New South Wales: Monitoring activities
- The NSW Department of Land and Water Conservation manages the Rangeland Assessment Program (RAP) in NSW rangelands.
- There are almost 340 ground-based sites, within seven range types, which have been recorded annually since the early 1990s. The RAP program is therefore the most advanced of any of the range monitoring programs throughout Australia.
- The emphasis within the RAP is on reporting changes in both trend and condition of vegetation and soil attributes at a regional or range type scale.
- The attributes assessed at each site include species lists of all vascular plants, biomass, frequency and botanical composition of pasture species, and soil surface characteristics. The density of perennial chenopods and percent canopy cover of trees and shrubs is measured in selected range types.
- The RAP system evolved from a history of rangeland resource inventory and mapping, vegetation research and monitoring and extension by the former Soil Conservation Service of NSW.
- The RAP ground-based system is not designed to meet the demands of any single Act. Rather it is designed to meet a broad demand for information on changes in the rangeland resource, particularly those relating to the conservation of native vegetation and soil resources. It also forms a strong basis for work aimed at improving rangeland management practices in NSW rangelands through staff training and extension.
- There is currently no operational remote sensing program to monitor changes in NSW rangelands although this is intended by site design.
- Sites are read in conjunction with over 300 participating landholders and increases their access to a range of related rangelands services provided by the DLWC.
Further Information
Link to photographic sequences
Link to the Map Maker to make a map using this information.
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