Blundells Flat, Ex-coupe 424, ACT. VAST-2: Tracking the Transformation of Australia's Vegetated Landscapes

<br>The aim of this project is to compile land use and management practices and their observed and measured impacts and effects on vegetation condition. The results provide land managers and researchers with a tool for reporting and monitoring spatial and temporal transformations of Australia’s native vegetated landscapes due to changes in land use and management practices. Following are the details about site in Blundells Flat, ex-coupe 424, ACT. </br><br> Pre-European benchmark-analogue vegetation: The site was originally a brown barrel (<em>Eucalyptus fastigata</em>), growing in association with ribbon gum (<em>E. viminalis</em>). </br><br> Brief chronology of changes in land use and management:<ul style="list-style-type: disc;"> <li>1788: Unmodified and intact tall open eucalypt forest; forest unaffected</li> <li>1915: Water catchment area declared for Canberra - forest unaffected</li> <li>1955: Commenced selective logging of mainly brown barrel (<em>E. fastigata</em>)</li> <li>1956: Clear-felled remaining wet sclerophyll forest and pushed timber into windrows with a bulldozer</li> <li>1958: Felled timber burnt in February</li> <li>1958: 1^st rotation radiata or Monterey pine (<em>Pinus radiata</em>) planted by hand</li> <li>1960: Controlled competing regrowth native vegetation, manually with axes, slashers, or hoes</li> <li>1986: 1^st rotation <em>P. radiata</em> harvested with crawler tractors</li> <li>1987: Coupe was treated using a crusher roller weighing 17 tonnes towed by a D8 bulldozer</li> <li>1988: Coupe was ripped and mounded. 2^nd rotation <em>P. radiata</em> seedlings planted by hand with a mattock. Fertilized every seedling by hand</li> <li>1990: Controlled competing regrowth native vegetation using brush hooks e.g. eucalypts, acacia and 1^st rotation pine seedlings</li> <li>2002: 14 year old 2^nd rotation was thinned and pruned to around 450 stems / ha. Thinnings were left on the ground to decay</li> <li>2003: Area burnt by severe wildfire killed all pines. Sterile rye grass was sown across the coupe using light aircraft to stabilise erodible soils. Killed pines and native regrowth pushed over and windrowed with a bulldozer</li> <li>2004: Windrowed timber was burnt. Site declared minimal use - rehabilitation</li> <li>2005: Contractors were engaged to manually remove pine wildlings</li> <li>2005-2012: Site left to rehabilitate.</li></ul></br>