availability of "useful" information or knowledge, a major goal of the project is to better enable conservation managers and scientists to share their observations and experiences, thereby meshing science with management needs. The outcomes of this work will, in turn, be made available through reports or computer decision support tools. (Although the second essential component of the management decision-making process - acquiring monitoring feedback from management actions - is not being directly addressed through this project, the need for monitoring was emphasised by participants at both tussock grassland workshops.)
This project is being coordinated by the Alexandra-based Landcare Research Knowledge Integration Processes Team. Willy Allen and Kate Wardle facilitated during the day, and Kate Wardle also undertook the background research and organisation for the workshop. given the participatory nature of the project however, the workshop outputs which are recorded here came from the participants. This workshop brought together representatives from the Department of Conservation, Knight Frank (agent to OCL), Otago University, Lincoln University and Landcare Research (see Appendix 1). Focus talks were kindly provided by Drs. Alan Rose and Janice Lord, whilst Dr Colin Meurk organised, and provided field interpretation for a field trip to Macleans Island.
Workshop context:
Some areas can be managed primarily for conservation. Whilst Dept of Conservation is likely to be the main manager of such land, some private landholders may also wish to manage land primarily for conservation. Yet other areas are managed for production and conservation, in many cases by landholders who may wish to investigate covenant mechanisms to protect such values.
Following on from the first workshop:
During the first workshop in Dunedin participants outlined the issues and considerations that (even if they are not explicitly addressed) must be taken into account in order to provide sound decision support for managers. These were developed through group sessions which looked specifically at: i) the goals sought by conservation managers; ii) the factors that influence tussock grassland dynamics; and iii) the management tools that are available.
Although a start was made on identifying strategies for the management of tall tussock grasslands late in the day, it was agreed that a further workshop to develop strategies for a range of grassland states should be held in Christchurch. This should be designed to build on the outcomes of this workshop. It was also suggested that the project coordinators develop a rough draft of strategies for specific grassland types as a basis for discussion at this second workshop. This was achieved by sending participants a questionnaire which asked them to identify grassland community types they would like to have further discussion. For each of these, participants were asked to comment on what management tools would be required to achieve each of the broad conservation goals (i.e. accepting vegetation change through vegetation succession processes, or maintaining examples of communities "as is"). Since participants had indicated at the Dunedin workshop that weed control would be necessary to achieve either goal, the questionnaire also sought to find out which species were considered the most threat to conservation values in tall tussock grasslands and short tussock grasslands.
QUESTIONNAIRE OUTCOMES
In summary, ten broad community types were identified as priorities for further discussion. There was little consensus as to how to maintain most of these communities ‘as is". Some participants highlighted that tussock grassland communities occur along a management and environmental gradient, and using such a framework would aid decision making and discussion. The ability or desirability of achieving one or other of the broad conservation goals for some of the community types was considered questionable by some respondents.
As a result of these comments, the first workshop of the day was focussed on clarifying the broad conservation goals.
|