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Page 1: Icon Site Environmental Management Plan 2006–2007 · Icon Site EMP Icon Site Environmental Management Plan (formerly the Asset Environmental Management Plan, AEMP) JAMBA Japan-Australia

Icon Site Environmental Management Plan 2006–2007

Page 2: Icon Site Environmental Management Plan 2006–2007 · Icon Site EMP Icon Site Environmental Management Plan (formerly the Asset Environmental Management Plan, AEMP) JAMBA Japan-Australia

Published by Murray-Darling Basin Commission Postal Address GPO Box 409, Canberra ACT 2601 Office location Level 5, 15 Moore Street, Canberra City Australian Capital Territory Telephone (02) 6279 0100 international + 61 2 6279 0100 Facsimile (02) 6248 8053 international + 61 2 6248 8053 E-Mail [email protected] Internet http://www.mdbc.gov.au For further information contact the Murray-Darling Basin Commission office on (02) 6279 0100 This report may be cited as: The Barmah-Millewa Forest Icon Site Environmental Management Plan 2006-2007 MDBC Publication No. 30/06 ISBN 1 921038 96 9 © Copyright Murray-Darling Basin Commission 2006 This work is copyright. Graphical and textual information in the work (with the exception of photographs and the MDBC logo) may be stored, retrieved and reproduced in whole or in part, provided the information is not sold or used for commercial benefit and its source The Barmah-Millewa Forest Icon Site Environmental Management Plan 2006-2007 is acknowledged. Such reproduction includes fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968. Reproduction for other purposes is prohibited without prior permission of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission or the individual photographers and artists with whom copyright applies. To the extent permitted by law, the copyright holders (including its employees and consultants) exclude all liability to any person for any consequences, including but not limited to all losses, damages, costs, expenses and any other compensation, arising directly or indirectly from using this report (in part or in whole) and any information or material contained in it. The development of an environmental management plan for The Barmah-Millewa Forest cannot, and is not intended to, affect or diminish any existing private rights to own or occupy land within the region covered by the plan, or the way in which such land is used in future.

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Contents LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................................ IV

LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................................V

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ...........................................................................................................VI

GLOSSARY....................................................................................................................................................... VII

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................................................................................. IX

1 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 THE LIVING MURRAY............................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 THE BARMAH-MILLEWA ICON SITE ....................................................................................................... 1 1.3 PURPOSE AND STRUCTURE OF THE LIVING MURRAY ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR

BARMAH-MILLEWA ICON SITE............................................................................................................... 1 PART A – STRATEGIC PLAN........................................................................................................................... 4

2 ICON SITE DESCRIPTION....................................................................................................................... 5 2.1 AREA, TENURE AND LAND MANAGEMENT .............................................................................................. 5 2.2 THE CADELL TILT AND BARMAH CHOKE ............................................................................................... 6 2.3 VEGETATION COMMUNITIES & ASSOCIATED HABITAT VALUES .............................................................. 7 2.4 HYDROLOGY AND WATER MANAGEMENT............................................................................................... 7 2.5 VALUES................................................................................................................................................ 11

3 WATER MANAGEMENT ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES ......................................................... 13 3.1 CROSS-BORDER WATER MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS ..................................................................... 13 3.2 FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS ................................................................................................................ 16 3.3 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES FOR OPERATING THE RIVER MURRAY SYSTEM .................................... 16

4 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT ............................................................................................................. 18 4.1 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY ............................................................................................... 18 4.2 OBJECTIVES.......................................................................................................................................... 18 4.3 PRIORITIES ........................................................................................................................................... 18 4.4 INDIGENOUS ENGAGEMENT .................................................................................................................. 19

5 OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS............................................................................................................... 21 5.1 TLM INTERIM ECOLOGICAL OBJECTIVE FOR BARMAH-MILLEWA ICON SITE....................................... 21 5.2 REFINED ECOLOGICAL OBJECTIVES ..................................................................................................... 21 5.3 ECOLOGICAL TARGETS......................................................................................................................... 21 5.4 PROCESS FOR DETERMINING AND REVIEWING WHOLE-OF-ICON SITE OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS ......... 22

6 WATER REQUIREMENTS OF THE ICON SITE................................................................................ 23 6.1 BROAD DESCRIPTION OF BARMAH-MILLEWA ICON SITE WATER REQUIREMENTS................................. 23 6.2 WATER REQUIREMENTS TO ACHIEVE OBJECTIVES ................................................................................ 27

7 WATER MANAGEMENT OPTIONS..................................................................................................... 28 7.1 EXISTING ENVIRONMENTAL WATER ..................................................................................................... 28 7.2 RECOVERED ENVIRONMENTAL WATER ................................................................................................. 29 7.3 ENVIRONMENTAL WORKS AND MEASURES ........................................................................................... 29 7.4 LINKS TO THE LIVING MURRAY ENVIRONMENTAL WATERING PLAN .................................................. 29

8 THREATS, LEGAL RISKS AND AMELIORATIVE MEASURES .................................................... 31 8.1 MANAGEMENT OF RISK AND LEGAL ISSUES .......................................................................................... 31 8.2 COMPLEMENTARY MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES...................................................................................... 31 8.3 LEGAL RISKS AND AMELIORATIVE MEASURES ...................................................................................... 33

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9 MONITORING AND REPORTING........................................................................................................ 34 9.1 MONITORING AND EVALUATION........................................................................................................... 34 9.2 REPORTING REQUIREMENTS ................................................................................................................. 34

10 ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT.............................................................................................................. 35

PART B – ANNUAL OPERATING PLAN 2006-2007 .................................................................................... 37

1 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITION ......................................................................................................... 38 1.1 RECENT ICON SITE FLOODING HISTORY................................................................................................ 38 1.2 CURRENT STATUS OF ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES .................................................................................. 39

2 WATER MANAGEMENT PRIORITIES ............................................................................................... 41 2.1 PRIORITY WATER MANAGEMENT AREAS............................................................................................. 41 2.2 PRIORITY SITES..................................................................................................................................... 41

3 TRIGGERS FOR WATER APPLICATION........................................................................................... 42 3.1 ‘NEW’ TLM WATER APPLICATION........................................................................................................ 42 3.2 EXISTING EWA APPLICATION .............................................................................................................. 42 3.3 OPERATIONAL FLOWS........................................................................................................................... 43 3.4 REGULATOR OPERATION ...................................................................................................................... 44

4 ENVIRONMENTAL WORKS AND MEASURES................................................................................. 46

5 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES ........................................................................................................ 48

6 MONITORING AND REPORTING........................................................................................................ 49 6.1 MONITORING ACTIVITIES...................................................................................................................... 49 6.2 REPORTING ACTIVITIES ........................................................................................................................ 49 6.3 POTENTIAL MONITORING PROJECTS 2006/07....................................................................................... 49

PART C - BUSINESS PLAN ............................................................................................................................. 50

1 WORKS PROGRAM 2006-2010 .............................................................................................................. 51

2 DRAFT BUDGET 2006-2007 .................................................................................................................... 52

3 REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................... 53

APPENDIX A FLORA SPECIES OF CONSERVATION SIGNIFICANCE .......................................... 55

APPENDIX B FAUNA SPECIES OF CONSERVATION SIGNIFICANCE .......................................... 56

APPENDIX C INTERIM OPERATING RULES FOR THE BM FOREST EWA ................................. 58

APPENDIX D BM FOREST EWA RELEASE DECISION PATHWAY ................................................ 60

APPENDIX E EPBC ACT 1999 - RELEVANCE TO ICON SITE EMP S.............................................. 62

APPENDIX F PREVIOUS RESEARCH, MONITORING AND EVALUATION ACTIVITIES ......... 64 F.1 OTHER RME PROJECTS CONTRIBUTED TO BY BARMAH-MILLEWA FORUM.......................................... 65

APPENDIX G RELEVANT LEGISLATION AND PLANNING INSTRUMENTS ............................... 66 G.1 LEGISLATION........................................................................................................................................ 66 G.2 STRATEGIES AND PLANS....................................................................................................................... 66 G.3 KEY PLANNING DOCUMENTS FOR BARMAH FOREST ............................................................................. 66 G.4 KEY PLANNING DOCUMENTS FOR THE MILLEWA GROUP OF FORESTS .................................................. 68

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APPENDIX H APPENDIX G: METHOD FOR IDENTIFYING PRIORITY WMAS AND SITES ..... 70 H.1 PRIORITY WATER MANAGEMENT AREA IDENTIFICATION .................................................................... 70 H.2 PRIORITY SITE IDENTIFICATION ............................................................................................................ 70 H.3 FUTURE IDENTIFICATION OF PRIORITY SITES ........................................................................................ 73

APPENDIX I EXISTING OBJECTIVES FROM RELEVANT DOCUMENTS ................................... 74

APPENDIX J ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE EVALUATION................................................ 78

APPENDIX K TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR BARMAH-MILLEWA CONSULTATION REFERENCE GROUP.......................................................................................................... 90

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List of Figures FIGURE 1: LOCATION OF THE ICON SITES (SOURCE: THE LIVING MURRAY WEBSITE).............................................. 2 FIGURE 2: BARMAH-MILLEWA RED GUM FOREST (MODIFIED FROM DLWC-RESOURCE

INFORMATION UNIT 2002) .............................................................................................................................. 5 FIGURE 3: THE NARROWS (OR ‘BARMAH CHOKE’) FROM MID-RIVER (PHOTO BY A. WEBB) ..................................... 6 FIGURE 4: STEWARTS KITCHEN REGULATOR – A SECONDARY REGULATING STRUCTURE DURING LOW RIVER

FLOWS, BARMAH FOREST (PHOTO BY K. WARD)………………………………………………………………8 FIGURE 5: WATER MANAGEMENT AREA BOUNDARIES WITHIN BARMAH-MILLEWA FOREST, MODIFIED

FROM MAUNSELL PTY LTD 1992 (SOURCED FROM BMF 2004)....................................................................... 9 FIGURE 6: CROSS-BORDER BARMAH-MILLEWA ICON SITE GROUPS AND PROCESSES............................................. 13 FIGURE 7: A REDUCTION IN EXOTIC FISH SPECIES, SUCH AS EUROPEAN CARP (CYPRINUS CARPIO) PICTURED

ABOVE, COULD BE DESIRED ECOLOGICAL TARGET. (PHOTO BY A. WEBB) ...................................................... 22 FIGURE 8: AREA OF BARMAH FOREST INUNDATED AS A FUNCTION OF RIVER MURRAY INSTANTANEOUS

FLOOD PEAK AND MONTHLY PEAK DISCHARGE AT TOCUMWAL (FOR INSTANTANEOUS PEAK DISCHARGE) AND YARRAWONGA (FOR MONTHLY TOTAL DISCHARGE). DATA SOURCES ARE BREN ET AL. (1987), BREN ET AL. (1988) AND REG C (2003) AS CITED IN DSE & GBCMA 2005................................................. 24

FIGURE 9: COMPARISON OF FLOOD CATEGORIES BETWEEN NATURAL AND CURRENT CONDITIONS FOR DOWNSTREAM OF YARRAWONGA; 109 YEARS OF MODELLED RECORD.......................................................... 26

FIGURE 10: REED BEDS NORTH, MOIRA STATE FOREST NSW, JUNE 2003 (PHOTO BY A. WEBB). IN ADDITION TO WINTER-SPRING FLOODING, A SUMMER-AUTUMN DRYING PHASE IS ALSO IMPORTANT FOR MAINTAINING WETLAND HEALTH – THE TIMING OF ENVIRONMENTAL WATER APPLICATION NEEDS TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT APPROPRIATE WETTING AND DRYING CYCLES........................ 27

FIGURE 11: FLOW CHART DEPICTING RELATIONSHIP OF THE BARMAH-MILLEWA FOREST ICON SITE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PLAN (THIS DOCUMENT) TO THE BROADER LIVING MURRAY AND ASSOCIATED PREMIER PLANNING STRATEGIES AND AGREEMENTS................................................................. 30

FIGURE 12: ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT CYCLE ........................................................................................................ 36

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List of Tables TABLE 1: FLOOD FREQUENCIES OF THE MAJOR BARMAH-MILLEWA FOREST VEGETATION COMMUNITIES

BEFORE RIVER REGULATION. ..............................................................................................................................23 TABLE 2: POTENTIAL THREATS TO ACHIEVING TLM ECOLOGICAL OBJECTIVES AND PROPOSED AMELIORATIVE

MEASURES..........................................................................................................................................................32 TABLE 3: LEGAL RISKS AND AMELIORATIVE MEASURES .............................................................................................33 TABLE 4: 2005 CONDITION ASSESSMENT FOR THE BARMAH-MILLEWA FORESTS

(PREPARED BY D. LESLIE AND K. WARD)..........................................................................................................40 TABLE 5: SUMMARY OF ENVIRONMENTAL WATER ACCOUNT FOR 2006-2007* (MODIFIED FROM BMF 2004) ..........42 TABLE 6: BARMAH FOREST: REGULATOR OPERATION FOR SEASONAL FLOWS – JUNE TO DECEMBER 2006

INFORMATION SOURCE: GBCMA ......................................................................................................................44 TABLE 7: MILLEWA FOREST: REGULATOR OPERATION FOR SEASONAL FLOWS – JUNE TO DECEMBER 2006

INFORMATION SOURCE: FORESTS NSW .............................................................................................................44 TABLE 8: BARMAH FOREST: PRIORITY FOREST REGULATORS FOR ACCEPTANCE OF UNSEASONAL FLOWS

IN 2006-2007 INFORMATION SOURCE: VIC DSE ................................................................................................45 TABLE 9: PROPOSED ENVIRONMENTAL WORKS AND MEASURES 2006-2007 ...............................................................46 TABLE 10: ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES AT THE BARMAH-MILLEWA ICON SITE FOR 2006-2007 .............................48 TABLE 11: EWMP PROJECTS PROPOSED FOR 2006-2010 WHICH ARE LOCATED IN THE BARMAH-MILLEWA

ICON SITE [SOURCE: MDBC 2004A: DRAFT 2005-2006 WORK PLAN - ENVIRONMENTAL WORKS AND MEASURES PROGRAM, MDBC, CANBERRA].................................................................................................51

TABLE 12: EWMP WORKS PROPOSED FOR 2006-2010 WHICH ARE LOCATED OUTSIDE BUT WHICH WILL SPECIFICALLY BENEFIT THE BARMAH-MILLEWA ICON SITE. [SOURCE: MDBC 2004A: DRAFT 2005-2006 WORK PLAN - ENVIRONMENTAL WORKS AND MEASURES PROGRAM, MDBC, CANBERRA].......51

TABLE 13: DRAFT BARMAH-MILLEWA FOREST ICON SITE OPERATIONAL BUDGET 2006-2007 ..................................52 TABLE 14: APPLICATION OF NUMERIC FLOOD SCORING 2005-2006...........................................................................71

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Abbreviations and Acronyms AEMP Asset Environmental Management Plan, see Icon Site Environmental

Management (now Icon Site EMP) BM Barmah-Millewa BMF Barmah-Millewa Forum CAMBA China-Australia Migratory Birds Agreement CRG Consultation Reference Group CC Co-ordinating Committee DEM Digital Elevation Maps DSE Department of Sustainability and Environment EPBC Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Act) EWA Environmental Water Allocation EWMP Environmental Works and Measures Program FMP Forest Management Plan FNSW Forests New South Wales (formerly State Forests of NSW) GBCMA Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority GIS Geographic Information System GL Gigalitres (one thousand ML or one billion litres) GMW Goulburn-Murray Water Ha Hectares Icon Site EMP Icon Site Environmental Management Plan (formerly the Asset Environmental

Management Plan, AEMP) JAMBA Japan-Australia Migratory Birds Agreement LCC Land Conservation Council (now VEAC) LMEWP Living Murray Environmental Watering Plan LIDAR Light Detection And Ranging (= airborne laser scanning technology) MDBC Murray-Darling Basin Commission ML Megalitres (one million litres, approximately equivalent to an Olympic-size

swimming pool) MSM Monthly Simulation Model (MDBC model of Murray River flows) NSW New South Wales RCS Regional Catchment Strategy SEA Significant Ecological Asset (now Icon Site) TAC Technical Advisory Committee TLM The Living Murray VEAC Victorian Environmental Assessment Council Acknowledgments

The significant contribution of the following agencies to the compilation of this document is acknowledged: Forests NSW Department of Sustainability and Environment Murray Catchment Management Authority Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority Department of the Environment and Heritage Murray-Darling Basin Commission Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources

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Glossary Asset Environmental Management Plan: See Icon Site Environmental Management Plan.

Benchmark condition: a starting condition from which subsequent measurements are compared or judged.

Control activities: actions, procedures, operations or developments that are designed to treat an environment hazard or risk.

Control condition: condition of an indicator from which other measurements subject to experimentation are compared or judged.

Coordinating Committee: a committee, comprising representatives from State and Commonwealth agencies, responsible for developing, implementing and improving the TLM Environmental Management Plan for Barmah-Millewa Icon Site.

Corrective action: a control activity that reduces the severity of an environmental problem once it is detected.

Current condition: the instantaneous status of an indicator.

Ecological character: the sum of the biological, physical and chemical components of the wetland ecosystem, and their interactions, which maintain the wetland and its products, functions and attributes.

Environmental aspects: elements of an organisation’s activities that interact, whether adversely or beneficially, with the environment.

Environmental condition indicator: an expression that provides information about the environment and, when measured periodically, demonstrates a trend.

Environmental criteria: key values that an organisation wishes to maintain or enhance, and by which actions/aspects may be assessed. A criterion is characterised by a set of related indicators that are monitored periodically to assess change.

Environmental objective: the overall environmental goal that an organisation sets itself to achieve.

Environmental performance evaluation: process to facilitate management decisions regarding an organisation’s environmental performance by selecting indicators, collecting and analysing data, assessing information against environmental performance targets, reporting and communicating, and periodically reviewing and improving this process.

Environmental performance target: a detailed performance requirement that needs to be set and met in order to achieve the objective set by an organisation.

Environmental water: water that is available to the environment.

Environmental Works and Measures Program: a $150M program to complement the delivery of environmental water to Icon Sites and improve the health of the River Murray system.

Hypothesis testing: a method of investigation to demonstrate the truth or falseness of a theory or conceptual framework.

Icon Site (previously called a Significant Ecological Asset): A site of environmental importance in the Murray-Darling Basin where efforts to maximise environmental outcomes under the Living Murray Business Plan are being focused.

Icon Site Environmental Management Plan (previously called a Asset Environmental Management Plan): A plan prepared under Section D of The Living Murray Business Plan to apply recovered environmental water, and to undertake other environmental works and measures, within an Icon Site in a way that maximises ecological outcomes.

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Living Murray Business Plan: the plan that describes how the actions and milestones in the Intergovernmental Agreement on Addressing Water Overallocation and Achieving Environmental Objectives in the Murray-Darling Basin are to be achieved.

Living Murray Environmental Watering Plan: a plan prepared under Section D of the Living Murray Business Plan to apply recovered environmental water in a way that enhances ecological outcomes across six identified Icon Sites.

Monitoring: the periodic and systematic measurement and assessment of change of an indicator.

Montreal Process: a set of international criteria and indicators, developed from a seminar held in Montreal in 1993, which have been agreed at a National level for the sustainable management of forests.

New e-water: water recovered for the environment through investments made according to the Living Murray Business Plan.

Overallocation: refers to situations where with full development of water access entitlements in a particular system, the total volume of water extracted by entitlement holders at a given time exceeds the environmentally sustainable level of extraction for that system.

Preventive action: a control activity that eliminates a serious environmental problem before it occurs.

Ramsar Convention: an international treaty dedicated to the conservation and ‘wise use’ of wetlands first signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971.

Reference condition: condition representing a pristine or least-disturbed state from which other measurements are compared or judged.

River regulation: harnessing of the water resources of a river system, through a system of dams, weirs and barrages, to meet the water requirements of jurisdictions with minimum wastage.

Significant Ecological Asset: see Icon Site.

Statistical power: the probability that monitoring will detect important changes if they exist.

Technical Advisory Committee: a skills-based committee that provides technical advice to the Coordinating Committee with respect to the development and implementation of the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site EMP, including advice to ensure appropriate monitoring activities are co-ordinated across the site.

Trend: trajectory that shows the direction and magnitude of change in the value of an indicator over time.

Value system: a framework that people use to assign importance and necessity to their beliefs and actions.

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Executive Summary In 2002, the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council established The Living Murray – a long-term program of collective actions aimed at returning the River Murray system to a healthy working river. The First Step decision under The Living Murray aims to recover up to 500 GL per year (long-term average) of ‘new’ water over a period of five years to improve environmental flows and to achieve ecological objectives at six Icons Sites along the River Murray. These are Barmah-Millewa Forest, Gunbower Koondrook-Perricoota Forest, Hattah Lakes, Chowilla Floodplain and Lindsay-Wallpolla Islands, the Lower Lakes, Coorong and Murray Mouth and the River Murray Channel. In June 2004, the First Step decision was given effect when Ministers from Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, the ACT and the Commonwealth Government signed the Intergovernmental Agreement on Addressing Water Over-allocation and Achieving Environmental Objectives in the Murray-Darling Basin.

The arrangements for implementing the First Step decision are outlined in The Living Murray Business Plan, which describes how the actions and milestones in the Intergovernmental Agreement will be achieved. The Business Plan directs the development of The Living Murray Environmental Watering Plan (LMEWP) that acts as the system framework for making decisions on the volume, timing and frequency of water to be provided to each of the Icon Sites. The Business Plan also requires the development of an Icon Site Environmental Management Plan (Icon Site EMP) for each Icon Site that provides a framework for the delivery and management of environmental flows.

The Icon Site Environmental Management Plan for Barmah-Millewa Forest adopts an adaptive approach to the management of the whole Icon Site. It has been developed in consultation with the Murray-Darling Basin Commission’s Environmental Watering Group to ensure a consistent approach to planning and management across the sites and throughout the Basin. The management objectives that have been identified for the Icon Site align with the interim objectives of The Living Murray Rirst Step decision, and the strategic delivery of available flows will be closely co-ordinated with River Murray Water’s plans for water management of the entire River Murray system.

This Icon Site EMP will be reviewed, reported and updated on an annual basis. It consists of three main sections:

Part A – ‘The Strategic Plan’ provides a description of the Icon Site, its key values, the ecological objectives and targets, its water requirements, the potential threats and ameliorative measures, and the water management options. It includes the management framework and the consultation, monitoring and reporting requirements of the plan, in line with the Living Murray Business Plan, which will be employed over the next 5 years.

Part B – ‘The Annual Operating Plan’ presents the environmental condition of the Icon Site, the priorities for water application and the details of the actions, including the works and measures, to be implemented to achieve the ecological objectives in the given water season. It also details the monitoring and reporting activities for the year. The seasonal outlook drives these activities.

Part C – ‘The Business Plan’ contains the financial arrangements through which the objectives will be addressed on an annual and long-term basis.

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This Icon Site EMP is by no means finalised. It is the initial stage in an ongoing process of improvement, both in the development of the plan and in its implementation. Significant processes and procedures have been initiated but they require substantially more work to develop them fully. In particular, the development of a suit of Icon Site-specific ecological objectives, indicators and targets, and the means to monitor them is very much in its infancy. Similarly, the development of robust and inclusive consultation processes with the Indigenous community and the broader community at large that enable meaningful input into the planning process has only just commenced. These developments will be the focus of the effort and attention of the management committees in years to come.

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1 Introduction

1.1 The Living Murray In 2002, the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council established The Living Murray – a long-term program of collective actions aimed at returning the River Murray system to a healthy working river. The vision for The Living Murray is

… a healthy River Murray system, sustaining communities and preserving unique values.

On the 25th of June 2004, the First Ministers of Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, the ACT and the Australian Government signed the Intergovernmental Agreement on Addressing Water Over-allocation and Achieving Environmental Objectives in the Murray-Darling Basin. This gives effect to their decision in August 2003 to commit $500million to the First Step of The Living Murray which aims to recover an average of 500 gigalitres (GL) per year (long-term average) of ‘new’ water over a period of five years to improve environmental flows and achieve ecological objectives at six Icon Sites along the River Murray.

The arrangements for implementing the First Step are outlined in The Living Murray Business Plan, which describes how the actions and milestones in the Intergovernmental Agreement will be achieved.

The six Icon Sites that will benefit from the First Step are Barmah-Millewa Forest, Gunbower, Koondrook-Pericoota Forest, Hattah Lakes, Chowilla Floodplain and Lindsay-Wallpolla Islands, the Lower Lakes, Coorong and Murray Mouth and the River Murray Channel (MDBC, 2003).

1.2 The Barmah-Millewa Icon Site The Barmah-Millewa Icon Site, composed of the Barmah Forest in Victoria and the Millewa group of forests in New South Wales, is the largest River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) forest in Australia. It covers approximately 66,000 ha of floodplain between the townships of Tocumwal, Deniliquin and Echuca (See Figure 1) and contains a diverse range of wetland environments.

1.3 Purpose and structure of The Living Murray Environmental Management Plan for Barmah-Millewa Icon Site

The purpose of this Icon Site EMP is to manage the application of available environmental water at the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site in order to achieve the interim ecological objectives set for this Icon Site under The First Step decision. Available environmental water currently includes the forest’s existing allocation (nominally 100 GL/yr of high security and 50 GL/yr of low security water) and any new environmental water recovered through The Living Murray. This would be available to Barmah-Millewa through The Living Murray Environmental Watering Plan – the system framework for making decisions on the volume of water and the timing and frequency of water to be provided to each of the Icon Sites.

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Figure 1: Location of the Icon Sites (Source: The Living Murray website)

The Living Murray Environmental Watering Plan (LMEWP) provides a management framework for application of environmental water across the River Murray system for achieving ecological objectives at the six Icon Sites under the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) Ministerial Council’s The Living Murray (TLM) First Step decision.

The Living Murray Business Plan states that the purpose of the LMEWP (Clause 99) is to:

‘ … apply available water in a way that enhances ecological outcomes across the six significant ecological assets, protects existing high value areas or areas in good condition and realises the greatest environmental benefit from the water’.

In doing this, the LMEWP will coordinate the volume, timing, security and application of water required to meet the ecological objectives of The Living Murray First Step decision. The specific requirements of the LMEWP are outlined in Annex E of the Business Plan.

The Icon Site EMP for Barmah-Millewa will be reported on and updated on an annual basis. It consists of three main sections:

Part A – ‘The Strategic Plan’ presents an outline of the broad strategies and the framework in which they will be employed over the next 5 years to achieve the ecological objectives for the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site.

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Part B – ‘Annual Operating Plan’ presents details of the actions to be implemented in the given water season to achieve the ecological objectives.

Part C – ‘Business Plan’ contains the financial arrangements through which the objectives will be addressed on a long-term and annual basis.

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PART A – Strategic Plan

Flooded River Red Gum Forest with Wavy Marshwort near Duck/Coppinger’s Lagoon, Moira State Forest, NSW, December 2003 (Photo by Amy Webb)

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2 Icon Site Description

2.1 Area, tenure and land management The Barmah-Millewa Forest Icon Site is a River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) dominated floodplain covering 66,600 ha, located approximately between the townships of Tocumwal, Deniliquin and Echuca (Figure 2). It includes Barmah Forest in Victoria and the Millewa Group of Forests in New South Wales.

Figure 2: Barmah-Millewa Red Gum Forest (modified from DLWC-Resource Information Unit 2002)

The Barmah Forest, covering approximately 28,500 ha, is predominantly state forest, managed by the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) under the Mid Murray Forest Management Plan (NRE, 2002). There is also a significant area of state park (including two reference areas) and Murray River Reserve, managed by Parks Victoria under the provisions of the Barmah State Park and Barmah State Forest Management Plan (DCE, 1992). The Millewa group of forests covers approximately 38,100 ha and incorporate the Millewa, Moira, Gulpa Island and Tuppal State Forests. The Millewa group is managed by Forests NSW, a trading arm of the NSW Department of Primary Industries, under the Murray Management Area Management Plan (FCNSW 1987). A number of flora and fauna reserves of varying sizes also occur across the Millewa group of forests (See Appendix A and Appendix B).

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The State Forest and Barmah State Park boundaries above also represent the boundaries of the forests’ respective Ramsar listings, with the exception of Ulupna Island section of the State Park. See Part A Section 2.5.1 also regarding Ramsar.

2.2 The Cadell Tilt and Barmah Choke The development of an environmental management plan for the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site cannot, and is not intended to, affect or diminish any existing private rights to own or occupy land within the region covered by the plan, or the way in which such land is used in future. [Information sourced from MDBC 2005a]

Approximately 25,000 years ago, an earth movement in the southern Murray-Darling Basin caused a slight uplift of land and created what is now known as the Cadell Tilt Block (sometimes called the Cadell Fault). The edge of the block runs roughly north/south not far from the towns of Deniliquin and Echuca. Although only about 12 m high, it is an important feature in this otherwise flat landscape. It eventually changed the course, pattern and character of the River Murray for some 500 km.

After the uplift occurred, a large shallow lake was created by the dammed Murray and Goulburn rivers. The Murray soon found a new course around the northern side of the block now known as the Wakool channel. The river bed it created is today occupied by the Edward River. For thousands of years the Goulburn River continued to feed the lake but it eventually also broke out to the west. Around 8000 years ago the Murray turned south, breaking through the section between Picnic Point and Barmah, and took over the Goulburn channel downstream of Echuca. The section where the Murray cut through to the Goulburn channel is today known as the Barmah Choke because of its limited capacity to carry flows (Figure 3).

During major floods, large volumes of water are temporarily banked up behind the Barmah Choke. This reduces the height of flood peaks downstream, and floods the former lake area. The regular flooding has created a wetland now known as the Barmah-Millewa Forests, the largest area of red gum forest in Australia. These forests contain flora and fauna that would be typical of a region which receives two or three times more rainfall than it does.

Occasional aeolian sand ridges, which rise up to 10 m above the floodplain, characterise parts of the forests.

Figure 3: The Narrows (or ‘Barmah Choke’) from mid-river (Photo by A. Webb)

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2.3 Vegetation communities & associated habitat values [Information sourced from DSE & GBCMA 2005]

The forest floodplain vegetation communities in Barmah-Millewa Forest can be broadly grouped into:

swamps and marshes in the lower, frequently flooded areas where water can pond to a degree;

rush beds surrounding these, also generally in wetter areas. These provide nesting and feeding habitat for ibis, waterfowl and frogs;

lakes and billabongs, generally deeper water environments, providing habitat for biota such as fish and macro-invertebrates. These are also very important in providing feeding areas for large colonial bird breeding events;

open grassland plains, including large plains of Moira grass. When flooded, these are highly significant as breeding and feeding habitat for colonial breeding waterbirds like egrets, herons, spoonbills and marsh terns;

red gum forest of various qualities depending on inundation, with the lower elevation areas supporting larger and denser red gum forest; and

Black box woodland in the high, drier zones.

Watercourses occur throughout the forest, which are important for connectivity, distribution of water, fish movement, aquatic plant and in sustaining large red gums along the banks which are important for bird roosting and nesting.

2.4 Hydrology and water management 2.4.1 Hydrology The hydrology of the forests involves an intricate arrangement of inflow sources and drainage routes; the regularity, extent, duration and season of flooding of governed by flow in the River Murray.

Relatively small changes in topography also influence the distribution and depth of flooding. Water passes over the floor of the forests as sheet flow in large floods, and through the forests predominantly as creek flow during smaller flood events. Surface flooding restores soil moisture reserves necessary for tree growth and sustains large areas of productive wetland habitat.

Underground water sources also contribute to forest water demands but these systems (underlying sandy aquifers of prior stream origin) generally only influence localised areas. Their ecological significance is also secondary to overland flooding, as wetland dependent flora and fauna rely on flooding to establish suitable feeding and breeding habitats within creeks, billabongs, swamps and lakes.

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2.4.2 Water management infrastructure In excess of 50 water management structures are currently present throughout the Barmah-Millewa Forest. Water management structures differ in purpose and design, and can be broadly categorised into the following two types:

Primary regulating structures. These structures (regulators with a discharge capacity generally >100 ML/day) occur in anabranch streams near their exit point from the Murray River, Edward River and Gulpa Creek (Figure 4). The main purposes of these structures are to maintain regulated flows within stream, and to permit river freshes and floods to pass into the forest.

Secondary and tertiary regulating structures. These structures are mostly situated in drainage features within the interior portions of the forest. Examples include pipes, culverts and regulators with discharge capacities generally <100 ML/day and earthen banks. The main purposes of these structures are to manipulate water distribution and depth within localised areas, and provide vehicle access. They are overtopped or outflanked during large floods.

Figure 4: Stewarts Kitchen Regulator – a secondary regulating structure during low river flows, Barmah Forest (Photo by K. Ward)

Most of the large structures were originally built in the late 1930s following regulation of the River Murray and subsequent Summer wetland system flooding that this had caused. Within the last decade, many smaller structures have been constructed to permit flow into previously blocked flow paths or in areas where improved water management for the wetland system ecology had been identified (DSE & GBCMA, 2005).

2.4.3 Water Management Areas If necessary, the Barmah-Millewa Forest can be managed to a degree as separate water management units, identified through the ability to get water to them via channels and regulators and manage them individually. However this does not provide full connectivity with the river and is the preferred

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approach only when water is limited (DSE & GBCMA, 2005). As flood magnitude increases, ability to manage the forest in this way decreases.

Figure 5: Water Management Area boundaries within Barmah-Millewa Forest, modified from Maunsell Pty Ltd 1992 (sourced from BMF 2004)

Water Management Areas (WMAs) delineate areas of the forest where points of inflow and outflow best segregate one section of the forest from another (Figure 5). However, they are not discrete areas, as water usually passes from one WMA to the next through defined creeks and as surface flow during floods (BMF, 2004).

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2.4.4 Water management at priority sites DSE & GBCMA 2005 provided the following description of priority sites (locations within the broad Water Management Areas) and their relevant water management activities (see Section 2.4, Appendix G and Appendix H).

‘In general, priority sites tend to be areas of colonial-nesting waterbirds, Moira Grass plains, and areas of the forest exhibiting drought stressed red gum (which occupies most of the high ground or elevated water management areas and therefore can usually only be watered from large natural flood events). Depending on the nature of the flood event and the flood requirements of species and/or wetland sites, then priorities for water management will differ, though they will tend to reflect more natural flood regimes to significant sites.

Near annual flooding of Moira Grass plains of sufficient depth (> 0.5 m) and duration (3-6 months) remain one of the highest priorities for wetland system flood management. This requires preferentially diverting all seasonal flood inflows into wetland locations containing Moira Grass plains, and avoidance of flooding such wetlands from unseasonal flooding (such as arises from rain-rejection events occurring during high Summer supply river levels)….’

‘….Special management requirements to maintain waterbird breeding attempts are also a frequent use of flood and Environmental Water Allocation use…Occasional nesting of Marsh Terns on Moira Grass plains is a highly significant event and, as such, requires maintenance of flooding in those particular wetlands as the need arises.

Diversion of unseasonal flooding, usually arising from rain-rejection events, is generally managed away from the sites discussed above, as frequent re-rewetting of those sites will degrade their natural wetland values. As such, management of rain-rejection events depends upon their volume and timing, and tends to be prioritised towards higher drought-stressed red gum areas away from wetland basins. An arrangement of alternating these unseasonal flows between Barmah Forest and Millewa Forest on a year by year basis is also employed to minimise re-wetting of wetland environments during their dry phase.

Opportunities to flood higher elevated red gum elsewhere in the forest at natural times of the year are explored at every opportunity, and reflects the relative rarity of being able to flood manage such areas due to the volumes of water required to inundate the outer reaches of the floodplain.’

2.4.5 Unseasonal Flows For a number of years, agreement between Forests NSW and the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment has allowed an arrangement of ‘annual alternating’ acceptance of any excess river flows during the unseasonal flooding period between mid-December and April (BMF 2004). This co-operative arrangement allows the wetlands in each state a better chance of drying every second year, and thereby returning to a more natural flood and drying regime.

These increased river flows usually arise because of the rejection of pre-ordered irrigation supplies due to rainfall events and typically cause River Murray flows to increase from near forest channel capacity of about 10,400 ML/d to a flow of 12,000 to 15,000 ML/d or more for a period of up to about 5 to 7 days. However, they may also arise in part from increased tributary flows.

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2.5 Values The Barmah-Millewa Forest has long been recognised as having high environmental, cultural, social and economic values.

2.5.1 Environmental The Barmah–Millewa Forest provides habitat for numerous threatened plant and animal species, including birds, fish and reptiles, and supports colonies of breeding waterbirds during appropriate seasonal conditions (MDBC 2004a). See Appendices A and B for flora and fauna species of conservation significance recorded within the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site.

Both the Barmah Forest and the Millewa Forests (as part of the NSW Central Murray State Forests) are listed on the Ramsar list of designated Wetlands of International Importance, which was established in response to Article 2.1 of the Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971). The current Ramsar list can be found on the Ramsar website: www.ramsar.org. These listings include recognition that the Barmah-Millewa site:

contains representative, rare or unique examples of wetland types within the biogeographical region;

supports vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered species and threatened ecological communities;

supports plant and/or animal species at a critical stage in their life cycles, or provides refuge during adverse conditions;

regularly supports 20,000 or more waterbirds; and

is an important source of food for fishes, spawning ground, nursery and/or migration path on which fish stocks, either within the wetland or elsewhere, depend. (SFNSW & NSW NPWS, 2002 and DSE, 2003)

A total of three bird species listed under the Japan-Australia Migratory Birds Agreement (JAMBA) and six species listed under the China-Australia Migratory Birds Agreement (CAMBA) have been recorded at Barmah-Millewa Forest (see Appendix B). Barmah-Millewa Forest contains 23 species listed under the Bonn Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species.

Functions of the Barmah-Millewa Forest include organic carbon storage, water supply, groundwater recharge, maintenance of flow regimes and flood control (eg. Barmah Forest forms a natural flood retardation basin with an estimated holding capacity of 32,100 ML) (DSE & GBCMA. 2005).

2.5.2 Cultural/Social [Information sourced from DSE & GBCMA 2005 unless otherwise referenced]. The Barmah-Millewa Forest is listed on the Register of the National Estate in recognition of its importance as part of Australia’s heritage and outstanding natural values. There are important and significant land associations and connections to the Barmah-Millewa Forest amongst Indigenous

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peoples and the broader community (MDBC, 2004a) and the forest consequently contains a cultural landscape that reflects both Indigenous and European activities.

Indigenous sites identified include occupation sites, burial grounds, mounds, middens, scarred trees and stone artefact scatters. The range of non-Indigenous historic places in the forest reflects a number of different phases of European activity in the area. Relics of early European settlement are scattered around the forest, however, most of the historical value is in the events that took place and the effect they had rather than what remains.

The Barmah-Millewa Forest is also popular for recreation and tourism with the majority of visitors attracted to the river environs. A wide range of activities including boating, fishing, scenic driving, 4WD driving, trail bike riding, cycling, horse riding and bushwalking are popular. Orienteering, picnicking, camping, canoeing, bait collection, duck shooting and hunting of feral animals in Barmah Forest (firearm restrictions apply in the Millewa Forests), and nature study are also undertaken. The forest is also a popular bird-watching site. Interpretive cruises of the lakes and forest highlight the abundant birdlife along with the ecology and history of the area.

2.5.3 Economic [Information sourced from DSE & GBCMA, 2005].

The components, functions and attributes of Barmah-Millewa Forest provide a variety of direct and indirect economic values to the area. Direct economic values derive from timber production, domestic stock grazing, apiculture, extractive industry and the use of the area for recreation and tourism. In contrast, the natural functions of this Icon Site have important indirect measurable values that support or protect economic activities that have direct measurable values. The indirect economic values provided by Barmah-Millewa Forest include flood and flow control, nutrient retention, and water quality maintenance.

An Economic Evaluation of Barmah Forest Wetlands using a Contingent Valuation Method revealed that that the forest’s wetlands were valued by the community in 1991 at between $76.9 and $97.5 million (Source: Stone, 1991 cited in DSE & GBCMA, 2005).

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3 Water Management Roles and Responsibilities

3.1 Cross-border water management arrangements At the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site, state-nominated Icon Site managers will facilitate implementation of this Icon Site EMP under the Living Murray Business Plan through a cross-border Co-ordinating Committee (CC), to which a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and Consultation Reference Group (CRG) will report.

The relationships of the above groups within broader engagement and consultation processes are shown in Figure 6 and descriptions of arrangements surrounding the groups are outlined below.

Figure 6: Cross-border Barmah-Millewa Icon Site groups and processes

NB. While The Living Murray provides a framework for water management within the Icon Site, overall management of each component remains the responsibility of the jurisdictions through their land management agencies (ie. Department of Sustainability and Environment, Parks Victoria and Forests NSW).

3.1.1 Icon Site managers Under The Living Murray, state-nominated Icon Site managers are responsible for the development and implementation of a co-ordinated Icon Site EMP designed to deliver recovered environmental water to the Icon Site in order to achieve ecological objectives set for the site. They are also responsible for carrying out consultation in a co-ordinated manner and ensuring Indigenous

Icon Site Managers & Co-ordinating

Committee

Indigenous Engagement Processes

Broad Community Consultation Processes

- including CRG

Technical Advisory Committee advice

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engagement is carried out in a manner that respects jurisdiction’s legislation and other agreements and related processes.

The role of Lead Icon Site Manager, which will also be the Chairperson of the Co-ordinating Committee, will be alternated annually between the Icon Site managers. The Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment will take the lead role in 2006.

3.1.2 Co-ordinating Committee The main functions of the Barmah-Millewa Co-ordinating Committee include:

development and implementation of a co-ordinated Icon Site EMP and co-ordinated consultation;

formulation of Terms of Reference for the Technical Advisory Committee and CRG;

review of the interim ecological objectives;

determination of Project Officer activities; and

providing assistance to the Icon Site managers in reporting requirements to the MDBC.

Membership of the Co-ordinating Committee will consist of representatives from the following organisations:

Forests NSW (FNSW) – Icon Site Manager;

NSW Department of Primary Industries;

Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) – Icon Site Manager (Lead in 2006);

Murray Catchment Management Authority (MCMA) – CRG chair (2006) alternates annually with GBCMA;

Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority (GBCMA) – provides alternate Chair of CRG (2007);

Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage (DEH);

Murray-Darling Basin Commission (MDBC); and

Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources (DNR).

In the long term, it is anticipated that the Co-ordinating Committee (CC) will meet twice each year. Once in March, which will be the main meeting to review performance of the previous Annual Operating Plan (annual reporting) and to prepare for the upcoming Annual Operating Plan (annual planning); and in October, to provide opportunity for site inspections and discussions around the adaptive management of the environmental water allocations.

3.1.3 Technical Advisory Committee The main function of the Barmah-Millewa Technical Advisory Committee is to provide technical advice to the CC with respect to the development and implementation of the co-ordinated Icon Site EMP, including advice to ensure appropriate monitoring activities are co-ordinated across the Icon Site.

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Membership of the TAC will be based on skills and consist of representatives from the following organisations:

FNSW;

DSE;

Parks Victoria;

MCMA;

GBCMA;

DNR;

Goulburn Murray Water (GMW);

MDBC (including River Murray Water); and

casual corresponding members, such as the NSW Department of Primary Industries (Fisheries), the Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre, the Arthur Rylah Institute and others, invited as required.

It is anticipated that the TAC will meet on an as-needs basis, with co-ordination and chairing the responsibility of the Icon Site Manager or their delegate.

3.1.4 Consultation Reference Group As set out in paragraph 135 of the Living Murray Business Plan, Icon Site managers will establish an inclusive Consultation Reference Group at the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site (see Appendix K for Terms of Reference).

The main functions of the CRG are:

to provide community advice to the CC with respect to the development and implementation of the co-ordinated Icon Site EMP, and

to provide advice on consultation with regional and local groups that have an interest in the management of the site.

Membership of the CRG has been determined based on being able to demonstrate the following attributes:

spiritual, social, economic or environmental connection to the Barmah-Millewa Forest;

involvement in community groups with an interest in the forest;

experiences and/or skills in leadership, negotiation, community consultation and communication; and

knowledge or experience in water, wetland and/or forest management.

The Goulburn Broken CMA has recommended that Victorian membership be drawn from the Shepparton Irrigation Region Implementation Committee. In addition, the Murray CMA will select up to nine members (based either in Victoria and New South Wales) using an expression of interest process. Indigenous membership is yet to be determined, however consultation with Indigenous communities will occur.

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The role of Chairperson of the CRG will be alternated annually between the relevant CMAs. Goulburn Broken CMA will provide the Chairperson in 2006.

It is anticipated that the CRG will meet on an as-needs basis.

3.1.5 Project Officer A Barmah-Millewa Forest Project Officer is housed by, and reports to, the CMAs, however, their activities are directed by the Icon Site managers. The Project Officer is an ex-officio member of the CC, TAC and CRG and assists the Icon Site managers with planning and implementation of the co-ordinated Icon Site EMP.

3.2 Financial arrangements The Murray-Darling Basin Commission will provide an annual budget to employ a Project Officer and to plan, implement and report on water management activities undertaken through TLM at the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site.

The Living Murray Environmental Works and Measures Program (EWMP) will be the funding source for works and measures specifically designed to achieve the ecological objectives at Barmah-Millewa (See Part A Section 6 for more information on EMWP activities at the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site).

3.3 Roles and Responsibilities for Operating the River Murray System Operation of the River Murray system is directed by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission’s operational arm, River Murray Water (RMW), according to the provisions of the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement and an evolving set of provisions agreed to by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission. This role has its origins with the establishment of the River Murray Commission in 1917.

RMW has responsibility for directing river operations, overseeing Icon Site management and modelling to support operational decisions and policy development. The River Murray system structures include:

four major storages - Dartmouth and Hume Dams, Menindee Lakes (when under MDBC control) and Lake Victoria;

Yarrawonga Weir;

thirteen weirs and locks;

five barrages located near the river mouth, forming Lakes Alexandrina and Albert; and

a number of flow regulating structures (such as Barmah-Millewa Forest regulators).

With regard to the implementation of environmental management activities in this plan, RMW will:

provide advice during the development of environmental flow rules and procedures to ensure their operational feasibility;

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provide the system wide context for environmental watering through the Annual Operating Plan for the entire River Murray system (this plan is continually updated to account for changing conditions as the year progresses);

make operational decisions for River Murray System flow control works (large and small) and issue instructions to the relevant state operating authorities – to do this RMW coordinates River Murray system water management with that of the Snowy Scheme and state managed river systems;

during ‘real time’ environmental events

monitor river levels and flows

provide forecast flow patterns

provide advice on the availability of ‘surplus’ river flows

issue instructions to flow control structures for the management of flows and river levels including regulator openings in coordination with advice from each Icon Site EMP

keep operational water and environmental accounts

oversee a program by state constructing authorities to construct, operate, maintain and renew assets (infrastructure works) on its Assets Register.

System operation is complex given the level of development for consumptive use, the long travel times, location and capacity of both assets and major diverters and channel capacity constraints across the length of the system.

The Water Liaison Committee is the forum through which the partner governments share in making day to day decisions regarding water delivery and water accounting.

The EWG has agreed to establish clearly defined roles and responsibilities for the management arrangements in this plan and other Icon Site EMPs. However, pending this review, and for specific flow events affecting operation of River Murray system works at specific locations, event management groups will continue to be convened by River Murray Water in co-operation with the River Murray Environmental Management Unit. These groups bring together key representatives of natural resource agencies, catchment management organisations, constructing authorities and community interest groups as necessary to ensure a coordinated response.

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4 Community Engagement Community engagement in the development, implementation and monitoring of plans, works and actions related to the application of water at the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site will be via two avenues.

The Consultation Reference Group (CRG) will provide community advice to the Coordinating Committee (CC) on ecological objectives, water management and complementary land management activities. The CC has sought advice from the key community leaders on the establishment and terms of reference and operating rules for this group. For more information on the CRG refer to Section 3.1.4 above.

In addition, upon advice from the CRG, the CC will facilitate targeted as well as broad community input with people and groups that have an interest in water management within the Icon Site.

A parallel process will be developed that encourages the engagement of Indigenous people in the project (see Section 4.4 below).

4.1 Community Engagement Strategy Community leaders have provided advice on the principles and processes to be incorporated into a Community Engagement Strategy that will provide strategic direction as well as action plans for ensuring community engagement objectives and priorities are met. The CRG will be responsible for the refinement of the Community Engagement Strategy to ensure engagement mechanisms are appropriate to the target stakeholders and that risks to the overall engagement strategy are minimised. The strategy will be constantly monitored and reviewed to accommodate community input.

4.2 Objectives Community engagement for the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site will be focused around ensuring:

1. The community is informed of the context, history, proposed processes, constraints and opportunities for water management in the Barmah-Millewa Forest to enable them to engage actively in debate relating to the water management in the Barmah-Millewa Forest; and,

2. The community has opportunities for involvement and input in the development and implementation of the Icon Site EMP, including providing advice on desirable ecological objectives, watering requirements, works and monitoring to ensure community values and knowledge are considered in decision making and accommodated within the Icon Site EMP and actions.

4.3 Priorities Upon discussing drafting of the second Icon Site EMP, the CC decided that there was insufficient time before the second draft is due to The Living Murray Board to allow meaningful consideration. It is intended to review the plan in the next 6 months following a community consultation and awareness program. Immediate attention will also focus on:

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scheduling the inaugural meeting of CRG (September 2006);

finalise a model for broad community engagement with community input (Finalise October 2006); and

work with Indigenous communities to develop an agreed approach to engaging Indigenous peoples which respect jurisdiction’s legislation and other agreements and related processes while providing an inclusive process (Finalise October 2006).

4.4 Indigenous engagement Icon Site managers and CMAs will work with Indigenous communities to ensure Indigenous people are included in water planning and management at the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site.

4.4.1 Victoria [Information sourced from DSE & GBCMA 2005]

In Victoria, the Yorta Yorta Cooperative Management Agreement between the Victorian Government and the Yorta Yorta Nations Aboriginal Corporation provides for the establishment of the Yorta Yorta Joint Body, representing the Yorta Yorta people and the Government of Victoria, to provide advice to the Minister for Environment on the management of a range of designated lands, including the Barmah Forest.

This joint body is to ensure that there is adequate involvement of the Yorta Yorta people in any decisions as to land management and works programs in the forest, on the basis of ‘informed consent’ by the Yorta Yorta people.

Consultation with the Yorta Yorta people will require a process of presentation and discussion with a range of groups within the Yorta Yorta Nations Aboriginal Corporation, to ensure that all relevant family groups understand the proposals and have the opportunity to provide their views as part of the overall input by the Yorta Yorta people through the joint body.

The Yorta Yorta Cooperative Management Agreement was signed in June 2004. The appointment of Yorta Yorta Joint Body members was completed on 21 November 2005, consisting of five Yorta Yorta representatives and three Government representatives (two individuals from Victorian DSE and one from Parks Victoria). The group is now in operation.

4.4.2 New South Wales In New South Wales, Indigenous consultation will be undertaken in an inclusive manner through the establishment of an appropriate Indigenous reference group. This process will allow for a broad range of interested parties to be consulted with, as well as allowing the NSW government to fulfil its statutory obligations to consult on land management activities with recognised Local Aboriginal Land Council/s (LALC). The Cummeragunja LALC is the LALC with jurisdiction over the Millewa group of forests.

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4.4.3 MDBC TLM Indigenous Partnerships Project The Living Murray Indigenous Partnerships Project Plan has been approved by The Living Murray Committee to help ensure Indigenous community knowledge, values and perspectives are taken into consideration in the Icon Site EMPs. The TLM Indigenous Partnerships Project provides the principles and outlines the approach for Indigenous engagement with respect to the TLM. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN) and the MDBC was signed on 23 March 2006 in Albury. This MOU provides for engagement with Traditional Owners along the length of the River Murray and across state boundaries, while being inclusive of formal jurisdictional arrangements.

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5 Objectives and Targets Ecological objectives (ie. the overall goals of the Icon Site EMP) and targets (ie. the desired outcomes of specific management actions against which progress can be measured toward objectives) will be re-investigated and refined over the coming years in conjunction with adaptive management principles and advances in knowledge.

In 2006-2007, water planning and management activities at the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site will work towards achieving the TLM interim ecological objective for Barmah-Millewa as detailed below.

5.1 TLM interim Ecological Objective for Barmah-Millewa Icon Site In its decision on the First Step for The Living Murray, the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council set interim ecological objectives and expected outcomes for each of the Icon Sites (MDBC, 2003). For the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site, the interim ecological objective is to enhance forest, fish and wildlife values, ensuring:

• successful breeding of thousands of colonial waterbirds in at least three years in ten; and

• healthy vegetation in at least 55% of the area of the forest (including virtually all of the Giant Rush, Moira Grass, River Red Gum forest, and some River Red Gum woodland). (MDBC 2003)

5.2 Refined Ecological Objectives As an Icon Site under The Living Murray, the Barmah-Millewa Forest has inherited many broad objectives from existing state, federal/Murray-Darling Basin and international management responsibilities, all of which are generally complementary (see Appendix H for existing objectives of some relevant management and planning documents). Objectives and targets set out in the ‘Asset Environmental Management Plan: Barmah Significant Environmental Asset – Draft 11 May 2005’ (which have already been consulted on in Victoria) form part of these existing objectives and can be found in Appendix H.

Upon initial consideration of these existing objectives, the Ramsar objective ‘to maintain and, where practicable, enhance ecological character of floodplain’ was identified as the pre-eminent legal obligation and over-arching objective to adopt at the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site along with TLM ecological objective, which would prevent the existing objectives from being compromised.

The process for refining ecological objectives is set out below in Section 5.4.

5.3 Ecological Targets The two First Step decision targets for vegetation and waterbird breeding (see above) will be adopted in this draft of the Icon Site EMP. Further ecological targets will be developed and refined as part of an ongoing environmental performance evaluation (EPE) process as outlined below in Section 5.4, which gives due consideration to existing management obligations.

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5.4 Process for determining and reviewing whole-of-Icon Site objectives and targets The process to develop and review water-related objectives and targets for the combined Icon Site will be undertaken by the CC with community input through the assistance of the CRG and through the Indigenous consultation process.

To assist this process, the TAC has been asked to develop an environmental performance evaluation (EPE) process. The EPE process will also help to guide the formation of a comprehensive monitoring program for future versions of the Icon Site EMP. Refer to Appendix J which outlines the EPE approach taken to date.

Whole-of-Icon Site objectives and targets will be reviewed on an annual basis through the wider Icon Site EMP reporting and review process (see Section 9).

Figure 7: A reduction in exotic fish species, such as European Carp (Cyprinus carpio) pictured above, could be desired ecological target (Photo by A. Webb)

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6 Water Requirements of the Icon Site

6.1 Broad description of Barmah-Millewa Icon Site water requirements The ecological communities within the Barmah-Millewa Forest have evolved over time to a flooding regime that is dictated by the combination of natural seasonal flows and the effect of the constrained reach known as the Narrows or Barmah Choke. The water requirements of the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site can generally be described as the flooding regime that occurred under natural (ie. pre-regulation) conditions.

Table 1 shows the flood frequencies experienced by some of the major vegetation communities at the Barmah-Millewa Forest prior to regulation, and hence what could be described as their ideal flooding regime.

Table 1: Flood frequencies of the major Barmah-Millewa Forest vegetation communities before river regulation

Source: Sharley and Huggan (1995), Ward (1991), Roberts and Marston (2000), Bren et al. (1988), Leitch (1989) and Dexter (1978) all cited in DSE & GBCMA 2005.

Vegetation community

Flood frequency (percentage of

years with inundation)

Duration Season

Giant Rush 75% – 100% 7 – 10 months Winter – mid-

Summer

Moira Grass 65% – 100% 5 – 9 months (no more

than 10 months; minimum depth 0.5 m

Winter – mid-Summer;

2-3 months dry in late-Summer – early-Autumn

River Red Gum forest 40% – 92% 5 months Winter – Spring

River Red Gum woodland

33% – 46% 1 – 2 months Spring

River Red Gum/Black Box woodland

14% – 33% 1 – 4 months Winter – Spring

Figure 8 indicates ‘commence to flow’ discharges of main vegetation associations in Barmah-Millewa. ‘Effective flooding’ (ie. with a minimum required depth of water) of these communities occurs at higher discharges.

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0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000

Peak discharge in flood period (ML/d)

Area

of B

arm

ah in

unda

ted

(ha)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Per

cent

age

of to

tal a

rea

inun

date

d

0 150 350 555 780 1,070 1,560 2,250 3 22

Maximum monthly discharge in flood period (GL/month)

Open w ater/Giant rush

Moira grass Plain

Redgum Forest

Redgum Woodland

Redgum/Black box Woodland

Figure 8: Area of Barmah Forest inundated as a function of River Murray instantaneous flood peak and monthly peak discharge at Tocumwal (for instantaneous peak discharge) and Yarrawonga (for monthly total discharge). Data sources are Bren et al. (1987), Bren et al. (1988) and REG C (2003) as cited in DSE & GBCMA, 2005.

DSE & GBCMA (2005) describe flooding conditions specifically required by River Red Gum, the dominant overstorey species at the Icon Site, as follows:

‘The flooding requirement of river red gum has been studied in detail at Barmah Forest in Victoria (Dexter 1978). Shallow and short duration (one month) floods are less effective than long-duration floods, because they only water trees close to the channel and because soil moisture rapidly returns to pre-flood levels (Young 2001). The critical time in regeneration is seedling establishment, rather than germination (which does not strictly depend on flooding). The best time for floods to recede is Spring-early Summer (Dexter 1978). Seedlings cope with Summer heat stress by accessing soil water.’

Regulation of the Murray (ie. construction and operation of weirs, dams and other regulators for diversions from the river system) has altered the natural hydrologic regime (DSE, 2003 in DSE & GBCMA, 2005). A comparison of floods in the Barmah-Millewa Forests under ‘natural conditions’ (ie. a non-regulated water regime) and ‘current conditions’ (ie. with current level of development as identified by MDBC simulation model) in Figure 6, illustrates the effect of regulation on the size and frequency of flooding in the Barmah-Millewa Forest. The different colours reflect different degrees of inundation of the floodplain, with minor inflows occurring around 300 GL/m, medium floods at around 500 GL/m, and very large floods at over 900 GL/m.

Under natural conditions, 70% of the forest would be flooded for an average of 2.9 months in 78% of years. Since regulation, this level of flooding is only experienced for an average of 1.3 months in 37% of years. However, small localised flooding, covering less than 10% of the forest, occur at least eight times more frequently since regulation began and this flooding is also much more likely to occur

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between December and April (DSE, 2003). Overall, this has manifested in reducing the flood return frequency and inundation duration to the major vegetation communities and associated fauna in the forest.

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July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun YEAR (June) July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

6,200 9,900 1891 3,700 3,10041,100 26,100 19,300 17,000 16,200 9,600 5,400 3,000 2,500 3,200 6,700 16,300 1892 12,600 12,400 13,700 9,500 9,900 11,300 10,600 10,300 10,700 10,800 3,900 7,90018,300 17,500 31,100 31,200 41,600 14,400 5,900 3,000 3,000 3,300 5,900 32,200 1893 9,000 8,200 11,100 6,500 29,900 8,300 10,700 10,600 10,600 9,700 3,900 16,30033,800 31,000 47,000 56,000 26,500 10,800 14,200 5,300 6,100 11,500 10,600 30,100 1894 16,000 8,800 39,200 42,400 18,800 12,900 10,600 10,600 8,200 6,600 5,700 22,10050,400 55,100 67,600 63,100 34,700 13,900 9,000 5,800 5,000 4,700 7,200 14,000 1895 42,000 52,200 62,900 57,300 27,200 12,900 8,200 10,900 10,900 10,200 3,700 6,60020,000 17,600 51,500 25,900 10,000 7,200 3,900 3,500 4,000 7,500 10,200 7,500 1896 8,500 16,800 37,900 15,300 9,400 9,500 10,700 10,300 9,900 7,800 3,500 3,30016,600 8,400 21,400 18,400 9,000 6,500 10,700 7,100 4,800 3,100 2,700 4,300 1897 7,500 9,700 5,900 10,300 11,200 12,400 10,500 10,200 10,600 8,800 2,700 2,20012,100 15,900 31,300 24,600 10,800 4,600 2,400 5,300 3,100 3,400 4,800 15,400 1898 5,200 6,600 8,600 11,200 10,300 12,200 10,600 10,900 10,600 9,500 4,500 8,20011,100 24,400 26,300 18,600 26,100 9,000 4,900 3,300 4,100 8,900 7,300 18,400 1899 5,100 8,800 8,600 10,400 11,100 8,800 9,600 10,500 9,300 9,800 3,900 10,50021,600 17,200 13,000 13,100 9,900 4,600 3,100 2,000 5,600 12,800 11,700 14,800 1900 9,500 6,500 8,500 8,500 14,700 13,700 10,800 10,600 9,800 7,800 5,000 6,60028,000 27,200 38,800 26,600 13,200 6,000 3,100 1,700 1,600 1,900 3,900 7,900 1901 11,300 12,800 12,900 18,700 18,800 13,700 10,900 10,600 10,600 9,400 4,400 3,000

5,600 11,100 33,000 25,700 24,700 5,400 3,400 1,700 1,400 2,300 1,400 6,400 1902 2,700 7,800 10,100 9,500 11,500 13,700 9,500 9,400 8,800 5,300 4,500 2,8006,600 3,000 4,900 8,700 3,000 3,700 2,200 900 1,500 3,100 5,200 8,700 1903 3,300 11,100 7,200 7,000 10,500 5,600 10,400 6,700 5,900 5,000 3,000 4,700

21,700 12,000 22,200 24,800 13,700 6,800 8,400 4,200 2,800 2,000 4,100 8,900 1904 11,600 6,300 7,000 9,700 13,600 7,800 7,000 10,000 9,100 7,400 3,800 3,70024,800 21,400 28,300 32,000 26,200 7,300 3,300 2,000 1,300 2,100 2,600 11,500 1905 13,100 10,100 10,100 10,300 9,700 10,100 9,100 8,700 10,600 6,900 3,600 4,90047,100 28,400 21,000 26,300 30,700 12,500 4,000 1,700 8,600 6,600 13,300 27,200 1906 23,800 12,500 6,100 6,900 10,500 10,200 10,600 9,200 8,500 3,200 4,400 13,10052,500 46,300 51,000 67,100 27,000 22,600 8,900 4,800 3,000 3,600 6,200 8,900 1907 23,600 19,800 34,200 50,800 15,800 12,900 10,600 10,600 10,700 8,400 4,100 4,000

7,900 23,700 17,100 18,600 15,100 7,500 4,800 2,700 2,000 1,800 3,900 7,000 1908 4,100 11,500 11,100 9,900 10,100 12,800 10,600 9,700 10,600 8,700 2,600 3,10011,500 12,800 24,200 25,300 12,400 4,400 2,100 1,700 3,200 3,100 17,400 32,900 1909 6,200 6,900 8,100 11,500 10,600 9,800 9,100 9,000 8,800 7,200 9,100 17,70038,600 68,900 37,100 26,500 12,400 5,600 3,000 2,100 2,000 1,700 2,700 5,600 1910 16,500 30,900 14,200 10,100 10,000 13,700 10,200 10,100 8,400 7,900 4,000 2,90015,300 11,900 42,000 29,300 19,800 14,000 8,900 14,800 15,200 8,000 7,300 26,900 1911 9,400 5,600 21,900 16,100 16,800 13,100 10,600 11,800 10,600 10,600 5,200 14,90027,300 29,000 18,900 13,200 7,100 5,400 3,000 1,700 1,500 2,000 1,700 2,900 1912 12,400 9,500 7,900 8,600 10,500 8,700 10,600 9,800 9,500 7,600 3,100 1,80012,100 10,300 44,300 25,800 15,400 19,900 9,000 3,400 7,700 7,500 7,400 9,700 1913 5,900 7,600 19,300 8,800 10,100 8,400 10,600 10,800 8,200 9,700 4,200 2,70010,500 17,100 21,000 22,900 17,000 7,400 3,400 2,200 2,100 3,300 7,500 5,800 1914 3,900 8,500 7,700 6,300 9,900 10,800 10,600 10,600 9,200 6,000 2,100 2,500

7,100 6,500 7,400 4,200 1,400 2,400 1,700 800 500 700 3,800 9,000 1915 3,300 11,900 7,700 8,000 13,500 11,000 10,200 10,600 8,200 7,900 3,700 5,30032,600 42,200 32,500 52,800 27,700 9,400 4,100 3,500 3,100 2,500 4,100 7,500 1916 15,000 17,800 14,100 15,600 12,200 13,800 9,800 9,400 10,600 9,200 3,700 2,90040,900 38,300 50,100 55,900 52,200 41,700 14,000 7,700 7,100 8,300 19,400 84,100 1917 20,400 18,600 22,900 30,600 38,800 27,600 8,400 10,400 10,800 10,500 10,800 52,30071,400 75,700 96,500 119,300 58,400 29,600 12,700 10,400 9,000 7,100 34,400 32,800 1918 55,800 68,900 81,500 102,500 51,800 22,100 9,600 11,400 10,300 8,400 28,100 36,30045,300 47,000 45,500 22,600 13,600 7,100 4,100 2,900 4,300 3,700 5,900 12,300 1919 41,300 43,500 39,600 13,200 9,800 10,800 10,600 9,800 9,800 7,800 3,500 4,30011,800 12,000 19,200 19,500 7,500 5,600 12,600 4,600 3,000 2,800 4,000 12,500 1920 4,900 8,800 6,000 16,000 18,200 13,800 10,700 10,100 10,400 9,200 2,900 5,00043,200 48,100 55,400 30,900 18,700 9,500 7,600 4,300 4,800 5,500 4,000 20,000 1921 14,800 19,000 21,900 16,100 16,700 12,900 10,000 9,200 10,800 9,500 5,400 10,40018,100 52,800 65,000 47,900 18,700 8,400 5,200 3,200 3,000 2,400 5,100 4,000 1922 9,600 23,000 25,500 35,400 11,200 9,300 10,700 10,600 10,600 9,900 4,100 1,90017,200 20,300 18,500 22,500 11,100 4,100 3,200 1,700 1,000 1,100 4,900 36,300 1923 7,400 5,000 4,800 7,900 10,500 9,900 10,500 10,600 10,600 9,900 2,400 15,70034,400 32,500 27,900 49,400 31,200 17,700 13,800 10,800 7,600 9,600 7,800 15,800 1924 17,200 17,500 7,900 11,800 16,400 8,200 10,600 10,600 10,500 8,100 5,200 7,80011,400 23,200 52,700 44,100 42,800 20,300 15,200 11,600 7,200 5,100 6,800 9,500 1925 4,900 18,500 40,800 32,400 35,900 14,500 7,800 10,400 10,700 10,800 4,900 3,30012,000 24,100 28,000 25,400 14,700 5,700 3,100 1,600 3,000 4,500 25,500 22,300 1926 4,700 12,200 22,800 13,600 10,500 11,000 10,600 10,600 8,300 4,300 13,400 12,30037,200 49,000 37,500 36,500 15,600 7,400 5,800 2,700 2,200 2,000 3,800 5,500 1927 14,500 35,500 33,400 26,800 9,600 9,600 10,600 10,700 10,600 10,000 4,200 1,90012,300 23,800 19,100 28,900 16,600 6,000 3,000 6,600 6,700 13,000 12,200 24,900 1928 5,200 9,000 6,300 14,400 12,300 13,700 10,700 7,700 9,600 9,700 7,300 14,80020,000 14,600 16,500 41,200 19,300 6,100 2,700 2,700 2,200 5,900 6,300 13,600 1929 10,400 7,700 7,400 14,500 8,700 11,300 10,600 10,700 10,000 6,700 2,800 6,30012,100 17,800 21,600 30,100 13,000 8,400 6,500 2,400 1,700 1,600 5,900 6,200 1930 5,300 9,600 6,200 16,100 16,700 12,900 10,700 10,600 10,700 10,400 3,500 1,800

7,900 21,400 19,300 45,700 25,400 16,900 16,300 6,300 10,600 13,100 28,900 79,200 1931 2,600 7,900 10,800 14,300 8,400 5,500 10,700 10,800 9,800 6,200 20,200 44,00087,300 58,800 52,800 36,600 24,800 10,700 4,100 2,900 5,300 20,400 10,100 21,800 1932 70,300 52,300 40,400 23,400 17,100 12,900 10,600 9,800 8,900 11,500 4,700 13,00031,300 22,400 61,000 25,800 16,100 6,900 3,500 2,300 1,600 2,000 3,600 7,300 1933 14,000 17,300 50,800 16,600 9,600 9,500 10,200 10,600 10,700 10,000 4,600 2,70019,200 14,700 45,000 29,300 9,800 15,600 12,900 5,400 4,700 7,200 6,300 4,300 1934 7,400 3,500 16,000 11,800 8,400 10,000 10,200 9,300 10,400 8,200 3,200 1,80020,800 28,000 28,100 53,000 62,900 33,400 11,500 7,600 5,000 10,400 14,900 14,200 1935 8,400 9,500 8,400 47,700 51,300 26,000 8,800 10,600 10,600 6,700 4,100 7,60025,500 45,900 39,600 29,900 21,000 10,100 7,300 4,200 4,600 4,800 4,600 6,900 1936 22,400 45,000 35,600 22,400 11,500 10,000 8,700 9,600 10,700 9,900 5,700 2,30024,700 59,200 44,400 21,500 14,900 14,100 9,700 5,800 4,100 3,100 4,200 4,900 1937 9,200 30,400 37,900 9,900 10,000 12,300 8,600 10,900 10,700 10,300 3,800 1,800

4,900 8,000 24,600 18,700 8,900 4,400 2,900 2,300 1,900 1,900 3,400 5,100 1938 3,100 10,000 7,900 13,200 16,400 13,700 10,700 10,500 10,700 10,800 3,300 2,4008,400 7,600 13,800 8,400 3,500 1,500 800 800 19,600 22,100 16,900 20,900 1939 4,000 5,300 8,400 9,300 16,700 11,600 8,000 9,100 11,500 15,200 8,500 11,200

48,500 56,600 68,700 49,600 44,900 16,900 6,900 3,500 2,300 3,900 6,000 6,600 1940 19,300 27,200 54,400 34,000 29,300 12,900 10,500 10,200 10,700 9,300 2,400 2,3006,200 8,700 11,000 8,600 4,600 3,800 10,400 5,000 5,600 4,600 3,100 5,300 1941 2,500 8,900 6,900 8,800 19,400 10,400 8,200 10,600 10,700 10,600 4,600 2,200

14,300 9,200 12,100 19,900 8,800 4,200 2,300 1,900 1,300 1,700 13,500 25,000 1942 6,400 7,400 7,900 7,500 10,400 8,900 10,000 7,800 9,100 6,900 6,600 12,30055,600 33,700 51,300 34,900 20,200 9,900 5,500 3,100 2,200 7,200 7,900 6,900 1943 24,900 14,200 17,400 10,600 10,500 9,800 9,700 9,400 10,600 9,200 4,300 2,60014,500 19,700 26,000 34,800 17,500 7,500 2,900 1,600 1,500 1,900 8,800 9,100 1944 6,400 8,000 10,100 10,900 11,300 13,100 10,600 9,000 8,900 8,500 4,000 4,30010,200 7,100 5,700 6,400 4,700 2,400 1,800 2,500 1,400 1,800 1,700 4,900 1945 4,200 12,000 7,100 6,900 9,800 13,200 9,000 10,600 8,400 8,000 3,800 2,400

7,200 21,100 25,400 13,700 18,900 5,200 2,300 4,300 9,500 7,600 5,500 10,000 1946 3,000 9,500 12,200 7,900 12,200 8,600 8,700 6,800 10,400 9,400 5,200 3,60043,000 59,500 25,700 23,900 18,800 8,300 4,800 2,800 3,300 3,600 3,700 10,200 1947 19,700 20,700 9,700 9,500 10,000 13,700 10,600 10,000 10,500 8,300 4,200 4,10034,300 35,300 43,200 44,200 34,200 16,200 11,000 6,100 3,800 3,600 10,100 13,400 1948 14,200 16,800 12,200 21,300 16,700 12,900 10,600 10,300 10,600 11,000 7,400 4,90010,500 14,400 19,400 21,900 39,700 10,300 5,800 2,800 4,000 3,400 4,100 6,100 1949 4,900 10,300 8,800 7,200 10,900 8,200 10,600 10,500 7,700 9,600 4,000 2,50010,200 15,300 21,800 29,600 43,700 14,600 5,400 6,600 6,300 13,100 4,800 8,000 1950 4,300 9,200 8,000 11,300 11,800 13,700 10,300 10,300 7,300 8,500 4,900 2,50012,400 17,400 21,500 29,200 31,800 10,400 5,500 3,000 2,600 4,300 10,500 28,500 1951 3,900 8,800 5,900 6,700 8,700 10,100 10,500 9,800 10,600 8,100 4,200 11,80044,700 51,700 31,900 32,700 23,600 9,500 4,000 1,800 2,400 5,200 13,300 76,300 1952 21,600 38,600 26,900 21,800 15,300 9,500 10,600 10,200 10,700 6,100 3,300 37,60061,200 34,300 61,900 39,400 52,300 36,500 12,500 7,700 3,700 3,300 5,700 8,900 1953 49,900 34,800 54,500 35,600 44,900 29,700 8,500 10,300 10,700 10,200 4,700 3,80023,500 51,900 41,600 60,300 41,700 15,100 6,600 9,200 3,900 3,900 6,500 9,300 1954 12,300 44,400 38,700 49,800 32,900 12,900 10,500 10,800 10,700 8,100 3,100 4,400

9,700 16,600 24,700 11,300 29,500 24,000 6,800 9,200 8,600 5,400 6,800 17,000 1955 4,000 10,400 8,000 7,000 10,400 21,000 9,400 9,500 11,200 9,400 3,600 8,80037,000 92,900 73,900 73,300 48,200 17,600 16,600 9,700 11,800 56,500 61,200 81,700 1956 20,100 89,900 67,400 65,000 39,400 12,900 10,100 9,300 11,000 42,700 56,600 85,500

108,200 77,900 63,600 69,100 46,000 21,000 8,700 5,700 5,300 4,200 5,900 6,700 1957 113,700 80,500 63,100 63,500 37,500 13,600 10,500 10,000 9,700 7,400 3,300 2,70020,500 13,300 13,800 19,800 13,800 6,000 7,100 4,400 3,600 3,800 8,100 19,800 1958 7,400 12,800 8,500 10,400 14,200 10,500 10,800 10,100 10,800 8,900 4,700 5,80025,100 90,100 38,400 70,700 38,200 13,200 5,800 5,100 5,900 6,800 3,800 4,400 1959 9,700 50,700 38,500 60,700 31,300 12,900 10,900 11,000 11,200 10,400 3,300 1,800

6,500 14,600 22,600 23,300 15,100 6,000 4,000 2,500 1,800 2,500 23,600 23,600 1960 3,200 9,800 9,600 5,400 11,600 8,400 9,400 10,200 10,700 8,700 11,000 17,90031,800 65,600 40,500 52,600 23,600 14,800 6,600 3,000 3,100 5,400 5,800 7,300 1961 11,400 28,900 40,600 39,200 14,500 9,900 10,400 10,600 10,200 6,500 4,300 2,40013,300 18,900 20,700 15,600 8,600 6,800 3,900 3,700 2,100 2,800 4,700 24,600 1962 5,700 8,400 10,300 8,900 10,000 13,700 8,900 10,300 10,400 9,800 4,900 13,50015,000 25,800 19,700 25,800 17,100 8,200 6,400 5,200 2,000 2,300 6,100 9,500 1963 7,700 10,100 8,100 10,600 9,100 9,000 8,600 10,000 10,800 8,000 3,700 5,10012,400 26,500 30,700 26,200 19,000 8,600 3,200 2,500 2,200 2,300 3,700 9,100 1964 6,500 14,500 11,400 16,500 16,800 14,200 10,800 10,600 10,700 9,900 4,600 5,30068,300 47,800 49,000 80,200 31,700 13,100 5,400 2,500 1,700 1,900 2,800 3,800 1965 28,100 22,700 17,200 59,200 17,900 12,900 10,700 10,700 10,600 9,800 3,600 1,800

3,900 17,800 28,600 14,000 10,400 10,200 2,500 2,300 2,600 2,700 4,800 8,000 1966 2,000 9,200 13,200 13,100 8,400 12,700 10,800 9,800 11,000 10,200 4,400 2,80011,400 27,900 38,400 44,400 25,900 33,300 10,000 4,000 2,500 2,700 1,700 2,000 1967 5,200 13,400 19,700 17,200 16,700 14,800 10,500 10,700 10,700 10,400 4,500 2,100

3,400 6,000 9,000 12,500 3,400 1,700 1,000 700 500 1,200 12,000 37,900 1968 2,100 5,200 6,400 13,800 20,700 13,800 8,700 9,100 10,600 8,800 7,200 20,00013,500 37,700 34,300 48,300 32,800 12,700 6,700 3,500 4,000 7,600 7,400 14,200 1969 7,100 17,600 13,500 15,000 9,700 13,700 10,700 10,100 8,900 8,700 4,100 4,10033,600 32,000 39,400 23,500 19,700 13,300 12,800 10,000 10,000 12,100 18,900 19,000 1970 11,200 15,200 33,700 11,900 12,300 9,300 10,000 10,300 10,200 5,800 7,200 9,20032,900 42,700 87,200 50,500 29,100 15,500 9,200 12,500 7,900 6,900 16,800 15,900 1971 13,600 41,200 75,100 32,600 18,900 12,900 11,400 10,600 11,200 8,300 6,000 7,80016,500 19,000 36,600 51,300 47,300 17,900 14,400 8,900 6,000 4,500 6,200 4,600 1972 7,800 9,700 29,500 31,700 39,400 12,300 9,700 10,600 10,700 9,500 3,500 1,90012,800 17,200 22,800 11,600 6,300 3,500 1,800 9,800 6,200 9,700 32,400 27,000 1973 6,100 7,300 10,700 10,300 10,400 11,100 11,000 12,600 8,500 6,700 16,400 14,80045,700 58,200 89,000 46,000 34,200 12,500 29,200 9,300 5,700 13,600 54,100 23,000 1974 17,900 43,700 86,600 47,400 28,200 12,900 19,700 13,300 8,400 8,800 49,500 28,20070,700 83,100 79,900 91,100 55,400 15,200 7,100 6,500 5,500 6,700 14,100 13,400 1975 48,500 82,100 82,000 86,200 49,400 13,000 10,300 10,900 9,700 7,300 5,800 4,60035,100 47,400 76,600 80,600 66,300 19,700 11,300 6,900 6,100 4,800 4,400 5,100 1976 14,300 45,800 76,000 88,000 57,600 17,700 9,800 9,600 10,700 10,000 4,600 1,800

5,500 10,800 13,700 36,900 14,500 9,000 6,800 4,600 5,800 6,300 5,200 11,500 1977 1,900 8,000 7,700 9,300 9,100 9,200 10,900 10,500 10,500 7,900 3,900 3,90017,500 20,700 16,500 15,100 7,300 3,800 3,800 3,600 3,900 6,300 6,800 19,300 1978 7,300 8,500 8,300 8,600 10,100 10,700 10,800 10,500 9,700 4,400 3,400 6,40028,200 46,000 33,500 41,000 24,400 18,400 7,300 3,300 3,200 3,900 3,400 6,000 1979 13,000 19,600 8,700 27,200 16,300 12,900 10,900 10,800 10,800 8,100 3,000 2,700

8,600 13,800 38,100 58,300 17,700 6,800 3,900 2,900 2,600 2,100 2,800 4,100 1980 4,300 9,000 21,100 44,200 8,700 10,500 10,700 10,300 10,800 7,900 2,700 1,80013,700 26,600 32,700 24,400 18,700 12,100 5,200 4,300 3,100 2,300 2,700 15,600 1981 6,800 11,000 9,700 11,000 17,500 14,100 9,600 9,300 9,600 10,600 4,900 8,10088,500 111,100 55,900 41,700 18,200 10,100 5,600 4,200 2,900 3,200 4,000 7,100 1982 44,500 62,600 42,200 25,900 10,700 13,100 11,500 10,600 10,800 10,400 3,800 2,800

4,700 5,300 7,900 5,300 2,200 1,500 1,100 900 2,300 6,000 10,600 17,700 1983 3,100 11,600 9,300 11,100 18,100 13,700 10,700 8,900 6,600 9,200 4,700 7,20022,900 37,200 76,600 42,800 20,500 16,900 11,100 9,200 5,200 6,100 5,100 4,800 1984 10,500 20,900 29,500 16,100 16,700 12,400 11,100 10,400 11,000 9,700 5,400 1,900

7,200 39,600 63,100 51,200 14,800 6,000 3,600 3,000 3,600 3,600 3,700 9,500 1985 3,100 17,300 17,600 30,700 9,400 10,400 10,700 10,600 10,900 8,700 3,400 4,2008,500 33,600 36,300 16,400 14,700 13,500 6,300 3,500 2,000 1,500 4,600 5,100 1986 4,200 19,400 12,800 11,400 10,500 8,200 10,600 10,700 10,700 9,700 4,200 2,800

51,400 49,800 34,600 52,300 43,000 17,200 8,500 4,200 4,600 4,400 7,100 17,700 1987 28,900 19,700 12,300 18,400 24,600 8,100 10,500 10,400 10,700 8,300 3,800 10,00031,200 28,500 21,800 17,200 9,100 7,400 4,400 3,400 3,000 2,900 6,100 22,400 1988 13,800 12,000 9,300 9,900 17,000 13,900 10,300 10,200 10,900 7,900 3,400 11,50028,500 30,500 28,500 19,000 12,900 28,200 11,600 3,800 7,400 17,900 16,500 35,900 1989 14,100 9,800 8,900 16,100 17,400 13,300 10,200 10,900 9,500 6,800 8,400 17,40024,500 40,300 42,100 29,900 29,200 10,500 4,800 3,800 3,200 6,300 10,600 12,000 1990 11,700 19,100 31,700 16,500 17,300 9,600 11,100 9,900 11,300 7,800 3,800 5,10075,500 79,200 46,400 40,500 25,400 7,700 6,400 4,100 2,500 3,000 2,500 6,800 1991 41,200 55,600 41,700 29,300 20,200 12,900 9,700 10,600 10,900 9,400 2,600 2,10023,300 36,400 64,700 38,100 13,900 7,300 7,400 4,300 3,500 2,700 6,600 10,900 1992 7,900 13,700 38,400 21,200 9,800 9,700 9,800 10,100 10,600 8,000 4,400 5,80011,900 29,400 63,100 96,200 42,000 31,600 17,100 11,400 8,900 8,600 5,600 10,200 1993 6,500 15,100 48,100 77,100 32,400 27,100 10,400 9,800 11,600 8,500 3,900 5,10030,300 46,200 53,200 71,500 32,000 20,100 19,000 10,800 8,300 6,400 5,700 11,400 1994 27,500 43,700 53,200 69,200 28,100 13,400 11,300 8,500 11,700 10,100 5,300 5,00013,200 11,500 10,500 12,800 13,800 7,700 6,600 7,700 4,700 3,700 14,500 40,000 1995 5,400 9,200 11,000 16,100 17,000 13,700 9,300 9,300 10,700 6,500 5,300 18,00065,100 41,800 31,300 25,200 28,800 19,500 11,400 6,700 7,700 6,800 8,400 10,400 1996 34,400 27,800 13,200 15,400 20,400 13,400 9,500 9,200 11,000 7,700 6,000 4,60031,600 74,500 41,900 91,800 23,200 12,400 8,700 5,100 3,500 3,100 3,800 5,800 1997 17,900 54,300 37,600 79,100 17,200 12,900 11,100 10,800 10,800 10,200 5,400 2,000

6,300 9,700 22,600 9,400 7,600 3,600 1,800 1,700 900 1,600 2,200 5,800 1998 2,800 9,300 7,600 11,800 9,600 10,600 11,000 10,300 10,900 7,100 2,800 2,10012,700 24,800 38,400 47,600 21,500 9,100 4,600 2,700 2,600 3,400 3,000 15,300 1999 5,000 8,800 23,500 16,100 16,700 12,900 10,700 10,300 10,200 10,000 4,700 6,50011,600 22,800 32,700 18,500 11,000 7,800 8,500 3,600 3,600 4,200 2000 5,000 11,200 12,700 9,100 12,000 7,600 10,500 9,300 10,900 9,400

<10,600 ML/day10,600 - 18,330 ML/day18,330 - 25,300 ML/day>25,300 ML/day

NATURAL CONDITIONS CURRENT CONDITIONS (average monthly flow, ML/day) (average monthly flow, ML/day)

Figure 9: Comparison of flood categories between natural and current conditions for downstream of Yarrawonga; 109 years of modelled record

Each row is a year, each column is a month. Shading corresponds to out of channel flows. Note: reduced floods in Spring, increased floods of low lying areas in Summer and Autumn. (Source: MDBC Monthly Simulation Model)

- In channel flows - Inundates up to 55% of Barmah-Millewa Forest - Inundates 55% - 66% of Barmah-Millewa Forest - Inundates > 66% of Barmah-Millewa Forest

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6.2 Water requirements to achieve objectives Until more specific objectives and targets are identified and adopted by the CC, with input via the community and Indigenous engagement processes and from the TAC, the water requirements as outlined above in Section 6 will be adopted to achieve the broad objectives.

Figure 10: Reed Beds North, Moira State Forest NSW, June 2003 (Photo by A. Webb)

In addition to Winter-Spring flooding, a Summer-Autumn drying phase is also important for maintaining wetland health – the timing of environmental water application needs to take into account appropriate wetting and drying cycles.

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7 Water Management Options

7.1 Existing environmental water The existing Environmental Water Allocation (EWA) for the Barmah-Millewa Forest will remain a separate parcel of water, for accounting purposes, to the 500 GL/year to be recovered and applied to the six Icon Sites under The First Step decision. In 2006-2007, the Barmah-Millewa Forest EWA will continue to be managed according to its interim operating rules and triggers (Appendix C). This however, will be undertaken in a manner complementary to achieving the ecological objective for this Icon Site.

DSE & GBCMA (2005) provide the following outline regarding arrangements surrounding the Barmah-Millewa Forest EWA:

‘[In 1993,] the Murray Darling Basin Ministerial Council authorised 100 GL/yr as an environmental water entitlement, to be drawn equally from the States of Victoria and NSW1, for the Barmah-Millewa wetland system, with the wetland system to be treated as a single unit using the single water allocation. Also, a lower security allocation of 50 GL (again to be contributed equitably from the States of Victoria and NSW) is to be provided in years where the irrigation water allocation in Victoria exceeds 130% (which occurs in 75-80% of years according to the model output for ‘current conditions’). This water, along with the high security 100 GL/yr allocation, can be accrued in storage as an EWA kitty up to a maximum 700 GL.’

The interim operating rules and triggers for the Barmah-Millewa allocation are detailed in Appendix C. These interim operating rules for storage and release of the EWA were adopted by the Murray Darling Basin Ministerial Council in March 2001 and were extended, in May 2006, until June 2007.

Recommended triggers for use of the environmental allocation have also been established. The objective of the triggers is to achieve the required frequency, duration and seasonality of flooding to sustain the wetland ecosystem in the long term.

The interim rules for the Barmah-Millewa Forest EWA have been extended until June 2007, to allow time for an appropriate consultation process, following review by The Living Murray Environmental Watering Group.

1 The NSW component of the Barmah-Millewa Environmental Water Allowance (EWA) is established under Water Management Act 2000 legislation. The Water Sharing Plan for the Murray and Lower Darling Regulated Rivers Water Sources (Water Sharing Plan) defines the EWA rules (S. 15) and the conditions under which it may be used for the forests or, conversely, borrowed for consumptive water use. As a provision under the Water Sharing Plan, and because the EWA affects the bulk water supply of the NSW Murray River Water Source, the use and management of the EWA is subject to audit and review. The Victorian Murray Bulk Entitlement process provided for agreement for management of the Victorian component, including an increased allocation, accrual in storage, triggers for release, and loaning in dry times.

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7.2 Recovered environmental water As a result of the First Step decision, it is anticipated that the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site will receive an increased environmental water allocation to increase and extend Spring flooding (MDBC 2004a). The amount available to Barmah-Millewa in any given year will be determined by the TLM Environmental Watering Group through The Living Murray Environmental Management Plan (see Section 7.4 below), as is the case for each of the Icon Sites.

7.3 Environmental works and measures The Living Murray Environmental Works and Measures Program (EWMP) is a $150 million program to deliver works and measures to improve the health of the River Murray.

Six projects are currently identified for funding under the EWMP to facilitate watering and to help achieve the ecological objectives at the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site. They are:

Lake Mulwala rain rejection management;

rehabilitation of Tuppal/Bullatale Creek;

Barmah environmental water management plan;

protection and enhancement of Murray Cod populations;

structural and flow options for Millewa Forest, and

acquisition of easements (Hume to Yarrawonga).

For more information on the EWMP and these projects, including the process for project selection and delivery, see The Living Murray Environmental Works and Measures Program document (MDBC 2004a). See Part B, Section 4 for an outline of EWMP activities to be undertaken at the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site in 2006-2007.

7.4 Links to The Living Murray Environmental Watering Plan This Icon Site EMP highlights important information regarding the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site to be considered in The Living Murray environmental watering planning process.

The Living Murray Environmental Watering Plan is the system framework for making decisions on the volume of water and the timing and frequency of water to be provided to each of the Icon Sites. It aims to provide available water in a way that enhances ecological outcomes across the six Icon Sites, protects existing high value areas or areas in good condition and realises the greatest environmental benefit from the water (MDBC 2004b). In making these decisions, the following will be considered:

the predicted ecological benefits of any potential watering action in relation to the ecological objectives for an Icon Site; and

ecological or other costs associated with the potential watering action.

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Figure 11 shows a conceptual flow chart of the relationship between this Icon Site EMP and other Living Murray documents

Figure 11: Flow chart depicting relationship of the Barmah-Millewa Forest Icon Site Environmental Management Plan (this document) to the broader Living Murray and associated premier planning strategies and agreements

(Adapted from DSE & GBCMA 2005). Note: Box size does not necessarily denote importance or relative size of the documents.

*The Environmental Watering Group is responsible for the development of The Living Murray Environmental Watering Plan, the River Murray Channel Icon Site EMP and for ensuring consistency across all Icon Site EMPs.

Murray-Darling Basin Agreement

Murray-Darling Basin Inter-Governmental Agreement

The Living Murray Business Plan

Environmental Works and Measures

Program (Environmental Works & Measures Group)

Water Application

(Environmental Watering Group*)

Water Recovery

(Project Assessment Group)

Living Murray Environmental Water Plan

Icon Site Environmental Management Plans (ISEMPs)

Barmah-Millewa Forest

Icon Site EMP

Gunbower, including

Pericoota-Kondrook

Forest

Hattah Lakes

Chowilla Floodplain, including Lindsay & Walpolla Islands

Murray Mouth,

Coorong and Lower

Lakes

River Murray

Channel

National Water

Initiative

Existing State management & planning documents

(See Appendix F)

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8 Threats, legal risks and ameliorative measures

8.1 Management of risk and legal issues The Living Murray Business Plan indicates that The Living Murray Environmental Watering Plan (LMEWP) and Icon Site EMPs will identify legal constraints and risks to the implementation of plans along with actions to minimise these, including any assessment requirements for actions.

Risk and legal issues relate primarily to the risk of adverse consequences:

1. to the Icon Site associated with lack of action; and 2. to other river users/values associated with implementing actions at the Icon Site.

The Environmental Watering Group (EWG) will explore the ecological risks associated with inability to implement key actions under the Icon Site EMPs necessary to achieve the environmental objectives and outcomes of TLM First Step decisions for inclusion in the 2006-07 versions of the LMEWP and Icon Site EMPs. A further description of the process by which risk management is being progressed in provided in The Living Murray Environmental Watering Plan.

Attention will also be given to identification of legal issues, and approaches to mitigating them, which may arise from operation of the river and its works to achieve environmental outcomes. In the first instance, the approach to management of these issues will follow that adopted by MDBC and state constructing authorities as part of normal river management.

This will involve notification of the Commission (or other groups as appropriate) of the level of risk involved in proposed management actions, and the appropriate method for mitigating this risk. The approach to management of risk and legal issues to support implementation of the LMEWP and Icon Site EMPs will be reviewed and updated by the EWG for consideration of the Ministerial Council in agreeing to the 2006-07 versions of the Icon Site EMPs.

Where required any necessary approvals will be obtained for any actions occurring under this plan.

8.2 Complementary management activities The application of environmental water alone may not be adequate to achieve the desired ecological outcomes of the First Step decision. Complementary land and water management activities may also be required to ameliorate threats to achieving the water management objectives at the Icon Sites, as outlined in Table 2.

While not included in this year’s Icon Site EMP, in subsequent years it is intended to attribute a level of risk to each threat based on its likelihood of occurrence and severity of consequence. This will allow the setting of priorities to ameliorate those risks.

The Victorian Environment Assessment Council study into River Red Gum forests on public land in northern Victoria, which will consider land use activities in the broad context of the conservation of red gum ecosystems, will assist in informing the risk assessment process.

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Table 2: Potential threats to achieving TLM ecological objectives and proposed ameliorative measures

Threat Ameliorative measures - NSW Ameliorative measures - VIC Inappropriate water management (quantity, frequency, season, duration)

Implementation of the Water Management Plan for the Millewa Forests, the Water Sharing Plan for the New South Wales Murray and Lower Darling Regulated Rivers Water Sources 2003 and the Water Management Strategy for the Barmah-Millewa Forest.

Development and implementation of the Barmah Forest Watering Plan and Barmah Forest Icon Site Plan, and implementation of the Victorian Bulk Entitlement process and the Water Management Strategy for the Barmah-Millewa Forest.

Inappropriate timber harvesting (location, season, silviculture)

Implementation of the Management Plan for the Murray Management Area, Forest Management Zoning in NSW State Forests, the Harvest Planning Manual, licence conditions issued under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 and the Native Forest Silviculture Manual.

Implementation of the Mid Murray Forest Management Plan, of the provisions of the Forests Act 1958, and of the Code of Forest Practices for Timber Production (Revision No. 2, 1996).

Inappropriate grazing (domestic stock) management

Implementation of the Grazing Strategy for FNSW Riverina Region.

Implementation of conditions of grazing licences issued under the Forests Act 1958 and the Land Act 1958, and advice of the Barmah Forest Grazing Advisory Committee, which was established under Section 32F of the National Parks Act 1975.

Inappropriate fire management

Implementation of the Management Plan for the Murray Management Area and the Fire Manual.

Implementation of the Code of Practice for Fire Management on Public Land through the North East Fire Protection Plan and implementation of the Mid Murray Forest Management Plan.

Weeds Implementation of the provisions of the Noxious Weeds Act 1993.

Implementation of the provisions of the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 and the Goulburn Broken Weed Action Plan.

Feral animals Implementation of the provisions of the Rural Lands Protection Act 1998.

Implementation of the provisions of the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988.

Barriers to water movement

Implementation of the provisions of the Murray Regional Environmental Plan No. 2.

Implementation of the provisions of Entitlements to the Murray - Outcomes of work to define how Victoria’s River Murray water is to be shared.

Barriers to fish movement

Implementation of the provisions of the Fisheries Management Act 1994.

Implementation of the provisions of the Fisheries Act 1995.

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8.3 Legal risks and ameliorative measures

Table 3 outlines legal risks, and their ameliorative measures, to achieving the ecological objectives at Barmah-Millewa through water application and environmental works and measures.

Table 3: Legal risks and ameliorative measures

Legal Risk Ameliorative measure

An activity proposed in the Icon Site EMP that is thought likely to have a significant impact on a matter protected by the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. For example, a proposed activity may impact on the ecological character of a Ramsar wetland, or other matters of national environmental significance, such as listed migratory species, and listed threatened species and ecological communities.

Implementation of this plan will take due account of EPBC Act requirements and where appropriate, will refer activities to the Australian Government Environment Minister for determination on whether the action requires approval under the Act. If the Minister determines that the action is likely to have a significant impact on a matter protected by the Act, the action will then be subject to the environmental assessment and approval processes, including the setting of any necessary conditions, under the Act. See Appendix D- EPBC background from DEH

An activity proposed in this Icon Site EMP that potentially breaches state legislation.

Implementation of this plan will take due account of relevant state legislation and planning instruments.

Hume to Yarrawonga overbank flows prompting calls for compensation.

Implementation of EWMP project to acquire easements in Hume to Yarrawonga reach.

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9 Monitoring and Reporting

9.1 Monitoring and evaluation A robust monitoring and evaluation program will be required to assess the performance of this Icon Site EMP towards achieving the desired ecological outcomes for Barmah-Millewa. Such a program is fundamental to the adaptive management approach (see Part A Section 8) that will drive future water management actions at the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site.

Monitoring and evaluation for the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site EMP will draw on a range of research, monitoring and evaluation (RME) activities previously undertaken at the Barmah-Millewa forests to determine the efficacy of various watering regimes implemented at the site over the last 10-15 years. A large proportion of these activities were administered through the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council’s Barmah-Millewa Forum and contribute to a sound basis for water management planning and future monitoring and evaluation activities at the Icon Site (see Appendix F for a list of previous RME activities undertaken by the Barmah-Millewa Forum).

To provide a consistent approach to monitoring and reporting across all six Icon Sites, the MDBC is currently developing a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation plan, the Outcomes and Evaluation Framework (OEF). The OEF will identify arrangements for what will be monitored (biophysical), when (timing frequency), how (preferred methodologies and minimum standards), where (geographical extent) and who (event-ready capacity) (MDBC, 2005). This plan is due for completion during 2006.

See Part B, Section 6 for proposed monitoring activities for 2006-2007.

9.2 Reporting requirements The Icon Site EMP will be reported on and reviewed annually and updated in response to information arising from monitoring, further investigations, modelling and consultation. The Icon Site managers will direct annual reporting and provide updated versions to the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council for their approval (MDBC, 2004b) and to the MBD Ministerial Council Community Advisory Committee (MDBC, 2004).

An annual report on the operation of the Icon Site EMP will be prepared in accordance with the requirements outlined in The Living Murray Environmental Watering Plan. Annual reports will detail:

operations at an Icon Site during the previous year;

volumes and timing of water application;

progress against achieving environmental objectives for that Icon Site; and

consultation activities undertaken during the year.

Annual reports will also include Icon Site specific information required under monitoring and evaluation plans (MDBC, 2005). For 2005-2006 only, an Annual Report has not be prepared instead reporting requirements will be met through the relevant information being included in the Implementation Status Report (MDBC).

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10 Adaptive Management The Co-ordinating Committee (CC) for the Barmah-Millewa Forest Icon Site has adopted an adaptive approach to management of this Icon Site. The 2006-2007 Icon Site EMP has been developed with significant input from all members of the CC and the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). Some areas requiring further development for subsequent plans include:

risk assessment to achieving ecological objectives;

detailed monitoring and evaluation action plan, and

garnering community input into the Icon Site EMP, through the Consultation Reference Group (CRG) and a broad community consultation process.

The Icon Site EMP will be reviewed annually, as outlined in Part A Section 9.

[The following is sourced from DSE & GBCMA 2005]

All water delivery to the Icon Site will be managed adaptively in line with the adaptive management cycle (Figure 12). This process will be carried out by the Icon Site managers in consultation with their CC and with input from the CRG and TAC. Essentially, this process incorporates the following components:

Assess The ecological issues, objectives, water requirement, priority areas and action and associated risks for restoring the floodplain are assessed. This stage requires community and expert input.

Design Knowledge on floodplain condition and ecology are used to develop hypotheses in terms of expected responses and to set objectives and targets. Interventions, including the proposed regulators and operating rules, are designed.

Implementation The recommended interventions are implemented. In the case of physical works, they will be built and operated by the relevant state constructing authority. Operating rules will be provided by the Barmah-Millewa TAC in conjunction with state-based water planning committees.

Monitoring The monitoring program for the entire Icon Site will be co-ordinated by the TAC in conjunction with land managers and, in Victoria, the Goulburn Broken CMA. Monitoring will include water movement through the structures, water quality, and ecological outcomes.

Evaluation The monitoring results will be evaluated in light of expected outcomes – both water movement, water quality and ecological response. Triggers will be identified which will require consideration of changed management. Both short-term and long-term triggers will be used. Short-term ones being such things as water movement into or out of structures, and whether specific biota in fact begin to

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appear. Longer-term triggers will include more detailed targets for ecological response. Regular assessment (eg. after every five flooding or drying events) will include a broad group of ecologists.

Evaluation will include a review process to incorporate new information or expectations.

Adjust In this step, monitoring outcomes will be considered in the light of monitoring information plus any new knowledge on the issues. It will be determined whether changes are required to operational rules, to expected outcomes from the operation (ie. objectives), or to cope with unexpected issues. Changes to rules or expected outcomes will be developed.

Assess Proposed changes will be assessed by the broader stakeholders to consider if such changes still meet their expectations. Any additional information will be reviewed.

Design The program then moves back to the design stage, where agreed changes are converted into changed structural, operation or procedural plans.

Monitor Adjust

Assess

Design

Implement

Evaluate

Figure 12: Adaptive management cycle

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Barmah-Millewa Forest Icon Site Environmental Management Plan 2006-07 37

PART B – Annual Operating Plan 2006-2007

Mosaic of wetland vegetation types following flood draw-down on Steamer Plain, near Rat Castle Creek, in western Barmah Forest (Photo by K. Ward)

Page 50: Icon Site Environmental Management Plan 2006–2007 · Icon Site EMP Icon Site Environmental Management Plan (formerly the Asset Environmental Management Plan, AEMP) JAMBA Japan-Australia

Barmah-Millewa Forest Icon Site Environmental Management Plan 2006-07 38

1 Environmental Condition

1.1 Recent Icon Site flooding history

July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun YEAR (June) July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

6,200 9,900 1891 3,700 3,10041,100 26,100 19,300 17,000 16,200 9,600 5,400 3,000 2,500 3,200 6,700 16,300 1892 12,600 12,400 13,700 9,500 9,900 11,300 10,600 10,300 10,700 10,800 3,900 7,90018,300 17,500 31,100 31,200 41,600 14,400 5,900 3,000 3,000 3,300 5,900 32,200 1893 9,000 8,200 11,100 6,500 29,900 8,300 10,700 10,600 10,600 9,700 3,900 16,30033,800 31,000 47,000 56,000 26,500 10,800 14,200 5,300 6,100 11,500 10,600 30,100 1894 16,000 8,800 39,200 42,400 18,800 12,900 10,600 10,600 8,200 6,600 5,700 22,10050,400 55,100 67,600 63,100 34,700 13,900 9,000 5,800 5,000 4,700 7,200 14,000 1895 42,000 52,200 62,900 57,300 27,200 12,900 8,200 10,900 10,900 10,200 3,700 6,60020,000 17,600 51,500 25,900 10,000 7,200 3,900 3,500 4,000 7,500 10,200 7,500 1896 8,500 16,800 37,900 15,300 9,400 9,500 10,700 10,300 9,900 7,800 3,500 3,30016,600 8,400 21,400 18,400 9,000 6,500 10,700 7,100 4,800 3,100 2,700 4,300 1897 7,500 9,700 5,900 10,300 11,200 12,400 10,500 10,200 10,600 8,800 2,700 2,20012,100 15,900 31,300 24,600 10,800 4,600 2,400 5,300 3,100 3,400 4,800 15,400 1898 5,200 6,600 8,600 11,200 10,300 12,200 10,600 10,900 10,600 9,500 4,500 8,20011,100 24,400 26,300 18,600 26,100 9,000 4,900 3,300 4,100 8,900 7,300 18,400 1899 5,100 8,800 8,600 10,400 11,100 8,800 9,600 10,500 9,300 9,800 3,900 10,50021,600 17,200 13,000 13,100 9,900 4,600 3,100 2,000 5,600 12,800 11,700 14,800 1900 9,500 6,500 8,500 8,500 14,700 13,700 10,800 10,600 9,800 7,800 5,000 6,60028,000 27,200 38,800 26,600 13,200 6,000 3,100 1,700 1,600 1,900 3,900 7,900 1901 11,300 12,800 12,900 18,700 18,800 13,700 10,900 10,600 10,600 9,400 4,400 3,000

5,600 11,100 33,000 25,700 24,700 5,400 3,400 1,700 1,400 2,300 1,400 6,400 1902 2,700 7,800 10,100 9,500 11,500 13,700 9,500 9,400 8,800 5,300 4,500 2,8006,600 3,000 4,900 8,700 3,000 3,700 2,200 900 1,500 3,100 5,200 8,700 1903 3,300 11,100 7,200 7,000 10,500 5,600 10,400 6,700 5,900 5,000 3,000 4,700

21,700 12,000 22,200 24,800 13,700 6,800 8,400 4,200 2,800 2,000 4,100 8,900 1904 11,600 6,300 7,000 9,700 13,600 7,800 7,000 10,000 9,100 7,400 3,800 3,70024,800 21,400 28,300 32,000 26,200 7,300 3,300 2,000 1,300 2,100 2,600 11,500 1905 13,100 10,100 10,100 10,300 9,700 10,100 9,100 8,700 10,600 6,900 3,600 4,90047,100 28,400 21,000 26,300 30,700 12,500 4,000 1,700 8,600 6,600 13,300 27,200 1906 23,800 12,500 6,100 6,900 10,500 10,200 10,600 9,200 8,500 3,200 4,400 13,10052,500 46,300 51,000 67,100 27,000 22,600 8,900 4,800 3,000 3,600 6,200 8,900 1907 23,600 19,800 34,200 50,800 15,800 12,900 10,600 10,600 10,700 8,400 4,100 4,000

7,900 23,700 17,100 18,600 15,100 7,500 4,800 2,700 2,000 1,800 3,900 7,000 1908 4,100 11,500 11,100 9,900 10,100 12,800 10,600 9,700 10,600 8,700 2,600 3,10011,500 12,800 24,200 25,300 12,400 4,400 2,100 1,700 3,200 3,100 17,400 32,900 1909 6,200 6,900 8,100 11,500 10,600 9,800 9,100 9,000 8,800 7,200 9,100 17,70038,600 68,900 37,100 26,500 12,400 5,600 3,000 2,100 2,000 1,700 2,700 5,600 1910 16,500 30,900 14,200 10,100 10,000 13,700 10,200 10,100 8,400 7,900 4,000 2,90015,300 11,900 42,000 29,300 19,800 14,000 8,900 14,800 15,200 8,000 7,300 26,900 1911 9,400 5,600 21,900 16,100 16,800 13,100 10,600 11,800 10,600 10,600 5,200 14,90027,300 29,000 18,900 13,200 7,100 5,400 3,000 1,700 1,500 2,000 1,700 2,900 1912 12,400 9,500 7,900 8,600 10,500 8,700 10,600 9,800 9,500 7,600 3,100 1,80012,100 10,300 44,300 25,800 15,400 19,900 9,000 3,400 7,700 7,500 7,400 9,700 1913 5,900 7,600 19,300 8,800 10,100 8,400 10,600 10,800 8,200 9,700 4,200 2,70010,500 17,100 21,000 22,900 17,000 7,400 3,400 2,200 2,100 3,300 7,500 5,800 1914 3,900 8,500 7,700 6,300 9,900 10,800 10,600 10,600 9,200 6,000 2,100 2,500

7,100 6,500 7,400 4,200 1,400 2,400 1,700 800 500 700 3,800 9,000 1915 3,300 11,900 7,700 8,000 13,500 11,000 10,200 10,600 8,200 7,900 3,700 5,30032,600 42,200 32,500 52,800 27,700 9,400 4,100 3,500 3,100 2,500 4,100 7,500 1916 15,000 17,800 14,100 15,600 12,200 13,800 9,800 9,400 10,600 9,200 3,700 2,90040,900 38,300 50,100 55,900 52,200 41,700 14,000 7,700 7,100 8,300 19,400 84,100 1917 20,400 18,600 22,900 30,600 38,800 27,600 8,400 10,400 10,800 10,500 10,800 52,30071,400 75,700 96,500 119,300 58,400 29,600 12,700 10,400 9,000 7,100 34,400 32,800 1918 55,800 68,900 81,500 102,500 51,800 22,100 9,600 11,400 10,300 8,400 28,100 36,30045,300 47,000 45,500 22,600 13,600 7,100 4,100 2,900 4,300 3,700 5,900 12,300 1919 41,300 43,500 39,600 13,200 9,800 10,800 10,600 9,800 9,800 7,800 3,500 4,30011,800 12,000 19,200 19,500 7,500 5,600 12,600 4,600 3,000 2,800 4,000 12,500 1920 4,900 8,800 6,000 16,000 18,200 13,800 10,700 10,100 10,400 9,200 2,900 5,00043,200 48,100 55,400 30,900 18,700 9,500 7,600 4,300 4,800 5,500 4,000 20,000 1921 14,800 19,000 21,900 16,100 16,700 12,900 10,000 9,200 10,800 9,500 5,400 10,40018,100 52,800 65,000 47,900 18,700 8,400 5,200 3,200 3,000 2,400 5,100 4,000 1922 9,600 23,000 25,500 35,400 11,200 9,300 10,700 10,600 10,600 9,900 4,100 1,90017,200 20,300 18,500 22,500 11,100 4,100 3,200 1,700 1,000 1,100 4,900 36,300 1923 7,400 5,000 4,800 7,900 10,500 9,900 10,500 10,600 10,600 9,900 2,400 15,70034,400 32,500 27,900 49,400 31,200 17,700 13,800 10,800 7,600 9,600 7,800 15,800 1924 17,200 17,500 7,900 11,800 16,400 8,200 10,600 10,600 10,500 8,100 5,200 7,80011,400 23,200 52,700 44,100 42,800 20,300 15,200 11,600 7,200 5,100 6,800 9,500 1925 4,900 18,500 40,800 32,400 35,900 14,500 7,800 10,400 10,700 10,800 4,900 3,30012,000 24,100 28,000 25,400 14,700 5,700 3,100 1,600 3,000 4,500 25,500 22,300 1926 4,700 12,200 22,800 13,600 10,500 11,000 10,600 10,600 8,300 4,300 13,400 12,30037,200 49,000 37,500 36,500 15,600 7,400 5,800 2,700 2,200 2,000 3,800 5,500 1927 14,500 35,500 33,400 26,800 9,600 9,600 10,600 10,700 10,600 10,000 4,200 1,90012,300 23,800 19,100 28,900 16,600 6,000 3,000 6,600 6,700 13,000 12,200 24,900 1928 5,200 9,000 6,300 14,400 12,300 13,700 10,700 7,700 9,600 9,700 7,300 14,80020,000 14,600 16,500 41,200 19,300 6,100 2,700 2,700 2,200 5,900 6,300 13,600 1929 10,400 7,700 7,400 14,500 8,700 11,300 10,600 10,700 10,000 6,700 2,800 6,30012,100 17,800 21,600 30,100 13,000 8,400 6,500 2,400 1,700 1,600 5,900 6,200 1930 5,300 9,600 6,200 16,100 16,700 12,900 10,700 10,600 10,700 10,400 3,500 1,800

7,900 21,400 19,300 45,700 25,400 16,900 16,300 6,300 10,600 13,100 28,900 79,200 1931 2,600 7,900 10,800 14,300 8,400 5,500 10,700 10,800 9,800 6,200 20,200 44,00087,300 58,800 52,800 36,600 24,800 10,700 4,100 2,900 5,300 20,400 10,100 21,800 1932 70,300 52,300 40,400 23,400 17,100 12,900 10,600 9,800 8,900 11,500 4,700 13,00031,300 22,400 61,000 25,800 16,100 6,900 3,500 2,300 1,600 2,000 3,600 7,300 1933 14,000 17,300 50,800 16,600 9,600 9,500 10,200 10,600 10,700 10,000 4,600 2,70019,200 14,700 45,000 29,300 9,800 15,600 12,900 5,400 4,700 7,200 6,300 4,300 1934 7,400 3,500 16,000 11,800 8,400 10,000 10,200 9,300 10,400 8,200 3,200 1,80020,800 28,000 28,100 53,000 62,900 33,400 11,500 7,600 5,000 10,400 14,900 14,200 1935 8,400 9,500 8,400 47,700 51,300 26,000 8,800 10,600 10,600 6,700 4,100 7,60025,500 45,900 39,600 29,900 21,000 10,100 7,300 4,200 4,600 4,800 4,600 6,900 1936 22,400 45,000 35,600 22,400 11,500 10,000 8,700 9,600 10,700 9,900 5,700 2,30024,700 59,200 44,400 21,500 14,900 14,100 9,700 5,800 4,100 3,100 4,200 4,900 1937 9,200 30,400 37,900 9,900 10,000 12,300 8,600 10,900 10,700 10,300 3,800 1,800

4,900 8,000 24,600 18,700 8,900 4,400 2,900 2,300 1,900 1,900 3,400 5,100 1938 3,100 10,000 7,900 13,200 16,400 13,700 10,700 10,500 10,700 10,800 3,300 2,4008,400 7,600 13,800 8,400 3,500 1,500 800 800 19,600 22,100 16,900 20,900 1939 4,000 5,300 8,400 9,300 16,700 11,600 8,000 9,100 11,500 15,200 8,500 11,200

48,500 56,600 68,700 49,600 44,900 16,900 6,900 3,500 2,300 3,900 6,000 6,600 1940 19,300 27,200 54,400 34,000 29,300 12,900 10,500 10,200 10,700 9,300 2,400 2,3006,200 8,700 11,000 8,600 4,600 3,800 10,400 5,000 5,600 4,600 3,100 5,300 1941 2,500 8,900 6,900 8,800 19,400 10,400 8,200 10,600 10,700 10,600 4,600 2,200

14,300 9,200 12,100 19,900 8,800 4,200 2,300 1,900 1,300 1,700 13,500 25,000 1942 6,400 7,400 7,900 7,500 10,400 8,900 10,000 7,800 9,100 6,900 6,600 12,30055,600 33,700 51,300 34,900 20,200 9,900 5,500 3,100 2,200 7,200 7,900 6,900 1943 24,900 14,200 17,400 10,600 10,500 9,800 9,700 9,400 10,600 9,200 4,300 2,60014,500 19,700 26,000 34,800 17,500 7,500 2,900 1,600 1,500 1,900 8,800 9,100 1944 6,400 8,000 10,100 10,900 11,300 13,100 10,600 9,000 8,900 8,500 4,000 4,30010,200 7,100 5,700 6,400 4,700 2,400 1,800 2,500 1,400 1,800 1,700 4,900 1945 4,200 12,000 7,100 6,900 9,800 13,200 9,000 10,600 8,400 8,000 3,800 2,400

7,200 21,100 25,400 13,700 18,900 5,200 2,300 4,300 9,500 7,600 5,500 10,000 1946 3,000 9,500 12,200 7,900 12,200 8,600 8,700 6,800 10,400 9,400 5,200 3,60043,000 59,500 25,700 23,900 18,800 8,300 4,800 2,800 3,300 3,600 3,700 10,200 1947 19,700 20,700 9,700 9,500 10,000 13,700 10,600 10,000 10,500 8,300 4,200 4,10034,300 35,300 43,200 44,200 34,200 16,200 11,000 6,100 3,800 3,600 10,100 13,400 1948 14,200 16,800 12,200 21,300 16,700 12,900 10,600 10,300 10,600 11,000 7,400 4,90010,500 14,400 19,400 21,900 39,700 10,300 5,800 2,800 4,000 3,400 4,100 6,100 1949 4,900 10,300 8,800 7,200 10,900 8,200 10,600 10,500 7,700 9,600 4,000 2,50010,200 15,300 21,800 29,600 43,700 14,600 5,400 6,600 6,300 13,100 4,800 8,000 1950 4,300 9,200 8,000 11,300 11,800 13,700 10,300 10,300 7,300 8,500 4,900 2,50012,400 17,400 21,500 29,200 31,800 10,400 5,500 3,000 2,600 4,300 10,500 28,500 1951 3,900 8,800 5,900 6,700 8,700 10,100 10,500 9,800 10,600 8,100 4,200 11,80044,700 51,700 31,900 32,700 23,600 9,500 4,000 1,800 2,400 5,200 13,300 76,300 1952 21,600 38,600 26,900 21,800 15,300 9,500 10,600 10,200 10,700 6,100 3,300 37,60061,200 34,300 61,900 39,400 52,300 36,500 12,500 7,700 3,700 3,300 5,700 8,900 1953 49,900 34,800 54,500 35,600 44,900 29,700 8,500 10,300 10,700 10,200 4,700 3,80023,500 51,900 41,600 60,300 41,700 15,100 6,600 9,200 3,900 3,900 6,500 9,300 1954 12,300 44,400 38,700 49,800 32,900 12,900 10,500 10,800 10,700 8,100 3,100 4,400

9,700 16,600 24,700 11,300 29,500 24,000 6,800 9,200 8,600 5,400 6,800 17,000 1955 4,000 10,400 8,000 7,000 10,400 21,000 9,400 9,500 11,200 9,400 3,600 8,80037,000 92,900 73,900 73,300 48,200 17,600 16,600 9,700 11,800 56,500 61,200 81,700 1956 20,100 89,900 67,400 65,000 39,400 12,900 10,100 9,300 11,000 42,700 56,600 85,500

108,200 77,900 63,600 69,100 46,000 21,000 8,700 5,700 5,300 4,200 5,900 6,700 1957 113,700 80,500 63,100 63,500 37,500 13,600 10,500 10,000 9,700 7,400 3,300 2,70020,500 13,300 13,800 19,800 13,800 6,000 7,100 4,400 3,600 3,800 8,100 19,800 1958 7,400 12,800 8,500 10,400 14,200 10,500 10,800 10,100 10,800 8,900 4,700 5,80025,100 90,100 38,400 70,700 38,200 13,200 5,800 5,100 5,900 6,800 3,800 4,400 1959 9,700 50,700 38,500 60,700 31,300 12,900 10,900 11,000 11,200 10,400 3,300 1,800

6,500 14,600 22,600 23,300 15,100 6,000 4,000 2,500 1,800 2,500 23,600 23,600 1960 3,200 9,800 9,600 5,400 11,600 8,400 9,400 10,200 10,700 8,700 11,000 17,90031,800 65,600 40,500 52,600 23,600 14,800 6,600 3,000 3,100 5,400 5,800 7,300 1961 11,400 28,900 40,600 39,200 14,500 9,900 10,400 10,600 10,200 6,500 4,300 2,40013,300 18,900 20,700 15,600 8,600 6,800 3,900 3,700 2,100 2,800 4,700 24,600 1962 5,700 8,400 10,300 8,900 10,000 13,700 8,900 10,300 10,400 9,800 4,900 13,50015,000 25,800 19,700 25,800 17,100 8,200 6,400 5,200 2,000 2,300 6,100 9,500 1963 7,700 10,100 8,100 10,600 9,100 9,000 8,600 10,000 10,800 8,000 3,700 5,10012,400 26,500 30,700 26,200 19,000 8,600 3,200 2,500 2,200 2,300 3,700 9,100 1964 6,500 14,500 11,400 16,500 16,800 14,200 10,800 10,600 10,700 9,900 4,600 5,30068,300 47,800 49,000 80,200 31,700 13,100 5,400 2,500 1,700 1,900 2,800 3,800 1965 28,100 22,700 17,200 59,200 17,900 12,900 10,700 10,700 10,600 9,800 3,600 1,800

3,900 17,800 28,600 14,000 10,400 10,200 2,500 2,300 2,600 2,700 4,800 8,000 1966 2,000 9,200 13,200 13,100 8,400 12,700 10,800 9,800 11,000 10,200 4,400 2,80011,400 27,900 38,400 44,400 25,900 33,300 10,000 4,000 2,500 2,700 1,700 2,000 1967 5,200 13,400 19,700 17,200 16,700 14,800 10,500 10,700 10,700 10,400 4,500 2,100

3,400 6,000 9,000 12,500 3,400 1,700 1,000 700 500 1,200 12,000 37,900 1968 2,100 5,200 6,400 13,800 20,700 13,800 8,700 9,100 10,600 8,800 7,200 20,00013,500 37,700 34,300 48,300 32,800 12,700 6,700 3,500 4,000 7,600 7,400 14,200 1969 7,100 17,600 13,500 15,000 9,700 13,700 10,700 10,100 8,900 8,700 4,100 4,10033,600 32,000 39,400 23,500 19,700 13,300 12,800 10,000 10,000 12,100 18,900 19,000 1970 11,200 15,200 33,700 11,900 12,300 9,300 10,000 10,300 10,200 5,800 7,200 9,20032,900 42,700 87,200 50,500 29,100 15,500 9,200 12,500 7,900 6,900 16,800 15,900 1971 13,600 41,200 75,100 32,600 18,900 12,900 11,400 10,600 11,200 8,300 6,000 7,80016,500 19,000 36,600 51,300 47,300 17,900 14,400 8,900 6,000 4,500 6,200 4,600 1972 7,800 9,700 29,500 31,700 39,400 12,300 9,700 10,600 10,700 9,500 3,500 1,90012,800 17,200 22,800 11,600 6,300 3,500 1,800 9,800 6,200 9,700 32,400 27,000 1973 6,100 7,300 10,700 10,300 10,400 11,100 11,000 12,600 8,500 6,700 16,400 14,80045,700 58,200 89,000 46,000 34,200 12,500 29,200 9,300 5,700 13,600 54,100 23,000 1974 17,900 43,700 86,600 47,400 28,200 12,900 19,700 13,300 8,400 8,800 49,500 28,20070,700 83,100 79,900 91,100 55,400 15,200 7,100 6,500 5,500 6,700 14,100 13,400 1975 48,500 82,100 82,000 86,200 49,400 13,000 10,300 10,900 9,700 7,300 5,800 4,60035,100 47,400 76,600 80,600 66,300 19,700 11,300 6,900 6,100 4,800 4,400 5,100 1976 14,300 45,800 76,000 88,000 57,600 17,700 9,800 9,600 10,700 10,000 4,600 1,800

5,500 10,800 13,700 36,900 14,500 9,000 6,800 4,600 5,800 6,300 5,200 11,500 1977 1,900 8,000 7,700 9,300 9,100 9,200 10,900 10,500 10,500 7,900 3,900 3,90017,500 20,700 16,500 15,100 7,300 3,800 3,800 3,600 3,900 6,300 6,800 19,300 1978 7,300 8,500 8,300 8,600 10,100 10,700 10,800 10,500 9,700 4,400 3,400 6,40028,200 46,000 33,500 41,000 24,400 18,400 7,300 3,300 3,200 3,900 3,400 6,000 1979 13,000 19,600 8,700 27,200 16,300 12,900 10,900 10,800 10,800 8,100 3,000 2,700

8,600 13,800 38,100 58,300 17,700 6,800 3,900 2,900 2,600 2,100 2,800 4,100 1980 4,300 9,000 21,100 44,200 8,700 10,500 10,700 10,300 10,800 7,900 2,700 1,80013,700 26,600 32,700 24,400 18,700 12,100 5,200 4,300 3,100 2,300 2,700 15,600 1981 6,800 11,000 9,700 11,000 17,500 14,100 9,600 9,300 9,600 10,600 4,900 8,10088,500 111,100 55,900 41,700 18,200 10,100 5,600 4,200 2,900 3,200 4,000 7,100 1982 44,500 62,600 42,200 25,900 10,700 13,100 11,500 10,600 10,800 10,400 3,800 2,800

4,700 5,300 7,900 5,300 2,200 1,500 1,100 900 2,300 6,000 10,600 17,700 1983 3,100 11,600 9,300 11,100 18,100 13,700 10,700 8,900 6,600 9,200 4,700 7,20022,900 37,200 76,600 42,800 20,500 16,900 11,100 9,200 5,200 6,100 5,100 4,800 1984 10,500 20,900 29,500 16,100 16,700 12,400 11,100 10,400 11,000 9,700 5,400 1,900

7,200 39,600 63,100 51,200 14,800 6,000 3,600 3,000 3,600 3,600 3,700 9,500 1985 3,100 17,300 17,600 30,700 9,400 10,400 10,700 10,600 10,900 8,700 3,400 4,2008,500 33,600 36,300 16,400 14,700 13,500 6,300 3,500 2,000 1,500 4,600 5,100 1986 4,200 19,400 12,800 11,400 10,500 8,200 10,600 10,700 10,700 9,700 4,200 2,800

51,400 49,800 34,600 52,300 43,000 17,200 8,500 4,200 4,600 4,400 7,100 17,700 1987 28,900 19,700 12,300 18,400 24,600 8,100 10,500 10,400 10,700 8,300 3,800 10,00031,200 28,500 21,800 17,200 9,100 7,400 4,400 3,400 3,000 2,900 6,100 22,400 1988 13,800 12,000 9,300 9,900 17,000 13,900 10,300 10,200 10,900 7,900 3,400 11,50028,500 30,500 28,500 19,000 12,900 28,200 11,600 3,800 7,400 17,900 16,500 35,900 1989 14,100 9,800 8,900 16,100 17,400 13,300 10,200 10,900 9,500 6,800 8,400 17,40024,500 40,300 42,100 29,900 29,200 10,500 4,800 3,800 3,200 6,300 10,600 12,000 1990 11,700 19,100 31,700 16,500 17,300 9,600 11,100 9,900 11,300 7,800 3,800 5,10075,500 79,200 46,400 40,500 25,400 7,700 6,400 4,100 2,500 3,000 2,500 6,800 1991 41,200 55,600 41,700 29,300 20,200 12,900 9,700 10,600 10,900 9,400 2,600 2,10023,300 36,400 64,700 38,100 13,900 7,300 7,400 4,300 3,500 2,700 6,600 10,900 1992 7,900 13,700 38,400 21,200 9,800 9,700 9,800 10,100 10,600 8,000 4,400 5,80011,900 29,400 63,100 96,200 42,000 31,600 17,100 11,400 8,900 8,600 5,600 10,200 1993 6,500 15,100 48,100 77,100 32,400 27,100 10,400 9,800 11,600 8,500 3,900 5,10030,300 46,200 53,200 71,500 32,000 20,100 19,000 10,800 8,300 6,400 5,700 11,400 1994 27,500 43,700 53,200 69,200 28,100 13,400 11,300 8,500 11,700 10,100 5,300 5,00013,200 11,500 10,500 12,800 13,800 7,700 6,600 7,700 4,700 3,700 14,500 40,000 1995 5,400 9,200 11,000 16,100 17,000 13,700 9,300 9,300 10,700 6,500 5,300 18,00065,100 41,800 31,300 25,200 28,800 19,500 11,400 6,700 7,700 6,800 8,400 10,400 1996 34,400 27,800 13,200 15,400 20,400 13,400 9,500 9,200 11,000 7,700 6,000 4,60031,600 74,500 41,900 91,800 23,200 12,400 8,700 5,100 3,500 3,100 3,800 5,800 1997 17,900 54,300 37,600 79,100 17,200 12,900 11,100 10,800 10,800 10,200 5,400 2,000

6,300 9,700 22,600 9,400 7,600 3,600 1,800 1,700 900 1,600 2,200 5,800 1998 2,800 9,300 7,600 11,800 9,600 10,600 11,000 10,300 10,900 7,100 2,800 2,10012,700 24,800 38,400 47,600 21,500 9,100 4,600 2,700 2,600 3,400 3,000 15,300 1999 5,000 8,800 23,500 16,100 16,700 12,900 10,700 10,300 10,200 10,000 4,700 6,50011,600 22,800 32,700 18,500 11,000 7,800 8,500 3,600 3,600 4,200 2000 5,000 11,200 12,700 9,100 12,000 7,600 10,500 9,300 10,900 9,400

<10,600 ML/day10,600 - 18,330 ML/day18,330 - 25,300 ML/day>25,300 ML/day

NATURAL CONDITIONS CURRENT CONDITIONS (average monthly flow, ML/day) (average monthly flow, ML/day)

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Figure 9 (opposite page) shows the actual average monthly flows downstream of Yarrawonga compared with what would have occurred under natural conditions between 1891 and 2000. This effectively illustrates the recent history of flooding during that period in the Barmah-Millewa Forest.

During the last 10 years, there have been three long, medium-sized floods (the floods in 1996, 2000/01 and the 2005/06 EWA release lasting approximately 4 months) capable of inundating around 50% of the forest. These long, medium-sized floods are suitable for maintenance of many sedges, rush beds and wetlands, large areas of Moira Grass plains and meadows and some River Red Gum forest. There have been additional instances of overbank flow during that period, however, these have not been sufficient to meet the requirements for the long, medium flood targeted by the existing Barmah-Millewa Forest EWA.

1.2 Current status of environmental values Using the approach outlined in Table 4, the environmental condition of both the Barmah Forest and the Millewa Forests has been given an overall rating of moderate. The results indicate that there is a stable trend for each condition indicator.

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Table 4: 2005 Condition assessment for the Barmah-Millewa Forests (prepared by D. Leslie and K. Ward) Barmah Millewa Key

Performance Area

Condition Indicator

Target

2006 Condition Status2

Condition Trend

2006 Condition Status2

Condition Trend

Comment

Forest health1

Flood dependent ground vegetation

Opportunity for growth, reproduction and dispersal provided over 55% of forest no more than four years apart.

Good Stable Good Stable The spatial target was last achieved in 2005/06.

Tree crown condition

95% of dominant and co-dominant trees with a crown rating >0.8 over 55% of the forest. Good Stable Good Stable

EWA release in 2005/06 resulted in significant improvements in tree crown condition over the majority of River Red Gum vegetation. However, owing to low sub-surface soil moisture levels in higher levels crown condition will deteriorate in these areas through 2006/07 in the absence of above average rainfall and/or substantial flooding.

Waterbirds Breeding success of colonial nesting waterbirds

Successful breeding of thousands of colonial waterbirds in at least three years in ten.

Good Stable Good Stable EWA release in 2005/06 stimulated a substantial bird breeding event across the Barmah-Millewa Forest.

1 Adopted definition of the Interim LivingMurray Ecological Objectives 2 Good, target condition currently satisfied, intervention unlikely to be required during the current water year. Moderate, present condition at borderline of

satisfaction, intervention may be required within the next 1–2 water years. Poor, present condition unsatisfactory, intervention should be undertaken within the current water year.

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2 Water Management Priorities Priorities for water application occur on two spatial scales in the Barmah-Millewa Forest - Water Management Areas (WMAs) and specific sites (see Part A, Section 2.4). Appendix H outlines the methods used to determine priorities at these scales.

2.1 Priority Water Management Areas Using the numeric scoring method set out in Appendix H, the 2006-2007 priority water management areas are:

Kynmer Creek (A)

Smiths Creek (C)

Yielima (D)

Black Swamp (E)

Boals Deadwood (G)

Top Island (H1)

Aratula Creek (J)

Plantation (L)

Edward River (N)

St Helena Swamp (Q)

Gulpa Creek (R)

This list represents an increase of one WMA over those listed last year in BMF (2004).

2.2 Priority sites Specific sites located within individual WMAs may also be priorities for water application in a given year. Priority sites for 2006-2007 may include a combination of the following sites:

Target Area Barmah Forest Millewa forests

Moira Grass plains and meadows

Doctors Point, Keyes Point, Harbours Lake, Top Lake, Duck Hole Plain, War Plain, Steamer Plain and parts of Top Island

Algeboia and Porters Plains, Moira Lake and Reed Beds Swamp

Water-bird breeding areas

Bunyip Hole, Green Engine Lagoon, Boals Deadwoods, and parts of Top Island. Occasionally, fringing areas of Gulf and Smiths Creeks and parts of Steamer Plain also

Gulpa Creek Reed Beds, Duck/Coppinger’s Lagoon, Sheldrakes and Moira Lakes, St Helena Swamp and parts of Gulpa Island State Forest

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3 Triggers for water application 3.1 ‘New’ TLM water application It is likely that there will be no ‘new’ environmental water available for application at the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site in 2006-2007. In the event such water does become available, it is likely that it would be incorporated into a release of the existing forest EWA, should a release be triggered under its interim operating rules (see Appendix C and Section 3.2 below).

3.2 Existing EWA application 3.2.1 Volume available 2006-2007 The current EWA account for 2006-07 stands at 100 GL (100 GL annual allocation to be made on June 1st 2006), as summarised in Table 5.

Table 5: Summary of Environmental Water Account for 2006-2007* (modified from BMF, 2004) Water year 2001-2002 2002-2003 2003-2004 2004-2005 2005-2006 2006-07 EWA at end of previous year NSW 0 75 125 175 225 0 Victoria 0 25 75 125 175 0

Annual EWA allocation NSW 50 50 50 50 50 50 Victoria # 50 50 50 50 50

NSW

25

-

-

-

-

25 25

Additional EWA based on Victoria reaching 30% + sales and a matching allocation from NSW Victoria 25 - - - - -

Potential Total NSW 75 125 175 225 275 75 Victoria 25 75 125 175 225 75

Total EWA available 100 200 300 400 500^ 150 * Accounts maintained by River Murray Water, in conjunction with Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment; and NSW Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources. # Note that Victoria’s normal contribution of 50 GL for 2001-02 was advanced for use in 2000-01. ^ Note that both Victoria and New South Wales may seek to temporarily borrow all of their respective components of the EWA during 2006-07 if consumptive water availability remains low.

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3.2.2 Potential for EWA use in 2006-2007 If conditions remain dry to average and inflows low to medium, both states are likely to seek to re-borrow the EWA for consumptive use on June 1st 2006 (including borrowing of their respective annual 50 GL contribution). This would eliminate the availability of the EWA for use in the forest in 2006-2007. In any event the EWA was used in 2005-06 and is unlikely to be required 2006-07 because of the following:

the higher parts of the forest are most in need of the water, but channel capacity constraints between Hume and Yarrawonga, combined with limited EWA availability would prevent these areas being watered under such a release; and

only low levels of the forest could be targeted, however, these were watered in August to January 2005/06 and are not in dire need of another watering this year.

If very wet conditions and high inflows do occur, then it is likely that any water borrowed by the states would be paid back into the EWA account by October 2006. Watering of the forest would most likely begin naturally through an Ovens River flood or spill from Hume Dam and part or all of the EWA may then be called on in accordance with the 'standard' triggers and rules (see Appendix D). The higher elevation parts of the forest (and high priority areas for water application) would be able to be watered using a combination of natural and EWA flows, under this scenario.

3.3 Operational flows There may be an opportunity to transfer water to Lake Victoria at rates above channel capacity through the forest and, if the Victorian component is paid back and available, there may be scope to consider possible use of part of the Victorian component of the EWA. However, as use of one jurisdiction’s component of the EWA is contrary to the normal rules, it would have to be considered by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission and the Victorian Government.

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3.4 Regulator operation 3.4.1 Seasonal flows Flow triggers for regulator operation during seasonal flows in 2006-2007 are summarised in Table 6 and Table 7.

Table 6: Barmah Forest: Regulator operation for seasonal flows – June to December 2006 (Information source: GBCMA)

River Murray Flow at Yarrawonga (ML/d)

Regulators to be opened WMA’s Affected

<12,000 Tertiary Regulators plus partial Sandspit

Predominantly high ground in WMA Smiths Creek

12,000 Bull Paddock, Stewarts Kitchen, 25% Gulf

WMA Smiths Creek and Gulf Creek

13,000 Boals, Bull Paddock, Stewarts Kitchen, 50% Gulf

WMA Smiths Creek, Boals Deadwood and Gulf Creek

14,000 All 100% except for 75% Gulf All WMAs 15,000 and greater All All

Table 7: Millewa Forest: Regulator operation for seasonal flows – June to December 2006 (Information source: Forests NSW)

River Murray Flow (ML/d) with duration of

greater than 7 days

Forest Regulators to be opened

WMA’s affected

11,000-12,000 Small freshes during the core flooding period can be used to assist refilling of dry wetlands.

Moira WMA

12,000 – 15,000 All River Murray regulators except Mary Ada (depending on duration)

All WMAs except Aratula, Plantation and Towrong.

15,000 and greater All regulators open Potentially all WMAs

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3.4.2 Unseasonal flows This year, it is the turn of the Barmah Forest (Victoria) to accept the unseasonal flows, as far as is possible. Accordingly, unseasonal Summer and Autumn flows up to 15,000 ML/d in 2006-2007 will trigger regulator operation as per Table 8 to allow these flows to be directed into the Barmah Forest.

Table 8: Barmah Forest: Priority forest regulators for acceptance of unseasonal flows in 2006-2007 (Information source: Vic DSE)

River Murray Flow at Yarrawonga (ML/d)

Regulators to be opened WMA Affected

12,000 Tertiary Regulators at Sandspit Predominantly high ground in WMA Smiths Creek

13,000 Tertiary Regulators at Sandspit plus Boals, Bull Paddock, Stewarts Kitchen, 50% Gulf

WMA Smiths Creek, Boals Deadwood and Gulf Creek

14,000 All 100% except for 75% Gulf All WMAs 15,000 All All

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4 Environmental Works and Measures Proposed Environmental Works and Measures Program (EWMP) projects located at the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site for 2006-2007 are shown below in Table 9.

Table 9: Proposed environmental works and measures 2006-2007

Location Project Description EWMP Funding 2006-2007

Barmah Forest

EWMP Project I20 - Barmah Forest Water Management Plan and Works

Cutting Creek Erosion Control Project – Feasibility Study & Concept design

Black Engine Creek Erosion Control Project – Feasibility Study & Concept design

Internal Forest Access barriers (Barmah)

Tertiary Effluent Regulators upgrade / repairs (Barmah)

Mary Ada (Millewa) and Gulf Creek Regulator (Barmah) works feasibility study

It is expected that MDBC funding

will be confirmed in the near future

Millewa forests

EWMP project I19 – Structural and Flow Options for Millewa Forest

incorporating Steven’s Weir Fishway;

Eastern Millewa regulators;

Moira Lake Rehabilitation;

fish passage to all weirs; and

refurbishment and renewal of strategic low-lying flood management structures) has been deferred to commence in 2006-2007

EWMP Project I06 – Millewa works (Bullatale Creek offtakes)

It is expected that MDBC funding

will be confirmed in the near future

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Location Project Description EWMP Funding 2006-2007

Environmental works and measures outside forest to benefit BM Icon Site watering

See MDBC (2005b)

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5 Roles and Responsibilities Table 10 outlines the organisations and individuals that will be fulfilling the alternating roles at the Barmah-Millewa EWA during 2006–2007.

For more detail regarding responsibilities and membership of water management related committees at the Icon Site, see Part A, Section 3.

Table 10: Roles and responsibilities at the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site for 2006-2007

Role Year Organisation and/or Individual

Responsibilities at Barmah-Millewa Icon Site

Lead Icon Site Manager

2006/07

DSE – Regional Director North East

Ensure: - Icon Site CRG is established & co-ordinated consultation process is implemented - appropriate Indigenous consultation is undertaken - Icon Site EMP is produced and implemented

Cross-Border Consultation

2006/07

Murray CMA and Goulburn-Broken

CMA

With assistance from Project Officer co-ordinate cross-border consultation process to ensure community involvement and input into Icon Site EMP. The cross boarder consultation will be guided by the CRG.

Technical Advisory

Committee

2006/07

DSE – River Red Gum Ecologist

Chair of the TAC provides technical advice regarding development and implementation of the Icon Site EMP, specifically including ecological targets and monitoring.

Coordinating Committee

2006/07

DSE - Regional Director North East

Chair of the CC provides outcomes of meetings to The Living Murray Environmental Watering Group and the Murray Darling Basin Commission.

Community Reference

Group

2006/07

Goulburn Broken CMA

The CRG will provide advice on the development and implementation of the Icon Site EMP to the CC. They will also provide advice on consultation with local and regional groups.

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6 Monitoring and Reporting

6.1 Monitoring activities The monitoring activities, which would normally be undertaken at the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site this year, will be reviewed to ensure they are consistent with the monitoring and evaluation framework to be supplied by the MDBC to ensure consistency in monitoring across all Icon Sites. The Barmah-Millewa Technical Advisory Committee will undertake this review upon receipt of the framework, and this Icon Site EMP will be updated accordingly.

Section 6.3 below outlines the process for determining future water-related monitoring and evaluation activities planned for Barmah-Millewa during 2006-2007.

See Appendix F for a list of previous research, monitoring and evaluation projects undertaken at this Icon Site through the Barmah-Millewa Forum.

6.2 Reporting activities The annual report will be submitted by June each year. This will allow for its inclusion in joint reporting by the jurisdictions to the MDB Ministerial Council regarding overall progress of The Living Murray, due by August 30 each year.

The annual report for the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site will detail:

water management related operations undertaken at the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site during that year. This will include regulator operation and extent of flooding in the Icon Site resulting from both natural and managed flood events, status of EWMP projects and the basis for decisions made regarding use, or otherwise, of available environmental water;

volumes and timing of water application;

progress on achieving environmental objectives for the BM Icon Site; and

consultation activities undertaken.

NB: For the 2005-2006 watering year, this information will provided in the Implementation Status Report (MDBC, 2006).

6.3 Potential Monitoring Projects 2006/07 An indicative budget of $350,000 has been allocated to the Icon Site for monitoring projects this financial year. The TAC is currently evaluating these projects against the Barmah monitoring plan to determine priorities. It is expected that this process will be completed by the end of August 2006.

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PART C - Business Plan

View of Sandhill – River Red Gum Forest boundary on sandhill east of Fire Hut Road, Millewa Forest (Photo by A. Webb)

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1 Works Program 2006-2010 Table 11 and Table 12 outline the EWMP projects proposed for 2006-2010 located at the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site, and projects located outside but which will specifically benefit the Icon Site.

Table 11: EWMP projects proposed for 2006-2010 which are located in the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site [Source: MDBC 2004a: Draft 2005-2006 Work Plan - Environmental Works and Measures Program, MDBC, Canberra]

EWMP Project ID and Title Est. Cost 2006-2010*

I19 – Structural and Flow Options for Millewa Forest (incorporating Steven’s Weir Fishway, Eastern Millewa regulators, Moira Lake Rehabilitation, fish passage to all weirs and Refurbishment and renewal of strategic low-lying flood management structures)

$4,720,000

I20 – Barmah Forest Water Management Plan & Works

$3,505,000

I21 – Protection and Enhancement of Murray Cod Populations $310,000 NB. A percentage of funding for contingency activities may also be required to complete the above works.

Table 12: EWMP works proposed for 2006-2010 which are located outside but which will specifically benefit the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site [Source: MDBC 2004a: Draft 2005-2006 Work Plan - Environmental Works and Measures Program, MDBC, Canberra]

EWMP Project ID and Title Est. Cost 2006-2010*

I05 – Lake Mulwala Rain Rejection Management $2,260,000

I06 – Rehabilitation of Tuppal and Bullatale Creeks $10,785,000 NB. A percentage of funding for contingency activities may also be required to complete the above works.

*The EWMP extends beyond 2010, however, only funds earmarked for expenditure between 2006-2010 (ie. the life of this plan) are included above.

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2 Draft Budget 2006-2007 The MDBC has advised of a draft 2006-2007 budget of $590,000 to support activities to achieve the ecological outcomes at the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site. Proposed activities are outlined in the summary budget in Table 13.

Table 13: Draft Barmah-Millewa Forest Icon Site operational budget 2006-2007

Project Title

Estimated commitment as at 1 June 2006 (GST

Exclusive) Payments 06/07 Remaining

Commitment Comments

Icon Site EMP planning & reporting printing $80 000

Administration Salary and operating costs for BM Icon Site Project Officer $110 000

Monitoring and Evaluation

Various monitoring and evaluation projects (see Section 6.4 above for further explanation)

$350,000

Consultation CRG, broad consultation, Indigenous consultation, meeting costs and promotion costs

$50,000

Draft Total $590 000

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3 References BMF (2004) 2004-2005 Annual Operating Plan, Barmah-Millewa Forum, Albury.

Bren, L. J., O’Neill, I.C. & Gibbs, N.L. (1987) Flooding in the Barmah Forest and its relation to flow in the Murray-Edward River System. Aust. For. Res., 1987, 17, 127-144.

Bren, L. J., O’Neill, I.C. & Gibbs, N.L. (1988) Use of map analysis to elucidate flooding in an Australian riparian River Red Gum forest. Water Resources Research, Vol 24, No. 7, Pages 1152-1162.

DSE & GBCMA (2005) Asset Environmental Management Plan: Barmah Significant Ecological Asset – Draft 11 May 2005. Department of Sustainability and Environment, Benalla and Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority, Shepparton.

DCE (1992) Barmah Management Plan - Barmah State Park & Barmah State Forest. Department of Conservation and Environment, Victoria. ISBN 0 7306 2248 7.

Dexter, B.D. (1978) Silviculture of the River Red Gum forests of the central Murray floodplain. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 90: 175-194.

DSE (2003) Barmah Forest Ramsar Site: Strategic Management Plan. Department of Sustainability and Environment, Melbourne.

FCNSW (1987) Murray Management Area Management Plan, Forestry Commission of NSW, Sydney.

GBCMA (2003) Regional Catchment Strategy. Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority, Shepparton.

Leitch, C. (1989) Towards a strategy for managing the flooding of Barmah Forest. Seminar on Barmah Forest organised by the State Working Group on River Murray Wetland and Forest Management, Department of Conservation Forests and Lands, Benalla Region, Victoria.

Maunsell Pty Ltd (1992) Barmah-Millewa Forests Water Management Plan. Final Report to the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, January 1992. Murray Darling Basin Commission, Canberra City, ACT.

MDBC (2003) Communiqué – 14 November 2003, Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Canberra, ACT.

MDBC (2004a) The Living Murray Environmental Works and Measures Program, Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Canberra, ACT.

MDBC (2004b) Living Murray Business Plan, Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Canberra, ACT.

MDBC (2005) The Living Murray Environmental Watering Plan 2004-2005 Interim Arrangement. Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Canberra, ACT. Publication No. 08/05

MDBC (2005a) Fact Sheet 6: The Barmah Choke, as accessed Monday 16th May 2005 at www.mdbc.gov.au/river_murray/river_murray_system/barmah/barmah_choke.htm

MDBC (2005b) Draft 2005-2006 Work Plan Environmental Works and Measures Program, Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Canberra, ACT.

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MDBC (2006) Water application across the River Murray system and Icon Sites: Status Report. Murray Darling Basin Commission, Canberra ACT. Publication No. 25/06

NRE (2002) Forest Management Pan for the Mid-Murray Forest Management Area. Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Victoria.

REG C (2003) Regional Evaluation Reference Group assessment of reference point flow scenarios for Zone C of the River Murray system (Yarrawonga Weir to the Wakool junction). Regional Evaluation Group C report as part of the Scientific Reference Panel to The Living Murray, Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Canberra.

Roberts, J. & Marston, F. (2000) Water regime of wetland and floodplain plants in the Murray-Darling Basin. A sourcebook of ecological knowledge. Technical Report 30-00, CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra.

Sharley, T. & Huggan, C. (eds) (1995) Chowilla resource management plan: final report, March. Prepared by the Chowilla Working Group in consultation with the Chowilla Reference Group, Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Canberra.

SFNSW and DLWC (1996) Water Management Plan for the Millewa Forests, State Forests of New South Wales, Deniliquin, NSW.

SFNSW & NSW NPWS (2002) Information Sheet on Ramsar Wetlands – Central Murray Red Gum Forests. State Forests of NSW and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Stone, A. (1991) Economic evaluation of wetlands, Wetland Conservation Report Series: Number 1, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Melbourne.

Ward et al. (1994)

Ward, K. A. (1991) Barmah-Millewa Forests trial watering -Investigation of the Moira Grass plains in Barmah Forest, Victoria. Report prepared for the Murray-Darling Basin Commission. NRMS Project No. M007B. Floodplain Ecology Group. Department of Conservation & Environment, Victoria.

Young, W.J. (ed.) (2001) Rivers as Ecological Systems - the Murray-Darling Basin. Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Canberra

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Appendix A Flora species of conservation significance

Threatened Species Act Common Name Scientific Name

National NSW Stat

us in

V

icto

ria

Vic

tori

an

FFG

Umbrella Wattle Acacia oswaldii v Boree Acacia pendula e Buloke Allocasuarina luehmannii L Common Joyweed Alternanthera nodiflora k Swamp Wallaby Grass Amphibromus fluitans v v k Buloke Mistletoe Amyema linophylla ssp. orientale v Corkscrew Spear-grass Austrostipa setacea r Yellow-tongue Daisy Brachyscome chrysoglossa v L Mueller Daisy Brachyscome muelleroides v e L Matted Water-starwort Callitriche sonderi k Slender Bitter-cress Cardamine tenuifolia k Small Scurf-pea Cullen parvum e e L Emu-foot Cullen tenax e Downs Nutgrass Cyperus bifax v Yelka Cyperus victoriensis k Slender Tick-trefoil Desmodium varians k Silky Browntop Eulalia aurea r Summer Fringe-sedge Fimbristylis aestivalis k Dwarf Brooklime Gratiola pumilo K? r Bluish Raspwort Haloragis glauca f. glauca k Hypsela Hypsela tridens k Woolly Buttons Leiocarpa panaetioides r Button Rush Lipocarpha microcephala v Austral Trefoil Lotus australis k Fat Spectacles Menkea crassa e L Smooth Minuria Minuria integerrima r Western Boobialla Myoporum montanum r Austral Pillwort Pilularia novae-hollandiae e Forde Poa Poa fordeana k Slender Sunray Rhodanthe stricta e L Dwarf Bitter-cress Rorippa eustylis r Sandalwood Santalum lanceolatum e Twiggy Sida Sida intricata v Narrow-leaf Sida Sida trichopoda r Violet Swainson-pea Swainsona adenophylla e Lilac Darling Pea Swainsona phacoides e Mountain Swainson-pea Swainsona recta e e L Leafy Templetonia Templetonia stenophylla r Source: Victorian Flora Information System cited in DSE (2003) Barmah Forest Ramsar Site Strategic Management Plan and SFNSW & NSW NPWS (2002) Information Sheet on Ramsar Wetlands – Central Murray Red Gum Forests. Key: e, endangered; v, vulnerable; r, rare; k, poorly known in Victoria; L, listed under Victorian FGG (see below) National Threatened Species: listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, 1999; NSW Threatened Species: listed under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act, 1995; Status in Victoria: Status as per Victorian Flora Information System 2003. Victorian FFG: L (listed) or A (action statement prepared) under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act, 1988 *Other noteworthy flora may occur in the NSW Murray Central State Forests but their presence has not been positively determined. Potentially occuring threatened species include Brachycome muelleroides, Callitriche cyclocarpa, Cullen parvum, Lepidium monoplocoides, Rhodanthe stricta and Sclerolaena napiformis;

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Appendix B Fauna species of conservation significance Threatened Species Act

Common Name Scientific Name

IUC

N R

ed

Lis

t

JAM

BA

/ C

AM

BA

Nat

iona

l

NSW

Stat

us in

V

icto

ria

Vic

tori

an F

FG

BIRDS Azure Kingfisher Alcedo azurea LR Australasian Shoveller4 (a) Anas rhynchotis Vul Forked-tailed Swift5 Apus pacificus J,C Great Egret3 (a) Ardea alba J,C Vul L Little Egret3 (a) Ardea garzetta ce Cattle Egret4 (a) Ardea ibis J,C Intermediate Egret3 (a) Ardea intermedia CEn L Hardhead4 (a) Aythya australis Vul Musk Duck3 (a) Biziura lobata Vul Australasian Bittern3 (a) Botaurus poiciloptilus v v End L Bush Stone-curlew4 Burhinus grallarius lr e e Sharp-tailed Sandpiper5 (a) Calidris acuminata J,C Red-necked Stint5 (a) Calidris ruficollis J,C Whiskered Tern4 (a) Chlidonias hybridus LR Spotted Harrier Circus assimilis LR Brown Treecreeper Climacteris picumnus LR Brown Quail Coturnix ypsilophora LR Little Egret Egretta garzetta End L Latham’s Snipe5 (a) Gallinago hardwickii J,C LR Diamond Dove4 Geopelia cuneata LR Purple-crowned Lorikeet2 Glossopsitta porphyrocephala v Painted Honeyeater4 Grantiella picta lr v Vul L Brolga2 (a) Grus rubicunda v Vul L White-bellied Sea-Eagle1 (a) Haliaeetus leucogaster C Vul L, A White-throated Needletail5 Hirundapus caudacutus J,C Caspian Tern5 (a) Hydropogne caspia C v Little Bittern3 (a) Ixobrychus minutus End L Swift Parrot5 Lathamus discolor e e e e Square-tailed Kite4 Lophoictinia isura r v e Hooded Robin1 Melanodryas cucullata cucullata v LR L Black-chinned Honeyeater1 Melithreptus gularis gularis v LR Turquoise Parrot2 Neophema pulchella v lr Barking Owl1 Nonox connivens v End L, A Nankeen Night Heron3 (a) Nycticorax caledonicus LR Blue-billed Duck4 (a) Oxyura australis v End L, A Gilberts Whistler1 Pachycephala inornata v Pied Cormorant4 (a) Phalacrocorax varius LR Royal Spoonbill3 (a) Platalea regia Vul Glossy Ibis5 (a) Plegadis falcinellus C LR Superb Parrot1 Polytelis swainsonii v V v End L, A Grey-crowned Babbler2 Pomatostomus temporalis v End L, A Baillon’s Crake4 (a) Porzana pusilla v Painted Snipe2 (a) Rostralula benghalensis C v e Diamond Firetail1 Stagonopleura guttata lr v Vul L Freckled Duck2 (a) Stictonetta naevosa v e Greenshank5 (a) Tringa nebularia J,C Marsh Sandpiper5 (a) Tringa stagnatilis C

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Masked Owl Tyto novaehollandiae End L Regent Honeyeater2 Xanthomyza phrygia e e e ce MAMMALS Large-footed Myotis Myotis macropus LR Squirrel Glider1 Petaurus norfolcensis v End L, A Brush-tailed Phascogale1 Phascogale topoatafa v Vul L, A Koala*** Phascolarctos cinereus lr v FISH Silver Perch (a) Bidyanus bidyanus v v CEn L, L# Murray Hardyhead (a) Craterocephalus fluviatilis e v e e River Blackfish (a) Gadopsis marmoratus DD Flathead Galaxias (a) * Galaxias rostratus v DD L# Bluenose (Trout) Cod (a) Maccullochella macquariensis E e CEn L,

L#, A Murray Cod (a) Maccullochella peelii peelii End L, L# Golden Perch (a) Macquaria ambigua Vul L# Maquarie Perch (a) Macquaria australasica dd CE v End L, L# Crimson-spotted Rainbowfish (a) Melanotaenia fluviatilis DD L, L# Purple-spotted Gudgeon (a) Mogurnda adspersa ep ce Southern Pygmy Perch (a) Nannoperca australis v Freshwater Catfish (a) Tandanus tandanus End L, L# REPTILES Broad-shelled River Turtle1 (a) Chelodina expansa v Inland Carpet Python1 Morelia spilota metcalfei End L Eastern Bearded Dragon Pogona barbata DD Tree Goanna Varanus varius Vul Bandy Bandy Vermicella annulata LR L AMPHIBIANS Barking Marsh Frog (a) Limnodynastes fletcheri DD Bibron's Toadlet (a) Pseudophryne bibronii End INVERTEBRATES Murray Spiny Cray (a) ** Euastacus armatus DD L Source: Atlas of Victorian Wildlife DSE (2003) cited in DSE (2003) Barmah Forest Ramsar Site Strategic Management Plan and SFNSW & NSW NPWS (2002) Information Sheet on Ramsar Wetlands – Central Murray Red Gum Forests. Key: (a), aquatic habitat dependency; 1 breeding resident; 2 non-breeding nomad or vagrant; 3 regular seasonal breeding; 4irregular breeding; 5 non-breeding migrant; * Loyn et al. (2002), ** DPI record, *** resettled population (Millewa forests); IUCN Red List: listed on the inventory of the global conservation status of plants and animals. e, endangered; v, vulnerable; r, rare; dd, data deficient; lr, low risk; JAMBA-CAMBA: listed under migratory bird agreements J: Japan - Australia Migratory Bird Agreement; C: China - Australia Migratory Bird Agreement. National Threatened Species: listed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, 1999;

A native species is eligible to be included in the following categories under the EPBC Act under certain conditions: CE, critically endangered; E, endangered; V, vulnerable.

NSW Threatened Species: listed under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act, 1995; e, endangered; v, vulnerable; ep, endangered population Status in Victoria: status as per Victorian Flora Information System 2003; CEn, critically endagered; End, endangered; Vul, vulnerable; LR, lower risk; DD, data deficient Victorian FFG: listed under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act, 1988.

L, listed; L#, Listed as part of the Lowland Riverine Fish Community of the Southern MDB; A, action statement prepared.

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Appendix C Interim Operating Rules for the BM Forest EWA The Interim Operating Rules for the Barmah-Millewa Forest (presented below) are currently being reviewed. The exsisting rules will be extended until June 2007 to allow time for consultation. No Agreed Rule or Trigger

1. The 100 GL of high-security water has the same security as Victoria’s water right along the Murray. This will be augmented with 50 GL of lower-security water (25 GL from each state), which is not allocated until Victoria’s seasonal allocations along the Murray reach 100% of water right plus 30% of ‘sales’, and is then allocated fully. It should be allocated in 75 to 80 years out of 100. The use of Victorian allocations to define security will be replaced by the use of independent triggers as soon as these can be developed and agreed to by the two tates.

2.* Each state’s share of the allocation is stored on their respective sides of the storages. 3. All the water allocated is carried over if not used, with the maximum volume of the allocation

being 700 GL (this could be say 150 GL allocated in the current year, plus 550 GL carried over). 4. When Hume physically spills, the first water spilt is the Barmah-Millewa kitty – though up to

200 GL, if kitty contains that much, will be retained. 5. Allowance has been made for the allocation to be overdrawn by up to 100 GL to ensure adequate

water is available for forest watering, provided there is ‘sufficient water’ in storage. It is proposed that ‘sufficient water’ will be defined by the Commission, to ensure each state can underwrite the overdraw. Possible definitions include: more than 2000 GL of water stored in Dartmouth, each state having more than 700 GL stored in Dartmouth, or each state having more than 50 GL in excess of the mandatory reserve for the following year.

6.* Each state’s share of the Barmah-Millewa environmental allocation can be borrowed for consumptive use by that state, subject to clearly defined borrowing and payback rules to be agreed between the states and endorsed as part of these arrangements. Any water borrowed by either of the states must be paid back... Initially, Victorian water users can borrow when allocations would otherwise be below 100% water right, only enough to get allocations to 100% water right. The water must be paid back fully as soon as borrowing is not needed for this. And NSW water users can borrow when their general security allocations would otherwise be less than 30%, only to the extent necessary to get these allocations to 30%. The water must be repaid as soon as borrowing is not needed for this. Both states agree that the above borrow and payback triggers will be adopted as operational guidelines during the interim period. However, each state reserves its position to alter the application of these triggers in special or exceptional circumstances, and in such circumstances to consult on the matter through the Commission. The idea that water paid back can not be spilled until one year after it is paid back is to be further investigated and considered for possible adoption.

7. In principle, credits may be allowed to the environmental allocation for water returning from the forest to the river, where this returning water is not surplus to requirements – the operational details to be agreed between the states.

8. Releases for the Barmah-Millewa Forest will be made to top up the Yarrawonga flow using target flows similar to the following: If there is a flood ≥500 GL/m from September through to November, then maintain at 400

GL in December (if sufficient volume in the allocation); If there is a flood ≥500 GL in September or October and kitty is ≥400 GL (including

overdraw), keep at 500 GL/m till November & 400 GL in December; If 4 years pass with no release, & no flood of ≥500 GL in September to November & 400 in

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No Agreed Rule or Trigger December, try for 500 GL/m in October & November & 400 GL in December;

If 3 years pass with no month from August to November with ≥660 GL, then if a release starts in October or November, the target flow increases to 660 GL at Yarrawonga.

9. The above operating practices for releases can be varied and refined from time to time, by agreement between the managers of the forest water in consultation with water managers in the two states, and with the agreement of the MDBC.

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Appendix D BM Forest EWA Release Decision Pathway Decision/(Information source)

forest managers/RMW

Was flow at Yarrawonga in previous month greater than suggested volume in EWA rules? (ie. has the forest been

inundated sufficiently from flow events in the previous month?)

No

Yes

forest managers (TAC) Have wildlife triggers in forest been achieved in Spring? (eg. has waterbird breeding been initiated?)

No

Yes

RMW Yes Is EWA kitty > volume required to enable EWA release to continue to end of December under dry conditions?

No

RMW Are unregulated flows likely to continue in current month to enable flow release to be made on the flow recession?

No

Yes

RMW/forest managers

Will flow at Yarrawonga recede below desirable daily rate for forest this month? (ie. does EWA release need to be considered ?)

Do forest managers recommend release of some of EWA ?

No

Yes

RMW/Forest managers/MDBC

Unresolved - consider further*

No Is channel capacity available downstream of Hume Dam to deliver the forest requirement in addition to other flow

requirements?

Yes

DNR/DSE Are state approvals in place? No

Yes RMW/MDBC Seek Commission approval No Keep under

review

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Yes

RMW/forest managers (TAC)

Make appropriate EWA release during month to maintain flow at Yarrawonga > desirable rate to sustain bird breeding and other

processes at current time

Monitor conditions in forest, and monitor flow situation until EWA release no longer required

* Further consideration may be warranted, especially if EWA release is already in progress and needs to be continued in order to complete a waterbird breeding event.

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Appendix E EPBC Act 1999 - Relevance to Icon Site EMP s

[Source: Department of Environment and Heritage (2005), in litt.]

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the Act) came into operation in July 2000. Under the Act, an action will require approval from the Australian Government Environment Minister if the action has, will have, or is likely to have a significant impact on:

a matter of national environmental significance (listed below);

the environment on Commonwealth land (if the action is taken outside Commonwealth land), or the environment generally (if the action is taken on Commonwealth land); and

the environment anywhere in the world (if the action is taken by the Commonwealth or Commonwealth agency).

The Environmental Protection Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act applies nationally and provides protection to matters of national environmental significance. These include:

World Heritage properties;

National Heritage places (from 1 January 2004);

Ramsar wetlands of international importance;

nationally threatened species and communities which are listed under the EPBC Act (nb: may not be the same as those listed under state legislation);

migratory species that are listed under the EPBC Act (protected under international agreements);

nuclear actions, including uranium mining; and

the Commonwealth marine environment (which is generally Australian waters beyond the 3 nautical mile limit of state waters).

The EPBC Act also applies to actions involving Commonwealth land and actions by Commonwealth agencies.

An ‘action’ includes a project, development, undertaking or any activity or series of activities. Activities in the Icon Site EMPs may be actions that are subject to the EPBC Act, including structural works and possibly actions associated with environmental watering.

If a person proposing to take an action thinks it is likely to have a significant impact on a matter protected by the Act they must refer the action to the Australian Government Environment Minister for a determination on whether the action requires approval under the Act. If the Minister determines that the action is likely to have a significant impact on a matter protected by the Act, the action will then be subject to the environmental assessment and approval processes, including the setting of any necessary conditions, under the Act.

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The Barmah-Millewa Icon Site includes parts of the Barmah Forest and New South Wales Central Murray State Forests Ramsar sites. Activities proposed under this plan may impact on the ecological character of a Ramsar wetland, or other matters of national environmental significance, such as listed migratory species, and listed threatened species and ecological communities.

Implementation of this plan will take due account of EPBC Act requirements and where appropriate, will refer activities for determination on whether the action requires approval under the Act.

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Appendix F Previous Research, Monitoring and Evaluation activities

Reports from past Barmah-Millewa Forum RME activities

Flood Reports

• Barmah-Millewa Forum (2001) Report on Barmah-Millewa Forest Flood of Spring 2000 and The Second Use of Barmah-Millewa Forest Environmental Water Allocation, Spring/Summer 2000/2001.

• Barmah-Millewa Forum (1999) Report on Barmah-Millewa Flood of October 1998 and The First Use of Barmah-Millewa Forest Allocation.

Strategies

• Barmah-Millewa Forum (2002) Barmah-Millewa Forest Fish Research and Monitoring Strategy.

• Barmah-Millewa Forum and Murray-Darling Basin Commission (2000) The Barmah-Millewa Forest Water Management Strategy. MDBC for Barmah-Millewa Forum, Canberra.

Birds

• Webster, R. (2004) The Effect of Flooding on Waterbirds within Barmah-Millewa Forest: 1999-2003, Ecosurveys Pty Ltd, Deniliquin, NSW.

• Webster, R. (2004) The influence of Flooding and Drought on Bush Birds within Barmah-Millewa Forest 1999-2002, Ecosurveys Pty Ltd, Deniliquin, NSW.

Erosion • Continued monitoring of erosion and silt deposition from the Cutting Creek, DSE.

Fish

• Crook, D.A. (2004) Contribution of Barmah-Millewa floodplain lakes to carp populations to the mid-River Murray. Final report to the Barmah-Millewa Forum. Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria.

• King, A., Mahoney, J. and Tonkin, Z. (2004) Assessing the Effectiveness of Environmental Flows in Fish Recruitment in Barmah-Millewa 2003-2004 Annual Progress Report, produced for Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria.

• Jones, M. and Stuart, I. (2004) Impact of flow regulation structures on fish in the Barmah-Millewa Forest – a report for the Barmah-Millewa Forum, Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria.

• Jones, M. (2004) Effect of environmental flow allocations on the lateral movements of native fish in the Barmah-Millewa Forest – progress report for the Barmah-Millewa Forum and Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria.

Frogs – inc small fish species,

invertebrates and water

• Monitoring Frog Response to Flooding in Barmah Forest, 2000 to 2004 –

Latest report: Ward, P.A. (2004) Monitoring of frog response to flooding in Barmah-Millewa Forest: 2003/2004. Final report prepared for Barmah-Millewa Forum, Murray-Darling Basin Commission, Canberra.

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quality

Hydrology/Hydraulics

• Maunsell Australia Pty Ltd. (2003) Development of a Hydraulic Model of the Gulf Water Management Area in the Barmah Forest, prepared for Barmah-Millewa Forum, Maunsell Australia Pty Ltd, Canberra.

• Hydrological monitoring of the Barmah-Millewa Forest, Thiess Environmental Services Pty. Ltd., ongoing.

Imagery/ Remote Sensing

• Chisholm, L. & Stone, C. (2003) Ground calibration of River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) health associated with airborne video imagery. University of Wollongong

• Abuzar, M. & Ward, K.A. (2003) Flood and vegetation mapping in the Barmh-Millewa Forests during October-December 2002 using remote sensing technology. Report prepared for the Barmah-Millewa Forum. Department of Primary Industries, Tatura.

• False Colour Stereo Photography, Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria.

Vegetation

• Baseline vegetation mapping of Barmah, 1999-2005.

• Development and implementation of a vegetation monitoring approach using transects for Barmah-Millewa forest (underway) –

Bell, T. & Whyte, K. (2004) Baramh-Millewa [Forest and Transect Study] Annual Report 2003-2004, University of Melbourne, Creswick, Victoria.

• Bren, L (n.d.) Fire-stick management of Moira grass plains.

Water Quality

• Blackwater model – A computer model to predict dissolved oxygen and dissolved carbon downstream of Barmah-Millewa Forest following a flood, July 2004 -

• Howitt, J., Baldwin, D., Rees, G. and Williams, J. (2004) Modelling blackwater: predicting water quality during flooding of lowland river forests. Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre, Thurgoona.

• Blackwater events after flooding: Model extension and validation, 2004-2005, Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre.

F.1 Other RME Projects contributed to by Barmah-Millewa Forum Acquisition of LIDAR data and development of Digital Elevation Model (DEM) GIS mapping of Barmah-Millewa Forest.

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Appendix G Relevant legislation and planning instruments

G.1 Legislation Numerous state and Commonwealth legislation and various planning instruments regulate activities within the Barmah-Millewa Forests. These include a large number of Acts, amendment acts and regulations, the key ones of which are listed below:

Jurisdiction Legislation/Planning Instrument

New South Wales

Murray Shire Local Environmental Plan Murray Regional Environmental Plan No. 2 Water Sharing Plan for the New South Wales Murray and Lower

Darling Regulated Rivers Water Sources 2003 Forestry Act 1916 National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 Fisheries Management Act 1995 Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 Native Title (New South Wales) Act 1994 (NSW) Water Act 2000

Victoria

Reference Areas Act 1978 Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 Forests Act 1958 National Parks Act 1975 Water Act 1989 Sustainable Forests (Timber) Act 2004

Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

G.2 Strategies and plans The value of the biodiversity of the Barmah-Millewa Forest has been well recognised over time, as reflected by the environmental objectives set in the various management plans that regulate activities in the forest.

Key planning documents for the Barmah and Millewa group of forests are described below.

G.3 Key planning documents for Barmah Forest The key planning documents for the Barmah Forest relevant to management of environmental water are the Goulburn-Broken Regional Catchment Strategy, the Barmah Forest Ramsar Site Strategic Management Plan, the Barmah-Millewa Forest Water Management Strategy, the Mid Murray Forest Management Plan, the Barmah State Park and Barmah State Forest Management Plans and the Icon Site Environmental Management Plan.

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G.3.1 Goulburn Broken Regional Catchment Strategy The Regional Catchment Strategy (RCS) (GBCMA, 2003) and subsidiary strategies identify and prioritise natural resource management activities for the region. It identifies priority actions cross a range of management agencies and issues to ensure that priority actions are identified, and to facilitate identification of opportunities for achieving multiple benefits by integrating projects. Management of Barmah Forest is a priority for the region.

G.3.2 Barmah Forest Ramsar Site Strategic Management Plan The objective of the Barmah Ramsar Plan (DSE, 2003) is to ‘facilitate conservation and wise use of the site to maintain and restore the ecological character which resulted in its Ramsar listing’. The values for which Barmah Forest was listed include, broadly: representativeness; special value for maintaining biodiversity; regularly supports >20 000 waterbirds; regularly supports substantial numbers of individuals from particular groups of waterbirds; and regularly support 1% of individual of a population of one species or subspecies of waterbird.

G.3.3 Murray River Reserve Recommendations The Murray River Reserve is managed in accordance with recommendations of the former Land Conservation Council (LCC) as described in the Final Recommendations for the Murray Valley area (LCC 1985). These include recreation, streambank, pump sites, hunting, stock grazing and broader ecosystem protection recommendations that:

provide opportunities for informal recreation (including camping) in a riverine environment for large numbers of people;

conserve and protect ecosystems to the extent that is consistent with the above;

allow flood mitigation and streambank protection;

use of existing and licenced pump and pumpline sites be permitted to continue;

hunting of game birds be permitted during the declared hunting period in areas specified by the land manager where conflict with other recreational users such as camping do not occur; and

stock access to water and grazing be permitted at the discretion of the land manager where it is compatible with zone management.

G.3.4 The Mid-Murray Forest Management Plan Prepared by Department of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE 2002) as the primary management instrument for forests in 1.86 million ha of northern Victoria between Rutherglen, Lake Boga and Murchison. The primary aim the forest management plan (FMP) is to ensure that state forest is managed in an environmentally sensitive, sustainable and economically viable manner. With regard to biodiversity, the FMP aim is to ‘ensure that Indigenous plant and animal species and communities survive and flourish throughout the Mid-Murray forest planning area.’

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G.3.5 Barmah State Park and Barmah State Forest Management Plan This management plan (DCE 1992) outlines the broad strategic directions for management of the forest, and provides a series of detailed management actions for the whole of forest, including flora and fauna, cultural resources, recreation and utilisation.

G.3.6 Icon Site Environmental Management Plan: Barmah Forest This management plan relates specifically to the Barmah component of the Barmah-Millewa Icon Site and outlines:

the environmental, cultural, economic and social values of the Barmah Forest and processes that are currently threatening these values;

environmental management objectives for the site;

ecological objectives and priorities for the use of environmental water;

environmental water requirements to meet objectives;

options for providing environmental water including works required to make the most efficient use of water;

works currently underway;

complementary land management actions;

management roles and responsibilities;

consultation arrangements within Victoria; and

monitoring arrangements.

G.3.7 Barmah-Millewa Forest Water Management Strategy The Barmah-Millewa Forest Water Management Strategy (BMF & MDBC, 2000) has been developed by the Barmah-Millewa Forum as an advisory document to the Murray-Darling Basin Commission (MDBC) and to the relevant state agencies responsible for managing the lands and waters of the Barmah and Millewa Forests. It provides broad direction for managing water flows within the Barmah-Millewa forest by focussing on maintaining or enhancing the ecological health by managing the water regime in a manner that recognises the forest as a single ecosystem; by recognising appropriate economic, environmental and social factors; and by adapting to advances in knowledge.

State-based water management plans and annual operating plans are produced under this strategy. The Goulburn Broken CMA is currently developing a detailed Water Management Plan for Barmah Forest, outlining priority actions required to implement the broader Barmah-Millewa Forest Water Management Strategy within Barmah Forest. This plan will replace the current outdated Interim Water Management Plan for Barmah Forest (Ward et al. 1994).

G.4 Key planning documents for the Millewa Group of Forests The key planning documents for the Millewa group of forests relevant to management of environmental water are the Water Management Plan for the Millewa Forests, the Murray Management Area Management Plan, the Grazing Strategy for the Riverina Region and the Barmah-Millewa Forest Water Management Strategy.

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G.4.1 Murray Management Area Management Plan The management plan for the Murray Management Area (FCNSW, 1987) is being replaced by a Regional Ecologically Sustainable Forest Management (ESFM) Plan as part of the Native Forest Environmental Management System (NFEMS). The NFEMS is a system developed by Forests NSW (previously State Forests of NSW) to ensure that ecologically sustainable forest management practices are applied systematically, rigorously and consistently throughout the FNSW native forest estate. The NFEMS is the system through which commitments made internationally (eg. Ramsar, the Montreal process), nationally (eg. the National Forest Policy Statement) and at a State level (eg. Catchment Management Blueprints) will be delivered and reported upon. The ESFM Plan will encompass 12 key topics: protected areas; forest values; social and economic development; sustainable timber supply; harvest planning and implementation; forest health; tourism and recreation; water and flow regimes; cultural heritage; other forest uses (eg. grazing, apiary, noxious and environmental weed and feral animal control, education); consultation, monitoring and reporting; and 5- year strategic overview.

NB. Various components of the Management Plan for the Murray Management Area have been superseded by other plans, such as the Water Management Plan for the Millewa Forests and the Riverina Region Grazing Strategy (See below).

G.4.2 Water Management Plan for the Millewa Forests This management plan (SFNSW and DLWC, 1996) was prepared to address changes in vegetation distribution and health, reductions in the abundance and diversity of waterbirds, native fish and many other fauna species, and other issues associated with river regulation and altered flooding regimes in the Millewa Forests. It was required to provide a statutory framework for the planning and co-ordination of water management tasks between the various agencies with responsibilities for land, water and wildlife management in NSW. It is an endorsed river management plan and incorporates many of the technical findings of earlier forest watering reports for the Millewa Forests. The plan's vision is to maintain and where possible improve the ecological and productive sustainability of the Millewa Forests.

G.4.3 Grazing Strategy for Riverina Region This strategy (SFNSW, 2000) briefly reviews grazing practices in the Riverina Region State Forests in NSW, and outlines the basis to implement a tactical grazing system and other measures that aim to strike a balance between conservation and production. It essentially identifies two grazing systems (Winter grazing and Summer grazing), with strategies to manipulate grazing pressure to achieve ground layer composition towards a more desirable condition. It outlines principles to be used regarding grazing in sensitive areas such as wetlands and woodlands.

G.4.4 Barmah-Millewa Forest Water Management Strategy (See description under section F.2)

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Appendix H Appendix G: Method for identifying priority WMAs and sites

H.1 Priority Water Management Area identification As occurred in the Barmah-Millewa Forum’s Annual Operating Plans, which set out their advice to the MDBC regarding management of Seasonal and Unseasonal flows and potential use of the Forests’ EWA, a ‘numeric scoring method’ proposed by Associate Professor Bren of the University of Melbourne has been used to determine priority WMAs for 2006-2007. Under this method, each WMA is assigned an ‘annual flood score’ based upon flood rankings from 0 for ‘no flooding at all’ to 3 for ‘completely flooded’.

Given that Professor Bren’s ideal flooding score is based on the ideal long term flooding frequency, a 7-year period has been used to analyse the present flooding history.

As is shown in the table below, the scores assigned for flood year 2000 were largely ‘3’s’ while those assigned for the dry years 1999, 2001 and 2002 are all close to 0.

Adopting a 7-year weighted score and an arbitrary cut off at –3.4, the analysis, not surprisingly given the number of recent dry years in the record, shows 13 WMA’s as priority watering areas for 2006-2007.

H.2 Priority site identification Priority sites listed in this plan are generally sites historically known to support colonial-nesting waterbirds and Moira Grass plains and meadows.

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Table 14: Application of Numeric Flood Scoring 2005-2006

Observed flooding score

Water Management Area

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Ideal average annual flood

score#

Accumulated score, Winter

1998-2005

Ideal score,

Winter 1998-2005

Surplus Deficiency,

Winter 1998-2005

Watering analysis 2006-

2007^

Kynmer Creek (A) 1 1 2 0 1 0 0 1 1.3 5 9.1 -4.1 Priority Tongalong Creek (B) 1 1 3 0 1 1 1 2 1.5 8 10.5 -2.5 Smiths Creek (C)* 3 1 3 0 1 0 0 2 1.5 8 10.5 -2.5 Yielima (D) 2 1 3 0 0 0 0 2 1.5 6 10.5 -4.5 Black Swamp (E)* 2 1 3 0 0 0 0 1 1.6 6 11.2 -5.2 Priority Gulf Creek (F) 2 1 3 0 2 1 1 3 1.9 10 13.3 -3.3 Boals Deadwood (G) 2 1 2 0 1 1 1 3 1.9 8 13.3 -5.3 Top Island (H1) 2 1 3 0 1 1 1 3 1.9 9 13.3 -4.3 Steamer/War Plain (H2) 2 1 3 0 2 2 2 3 2 12 14 -2 Goose Swamp (H3) 1 1 3 0 1 1 0 0 1.55 8 10.85 -2.85 Priority Barmah Island (H4) 2 1 3 0 2 2 2 1 2 12 14 -2 Priority Aratula Creek (J) 3 0 3 0 0 0 0 1 1.5 7 10.5 -3.5 Priority Plantation (L) 2 0 3 0 0 1 0 1 2 7 14 -7 Priority Mary Ada (M) 3 0 3 0 0 1 1 2 1.9 10 13.3 -3.3 Edward River (N) 3 1 3 0 0 1 1 2 2.3 10 16.1 -6.1 Priority Towrong Creek (P) 3 0 3 0 0 0 1 2 1.4 9 9.8 -0.8 St Helena Swamp (Q) 2 1 3 0 0 1 1 2 2.2 10 15.4 -5.4 Priority Gulpa Creek (R) 2 1 3 0 0 1 2 1 2.2 10 15.4 -5.4 Priority Moira Lake (S) 2 1 3 0 2 1 2 2 2 13 14 -1 Dr Leon Bren’s scoring basis 0 = ‘no flooding the WMA’ 1 = ‘some flooding the WMA’ 2 = ‘lot of flooding’ 3 = ‘completely flooded’

# Based on the proportion of wetlands, SQI, SQII, SQIII in each WMA and desirable flooding frequencies of 10 years out of 10 for wetlands, 8 years, 5 years and 3 years out of 10 for SQI, SQII and SQIII.

^ Priorities are determined using arbitrary cut-off of -3.4

* Water management of Black Swamp WMA (E) is hydraulically linked to Smiths WMA (C).

H2-H4 Scoring for these WMAs was previously presented as part of H1 scores.

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Dr Leon Bren’s scoring basis 0 = ‘no flooding the WMA’ 1 = ‘some flooding the WMA’ 2 = ‘lot of flooding’ 3 = ‘completely flooded’

# Based on the proportion of wetlands, SQI, SQII, SQIII in each WMA and desirable flooding frequencies of 10 years out of 10 for wetlands, 8 years, 5 years and 3 years out of 10 for SQI, SQII and SQIII.

^ Priorities are determined using arbitrary cut-off of -3.4

* Water management of Black Swamp WMA (E) is hydraulically linked to Smiths WMA (C).

H2-H4 Scoring for these WMAs was previously presented as part of H1 scores.

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H.3 Future Identification of priority sites With the advent of The Living Murray and consequent opportunities for increased environmental water allocation, a process will be developed to identify the priority sites to deliver environmental water to meet the ecological objectives.

Identification of priority sites will be based on an assessment that includes:

contribution to meeting the ecological objectives;

conservation value;

area;

degree of threat;

feasibility of providing water in the required regime;

predicted long-term success and quality of the outcome;

ability to manage other issues which would limit the ability to meet the objectives; and

generation or magnification of a threat resulting from environmental water management.

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Appendix I Existing objectives from relevant documents

DOCUMENT - Asset Environmental Management Plan: Barmah Significant Ecological Asset – Draft 11 May 2005 OBJECTIVES &/OR TARGETS General ecological objectives: • protect the ecological character of the floodplain, as required under the Ramsar

convention; • enhance the ecological functions and diversity of the floodplain by re-instating a more

natural flood regime; • enhance breeding and recruitment of native floodplain fauna and germination and

regeneration of native flora; • provide suitable habitat conditions for native flora and fauna; • ensure that all natural, flow related ecological functions can occur; • protect and restore Moira Grass plains; and • ensure breeding success of colonial waterbirds.

The overall ecological targets: • provide successful recruitment of large colonies of colonial waterbirds at least 3 years in

10; • increase the area and quality of Moira Grass plains; • provide breeding opportunities for floodplain fish, frogs and tortoises; • provide Winter-Spring floods to 50% of red gum forest; and • provide Winter-Spring floods to a proportion of all Barmah-Millewa wetland

communities. More detailed ecological objectives and associated hydrological conditions are below:

Ecological objective Associated hydrological conditions

• Reduce encroachment of Giant Rush and River Red Gum onto Moira Grass plains

Flow maintained <10,600 ML/day during Summer and Autumn (ie. prevent unseasonal flooding)

• Maintain health of sedges, Giant Rush and wetland communities; assist maintenance of majority of Moira Grass; maintain up to half of River Red Gum forest; provide events suitable for successful waterbird breeding

o 55% of forest inundated

• 4-month flood of 400 - 550 GL/month for 4 months in 50% of years (equivalent to average daily flow of 13,135 ML/day to 18,330 ML/day)

• Less than 5 years between these events

• Maintain health of majority of River Red Gum forest; maintain some River Red Gum woodland

o 66% of forest inundated

760 GL/month (equivalent to average daily flow 25,300 ML/day) in 40% of years; any month Aug-Nov, duration 4 months

• Maintain up to one half of River Red Gum woodland communities

o 75% of forest inundated

912 GL/month (equivalent to average daily flow 30,400 ML/day) in 30% of years; any month Aug-Nov, duration 1 – 4 months

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DOCUMENT – Water Management Plan for the Millewa Forests Key result areas Objectives Strategies Performance Indicators Target levels/dates Floodplain forest ecology To maintain and where

possible improve existing forest values.

Emulate natural flooding and drying regimes in terms of frequency, duration and seasonality. Develop methodology to identify variations to forest health and condition since Hume Dam construction (1936).

Maintain areas of existing River Red Gum site quality types. Report on significant variations in each Water Management Area.

7000 ha Site Quality 1 and 13 000 ha Site Quality 2 forest. Complete assessments for the St Helena, Edward, Gulpa and Moira Water Management Areas by 2006.

Wetlands To maintain and where possible improve the abundance and diversity of wetland dependent flora and fauna.

Emulate natural flooding and drying regimes in terms of frequency, duration and seasonality.

Abundance and diversity of key waterbird and native fish populations.

Formation of new egret colonies and a Whiskered Tern colony by 2006. Evidence of native fish recruitment within Moira Lake by 2006.

Waterways management Emulate natural flooding and drying regimes in terms of frequency, duration and seasonality.

June-December – supply water to the forests to the best possible advantage. January-May – minimise the peak flow and duration of rain rejection events to the extent possible.

Volume of water released for forest and wetland water management. Review of Hume Dam pre-release strategy. Development of a rain rejection flow impact minimisation strategy.

Subject to further evaluation.

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DOCUMENT - The Barmah-Millewa Forest Water Management Strategy

OBJECTIVES &/OR TARGETS to manage the Barmah-Millewa Forest as a single ecosystem for the purposes of water

management to optimise use of river flows to enhance water management of the environment to facilitate effective water management by refining the division of forest into areas that

can be managed independently or semi- independently to provide, operate and maintain water management works or structures required for

economic and effective operation of the Water Management Strategy to record and evaluate information on the forest’s history and past and on-going

management practices, and apply that information to water management and to assessment of the Water Management Strategy’s performance

to monitor, record and evaluate scientific information required to manage water flow operations efficiently, and to use that information in assessing the Water Management Strategy’s performance and in managing adaptively

to monitor, record and evaluate socio-economic information to assist in managing water flow operations, and to use that information in assessing the Water Management Strategy’s performance and in managing adaptively

to increase knowledge of the needs of environmental watering regimes and of water management practices, and to apply that knowledge in assessing the Water Management Strategy’s performance and in managing adaptively

develop plans to implement the Water Management Strategy with maximum effectiveness DOCUMENT - Water Sharing Plan for the NSW Murray and Lower Darling Regulated Rivers Water Sources 2003 OBJECTIVES &/OR TARGETS improve opportunities for natural regeneration and breeding cycles and ecological

processes reliant on seasonal patterns, in particular by reinstating more natural wetting and drying cycles

increase the connectivity between the river and floodplain during Spring and early Summer

contribute to the maintenance or enhancement of the physical habitats of the river system improve the opportunities for breeding of native fish and other native organisms by

encouraging the migration of native fish and allowing access to spawning sites, food sources and improved water quality, including correct thermal conditions

promote the recovery of threatened species, populations and ecological communities contribute to expansion and diversification of river bank habitat contribute to maintenance of bank stability assist in maintenance of the ecological health of anabranches and billabongs, particularly

for habitat that may not be provided in the main river channel contribute to the maintenance or improvement of water quality to downstream water

environments protect basic landholder rights to access water enhance the viability, sustainability and security of primary and secondary, recreational

and tourist industries, and the communities of the Murray-Lower Darling region.

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DOCUMENT - Entitlements to the Murray: outcomes of works to define how Victoria’s River Murray water is to be shared (1999) OBJECTIVES &/OR TARGETS The purpose of these bulk entitlements is to convert existing rights to Victoria’s water from the River Murray to clearly defined entitlements in order to: protect the environment prevent erosion of existing water rights set rules about how water will be shared in droughts provide a basis for trade of entitlements to higher value uses – including incentives for

efficiency improvements implement the cap on diversions established by the MDB Ministerial Council

DOCUMENT - Interim Operating Rules for the Barmah-Millewa Forest EWA

OBJECTIVES &/OR TARGETS a series of ‘operating rules’ have been developed to improve the management of the

Barmah-Millewa environmental allocation for the forest, to better meet the forest’s needs. they have been designed to efficiently manage the water distribution under conditions of

varying irrigation demand and natural conditions in the flow pattern. the operating rules are targeted to meet a number of desired hydrological outcomes. The

key outcomes are: to achieve on average three medium sized, long duration floods every 10 years and to ensure that there is no more than 5 years between these events. the target floods run for 4 months between September and January, inundating around

50% of the forest. This can be achieved, for example, when flows at Yarrawonga Weir exceed 500 GL/month during September, October and November, and exceed 400 GL/month in December.

Recommended triggers for use of the environmental allocation have also been established. The objective of the triggers is:

to achieve the required frequency, duration and seasonality of flooding to sustain the forest ecosystem in the long term.

Releases for the Barmah-Millewa Forest will be made to top up the Yarrawonga flow using target flows similar to the following:

if there is a flood ≥500 GL/m from September through to November, then maintain at 400 GL in December (if sufficient volume in the allocation);

if there is a flood ≥500 GL in September or October and kitty is ≥400 GL (including overdraw), keep at 500 GL/m until November and 400 GL in December;

if 4 years pass with no release, & no flood of ≥500 GL in September to November and 400 in December, try for 500 GL/m in October & November and 400 GL in December;

if 3 years pass with no month from August to November with ≥660 GL, then if a releasestarts in October or November, the target flow increases to 660 GL at Yarrawonga.

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Appendix J Environmental Performance Evaluation

TLM Environmental Management Plan for Barmah-Millewa Significant Ecological Asset

Environmental Performance Evaluation Process

Report to the Coordinating Committee July 2005

DRAFT

Technical Advisory Committee

Collated by David Leslie

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Introduction The Technical Advisory Committee has been asked to develop an environmental performance evaluation process that will assist the Coordinating Committee to understand, demonstrate and improve the environmental performance of activities proposed in the TLM Environmental Management Plan for Barmah-Millewa Icon Site . The committee has also been asked to identify opportunities for community engagement within this process.

The recommended process, which is based on the methodology known as Plan-Do-Check-Act, essentially conforms with AS/NZS ISO 14401:2004 (Environmental management systems) and AS/NZS ISO 14031:2000 (Environmental performance evaluation). It also incorporates the approach taken by the Australian Government to use criterion and indicators as the basis of reporting under the Montreal Process, and terminology used in the Living Murray Business Plan. Importantly, the process employs environmental condition indicators, rather than management and/or operational performance indicators, to evaluate performance.

While this report has been prepared to inform planning activities occurring for the Barmah-Millewa Forest Significant Ecological Asset, it may have broad application across other assets. To improve readability and comprehension, a glossary has been provided at the end of this document for all underlined terms.

The Environmental Performance Evaluation process Environmental Performance Evaluation (EPE) is a process to facilitate management decisions regarding an organisations environmental performance. It focuses on impact monitoring to allow the control activities of an organisation to be evaluated using explicit performance criteria, and involves four key components: planning, implementing, monitoring and reviewing.

Planning

• establish an environmental objective, which is mindful of legal requirements and views of interested parties

• identify current and planned control activities to achieve the objective (these must be listed in the parts B and A of the Asset Environmental Management Plan (AEMP respectively)

• identify the environmental aspects associated with these activities

• identify procedures to monitor those actions/aspects that are expected to have a significant environmental impact

There should be only one objective, the meaning and attainment of which is defined by environmental criteria, condition indicators and performance targets. A wide range of environmental variables need to be monitored as no single criterion, indicator or target is likely to be sufficiently informative in its own right.

Current and planned control activities must be linked to the objective though one or more criterion. Similarly, environmental condition indicators and targets should also be linked to an activity and reported against the relevant criterion. That is, current and proposed activities, as well as monitoring of activities, must address values that the Coordinating Committee wishes to maintain or enhance.

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Implementing

• implement the current control activities

Where possible, priority activities should be identified using a risk assessment approach (for example, AS4360-Risk Assessment Process). This will ensure that investment decisions are made on the basis of consequence and likelihood of environmental hazards, and not just convenience, cost or public appeal.

Monitoring

• measure the environmental condition indicators (ECIs), and assess the extent to which the Coordinating Committee is achieving its environmental objective and performance targets, and improving its environmental performance.

The Coordinating Committee must appreciate that it is difficult to detect and/or attribute change against a background of natural variation, measurement error and incomplete knowledge of biological processes. However, statistical power is only one of many factors that the committee must take into account when deciding whether or not to fund a monitoring proposal.

Reviewing

• take actions to continually improve the environmental performance of activities in the AEMP.

Part A of the AEMP should be reviewed at least periodically and Part B annually. The environmental criteria, condition indicators and targets (and the way they are measured) should evolve with each review as new control activities are implemented or planned.

Guidance for use

Environmental Objective The Barmah-Millewa Forest has been listed as a Significant Ecological Asset (SEA) under the Living Murray Business Plan. An interim ecological objective has been established for the asset by the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council (to enhance forest, fish and wildlife values) that has been quantified by two targets (one relating to waterbirds and another to vegetation). The Coordinating Committee is in the process of refining this objective.

An environmental objective is an aspirational statement. It must outline the broad intent and long term vision, rather than list specific actions or targets, to ensure its longevity. Having one objective also avoids the dilemma of competing objectives—rivalry and tradeoffs should occur at strategic or tactical levels, rather than at the command level.

As the forest is a wetland listed under the Ramsar Convention (the preeminent legal obligation), and the recent listing in New South Wales attained broad community support, a suitable objective is to:

Maintain and, where practicable, enhance the ecological character of the Barmah-Millewa Forest.

A decision as to whether the environmental objective has been attained can be a subjective judgment based on the number of environmental performance targets (EPTs) that have been achieved during a specified period. However, as knowledge and community values will undoubtedly change through time, a more meaningful evaluation of environmental performance involves regularly documenting how much

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progress has been made and where deficiencies continue to exist. This approach recognises that EPE is really about continual improvement, rather than arriving at a pre-determined endpoint.

Environmental Criteria The environmental criteria are an integral component of the EPE process—as a value system they not only help to define the objective, but they also link activities to the objective, and the environmental condition indicators and targets to the activities.

An initial set of six criteria, which are current normative concepts in conservation, have been selected by the Technical Advisory Committee. These are:

• Forest productive capacity: amount of biomass produced by trees (a Montreal Process criterion)

• Reproductive performance: ability to produce offspring, including dispersal ability for species with a life-history requirement to undertake breeding migrations (derivative of a Ramsar Convention criterion)

• Biological integrity: the degree to which the Icon sites biota, habitats and ecological processes match the natural condition (derivative of a Ramsar Convention criterion)

• Biological diversity: elements of diversity in ecosystems, the diversity between species, and genetic diversity in species (Montreal Process and Ramsar Convention criteria)

• Ecosystem health: area and percent of the asset affected by process or agents beyond the range of historic variation (a Montreal Process criterion)

• Ecosystem services: transformations of natural assets into products and functions that sustain and fulfill human life (component of Ramsar Convention ‘wise-use’ objective)

The environmental criteria are not intended to be independent. Some overlap occurs, for example, between biological integrity and biological diversity, but the environmental condition indicators (ECIs) relevant to these criteria report on different aspects of biodiversity, and are subsequently expressed in different formats.

There is some scope for community input to refine these existing, or develop additional, environmental criteria.

Environmental Condition Indicators To be effective, an ECI needs to have certain properties. Indicators should:

• be linked to the environmental objective via one or more criteria (rather than being measured for their own sake)

• have a sound scientific or other relevant basis (the methodology should be based on a hypothesis testing approach)

• be understandable and simple to describe in its entirety or component parts (indicators are meant to provide information, not confusion)

• be measurable in one or more forms (binary, qualitative or quantitative), and sensitive to the nature and scales of environmental change arising from an activity (in order for a trend to be detected)

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• have costs appropriate to the benefits (be feasible and realistic to measure over relevant time frames and spatial scales)

• measure environmental attributes rather than vague surrogates (so they have value in their own right)

• be capable of having targets, or thresholds of change, applied to it (so that the effectiveness of an activity can be assessed)

• measure the outcome of a control activity rather than its inputs or outputs (to substantiate consequences instead of effort or local results)

• when considered individually and collectively, contribute directly to the process of continual improvement

A large number of potential ECIs exist, and they can be measured using a range of sampling techniques and expressions—for example, ‘catch per unit effort’ can be reported as number of individuals caught per hour, or number of individuals caught per megalitre of filtered water.

The identification of ECIs it is likely to be the area in which community interests will seek to have the most input. It needs to be reinforced to all interest groups, however, that the focus of monitoring is to detect and attribute change to a control activity that has been implemented to achieve the environmental objective. The Coordinating Committee should not be about monitoring for the sake of detecting change—monitoring needs to inform their current and proposed activities.

The TAC has gone some way to identify potential ECIs (see Appendices), but in the absence of a completed AEMP upon which to gather information on current and future activities (and lack of time), it is by no means a definitive list.

Information on preferred methods for monitoring floodplains and wetlands has recently been provided by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission. The TAC has commenced looking at asset-specific procedures for measuring ECIs, but much more effort is required.

Environmental Performance Targets The acid test of the ISEMP is whether or not progress is being made to achieve the EPTs. Therefore, targets need to realistic—that is, achievable in spatial, temporal, technological and financial currencies. For these and other reasons, setting EPTs is undoubtedly the most difficult aspect of the EPE process. But it is also the most important.

An EPT is an unambiguous statement that must provide information on the desired state of the ECI including, if relevant, spatial and temporal parameters. The spatial parameter should specify a location(s) and/or a total area (within which a control activity is intended to have an effect), while the temporal parameter should specify a level of seasonality, duration and/or frequency (during which a control activity is intended to have an effect). An important function of an EPT, therefore, is to enable the nature and scale of future control activities to be gauged, and therefore planned, implemented and assessed. This iterative process can also occur in reverse—that is, the nature and scale of an intended control activity can inform the EPT.

The desired state of an ECI can be expressed in terms of a minimum acceptable condition, which may represent the benchmark condition. In this case, the intent relates to the ‘maintenance’ term within the environmental objective, and infers that such a condition (or better) is to be sustained in perpetuity. More commonly, the minimum acceptable condition represents a status higher than the benchmark. Its

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value may be derived from a scientific process, such as Population Viability Analysis, or by comparison with a reference condition. The minimum acceptable condition can also be a multiplier of the benchmark condition. In all these cases, the intent relates to the ‘enhancement’ term within the environmental objective, and a timeframe for attainment must be specified. Interim targets may also be used to track progress through time.

The desired state of an ECI may also be expressed as an envelope, with the minimum acceptable condition delineating the lower limit, and the upper limit by a maximum achievable condition. A benefit of this approach is that it provides a reference point at which further effort or investment may no longer be required. It also recognises that a steady-state condition is unlikely to exist, and so the value of the ECI can oscillate between defined minima and maxima. The maximum achievable condition is generally lower than the status of the ECI in nature. This may recognise that recovery to the natural condition is not possible or not warranted. In the rare case that recovery to the natural condition is feasible and desirable, the intent of the EPT would be to ‘restore’ rather than to maintain or enhance.

Monitoring establishes the current condition of an ECI. Once a benchmark condition has been established and a control activity implemented, monitoring enables the position of the ECI to be tracked through time in relation to its EPT. This structured process allows the effectiveness of a control activity (and validity of the hypothesis) to be assessed.

A diagram to aid comprehension of these concepts is provided in the Appendices.

Development of EPTs will rely heavily on specialist input from scientists and agency staff, as this process generally involves a level of knowledge about cause and effect, and an intimacy with scientific procedures, which the general public cannot reasonably be expected to possess. Nonetheless, the community needs to have confidence that the ‘bar’ has either not been raised too high (and is therefore unattainable, or only attainable at too high a cost), or is too low (and thereby provides too small an improvement to be meaningful).

Scientists and agency staff are generally reluctant to specify targets that are unable to be substantiated using available information, as it may be little more than guesswork. Failure to achieve a target may also cause some stakeholders to question their professional competency.

This situation especially relates to predicting environmental benefits arising from future use of recovered environmental water, or e-water. A recurring difficulty is that the system-wide nature of environmental flows means there is often very limited scope for a ‘before-after control impact’ experimental design. The flow regime is, by nature, highly variable, and the level of intervention is likely to be small in comparison. A range of confounding factors is also likely to exist. In these circumstances, it can be very difficult to establish a control condition in order to determine whether a significant level of environmental improvement has resulted from a control activity (and, in statistical terms, avoid a ‘false negative’ decision). It is therefore important for the Coordinating Committee to appreciate that EPTs can be more about hypothesis testing outside of a standard experimental design, than articulating an authoritative endpoint condition. In this context, failure to achieve targets should simply be viewed as an essential facet of learning.

However, researchers also need to recognise that hypotheses should be designed to ‘fail safely’—that is, an hypothesis can be shown to be false without causing irrecoverable environmental damage or economic hardship (there will always be a small element of risk, however). Hypotheses that are ‘failsafe’—or are always going to be proven true—should avoided whenever possible as they do not contribute

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greatly to the learning process. In either case, the hypothesis and assumptions underlining it should be explicitly stated.

It is premature for the TAC to provide much more than tentative EPTs for a small number of potential ECIs (examples are provided in the Appendices). However, it is important to note that there will be competing targets—that is, achievement of one target may jeopardize or diminish achievement of another target within the same, or a different, environmental criterion. Tradeoffs will also exist according to the spatial and temporal scales that a control activity is intended to influence. Competition and tradeoffs are largely unavoidable because a given volume of environmental water may be used to inundate large areas of forest periodically, or smaller areas more frequently.

Types of control activities The Living Murray Business Plan provides direction on the nature and scale of control activities within an ISEMP. In essence, control activities must focus on treating the significant environmental aspects of river regulation, and more particularly those arising from the overallocation of water to entitlement holders. The two main eligible control activities, which are provided for under Section D of the business plan, are: (i) application of recovered water, and (ii) capital works funded under the Environmental Works and Measures Program (EWMP). Asset-specific hazards may also be addressed, but only if they threaten achievement of the environmental objective.

The environmental aspects associated with these control activities need to be documented, and a monitoring program developed for those actions/aspects that are considered to have a significant environmental impact. The likely impacts will, of course, be mostly beneficial, but there is potential for adverse impacts.

Environmental condition indicators that are sensitive to the application of e-water must have EPTs that are able to be interpreted hydrologically. It is crucial for the Coordinating Committee to appreciate that these types of EPT, when considered collectively, provide the basis for estimating the environmental water demand of the asset. As a major function of the ISEMP is to inform The Living Murray Environmental Watering Plan by describing the assets demand for water, the EPTs are not only the most important component of EPE, but also of the ISEMP itself.

The TAC is in the process of developing EPTs based on four water resource availabilities—the current situation (ie. using the 100 GL Barmah-Millewa Forest Environmental Water Allocation), 20 GL/yr new e-water, 60 GL/yr new e-water, and 100 GL/yr new e-water. While there is an expectation that the status of many ECIs will improve as larger volumes of new e-water are provided, there may be little empirical evidence to support such a hypothesis. The MSM BigMod simulation model for the River Murray System will be used to establish the impact of these water requirements on the overall system, including deliverability.

Environmental condition indicators that are sensitive to environmental works and measures must have EPTs that relate specifically to the activity. These types of EPT, when considered collectively, should inform financial investment under the EWMP.

Assessing control activities The EPE process provides the pathway by which environmental information is used by the Coordinating Committee to assess and improve the effectives of its control activities. It is therefore important for monitoring of ECIs to inform the Coordinating Committee whether:

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• a serious environmental problem is immanent, when one is likely to exist (to signal that preventive action is required in the near future)

• there was a potentially serious environmental problem, when one existed, but it was effectively treated (to demonstrate that the preventive or corrective action was successful)

• there was a serious environmental problem, when one existed, but it was not effectively treated (to identify that effective preventive and/or corrective actions need to be developed)

• there is not a serious environmental problem, when there isn’t one (to demontrate that no preventative or corrective action was necessary)

The first three points are important for detecting unacceptable risks to the environment and implementing effective control activities, while the fourth point is important to ensure the economy is not unnecessarily burdened for environmental reasons.

Conclusion Environmental performance evaluation is about understanding, demonstrating and improving environmental performance of an organisation. Impact monitoring is implemented to detect the direction and magnitude of change arising from a control activity. It is a structured process that requires commitment from top management, dedication and persistence from researchers, and patience from all interests groups.

The Coordinating Committee should restrict its monitoring program to parts of the environment that it seeks to influence by implementing its control activities. Where knowledge gaps are found to exist, particularly when control activities are shown to be ineffective, the program must adjust to seek a solution, not just knowledge.

Community engagement should concentrate on ‘what’ is being measured and ‘why’, informing on the ‘how’ and reaching general agreement on ‘how much’.

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Appendix 1.

Conceptual framework for setting an EPT

Commentary:

• the status of an ECI changes under natural conditions until T1, when an activity commences with a significant environmental aspect. The ECI begins to deteriorate in value (shown by green line). Change during this period is generally inferred by way of comparison to a reference or control condition, rather than being measured directly.

• the state of the ECI is first measured at T2 (the benchmark), at which time management decides the risk to the environment is unacceptable and must be controlled. It is forecast that if nothing is done to address the hazard, the ECI will continue in a downward trajectory (shown by broken green line)

• at T2, management also develops an EPT for the ECI, based on a hypothesis that is explicitly stated, which is shown as an envelope between the minimum acceptable condition and the maximum achievable condition. Three complementary control activities are developed (A1, A2 and A3) to be progressively implemented between times T2 and T5 to achieve a gradual improvement in the status of the ECI (shown by broken blue line)

• monitoring of the ECI is planned to occur at T3, T4 and T5 so that management can determine whether the interim EPTs (shown by the green circles) are being achieved, and therefore whether the original hypothesis was valid and the control activities are effective.

• management also establishes process that will allow hypotheses, control actions, ECIs and EPTs to be continually improved.

Within this framework, the Coordinating Committee will find that it is positioned immediately before T2 for most ECIs. That is, a declining trend is recognisable, but a baseline condition has not been quantified, targets have not be set, and control actions have either not been identified or their effectiveness adequately assessed.

minimum acceptable conditionminimum acceptable condition

ECI

Time

ECI

Time

maximum achievable condition

T2T2T2 T3T3T3 T5T5T5T4T4T4

A1A2

A3

T1

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Appendix 2. Examples of ECIs and EPTs

Criterion 1. Forest productive capacity: amount of biomass produced by trees

ECI EPT

1.1 Crown Condition eg. In Site Quality 1 forest, maintain 80% of dominant/co-dominant trees with healthy crowns

1.2 Diameter increment 1.3 Timber yield 1.4 Leaf Area Index

Criterion 2. Reproductive performance: ability to produce offspring, including dispersal ability for species with a life-history requirement to undertake breeding migrations

ECI EPT

2.1 Waterbird breeding Successful breeding of thousands of colonial nesting waterbirds achieved at five or more locations simultaneously in at least three years in ten (breeding separated by no more than four years)

2.2 Population level of species of conservation significance from diverse wetland habitats:

− Superb Parrot Maintain at least 38 breeding pairs within the Edward River Superb Parrot colony.

− White-bellied Sea-Eagle Maintain at least 5 pairs of White-bellied Sea-eagles at 5 locations with at least one pair breeding successfully in at least 2 years in ten (breeding separated by no more than 5 years)

Other candidate species: Broad-shelled River Turtle, Large-footed Myotis, Barking Marsh Frog, Bibron's Toadlet, Murray Spiny Cray, and native fish.

2.3 Number of migratory native fish congregated below River Murray structures:

− Stevens Weir No net accumulations of migratory native fish below Stevens Weir by 2007

− Edward River Offtake Regulator

No net accumulations of migratory native fish below Edward River Offtake Regulator by 2008

− Gulpa Regulator No net accumulations of migratory native fish below Gulpa Regulator by 2009

2.4 Number of native fish stranded below large forest regulators:

− Gulf Creek regulators Abundance of native fish accumulated behind Gulf Creek regulators reduced by 80% by 2008

− Mary Ada Regulator Abundance of native fish accumulated behind Mary Ada Regulator reduced by 80% by 2009

ECI (cont.) EPT (cont.)

2.5 Fish breeding

2.6 Frog breeding

2.7 Flowering and seed set of selected aquatic plants

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Criterion 3. Biological integrity: the degree to which the Icon Sites biota, habitats and ecological processes match the natural condition

ECI EPT

3.1 Percent native fish individuals and species:

− Channel-dwelling species

− Off-channel dwelling species 3.2 Proportion and cover of native to introduced ground flora.

3.3 Area of forest with a Common Reed Phragmites australis understorey

3.4 Area of riparian herblands

Criterion 4. Biological diversity: elements of diversity in ecosystems, the diversity between species, and genetic diversity in species

ECI EPT

4.1 Extent of area by vegetation community relative to total SEA area.

4.2 Presence/abundance of wetland dependent species of local, regional, state or national conservation significance

− Nomadic or migratory birds Confirmed presence of at least 13 (50% of candidate) species of conservation significance each year.

− Native fish Confirmed presence of at least 6 (50% of candidate) species of conservation significance each year.

4.3 Number of wetland dependent vertebrate species.

Maintain the current number of wetland dependent vertebrate species (calculated annually from rolling 5-year species total)

4.4 Reporting rate, relative abundance and diversity of woodland bird species.

At least maintain 1999-2003 benchmark conditions.

Criterion 5. Ecosystem health: area and percent of the asset affected by process

or agents beyond the range of historic variation

ECI EPT

5.1 Fire occurrence 5.2 Insect defoliation 5.3 Land salinisation No net increase in area affected by dryland salinisation 5.4 Induced drought Three long-duration, medium-sized floods every three

years. 5.5 Unseasonal or permanent flooding 5.6 Rate of bank erosion

− Murray River channel Maintain current rates of channel erosion. − within-forest channels

5.7 Area of pugging by livestock 5.8 Groundwater quality and depth Maintain Shepparton aquifer in both quality and quantity 5.9 Surface water quality (chemical) 5.10 Blue-green algae counts 5.11 Area of Willow infestation Area of infestation not to increase above 2005

benchmark 5.12 Area of Sagittaria infestation Area of infestation not to increase above 2005

benchmark 5.13 Proportion of native fish with disease, parasites and/or abnormalities

5.14 Level of carp breeding

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5.15 Weight of carp caught at Moira Lake

5.16 Severity of blackwater events No fish kills as a result of blackwater developing within and leaving the asset.

Criterion 6. Ecosystem services: transformations of natural assets into products and functions that sustain and fulfill human life

ECI EPT

6.1 Amount of RRG regeneration eg. within Site Quality 1 forest, 80% of canopy openings effectively regenerated within 3 years of disturbance

6.2 Carbon flux 6.3 Duration and season of wetland drying

6.4 Length of connection between river and floodplain

6.5 Rate of sedimentation 6.6 Flood mitigation capacity 6.7 Amount of honey production 6.8 Aquatic invertebrates (eg. inoculum leaving SEA)

6.9 Catch of Murray Cod by recreational fishermen

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Appendix K Terms of Reference for Barmah-Millewa Consultation Reference Group

Context Barmah-Millewa Forest is one of six icon sites targeted for attention under The Living Murray. The Living Murray is a long-term program managed by the Murray Darling Basin Commission to return the River Murray system to a healthy working river. As a First Step environmental benefits will be maximised at the six Icon Sites. NSW Forests and the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment will jointly manage the Barmah Millewa Asset with assistance from a Coordinating Committee (CC). The CC will draw upon technical expertise and community advice to develop and implement an Icon Site EMP which will outline the ecological objectives, values, water requirements, works and available budget to ensure the long term health of the forest. A Consultation Reference Group (CRG) and an Asset Technical Advisory Committee will be formed. While a commitment has been made to form a CRG, this is not the only mechanism for consultation the CC intends. In addition, the Coordinating Committee will facilitate targeted as well as broad community input with people and groups that have an interest in water management within the site. Indigenous communities will be consulted to determine the best approach to enable inclusive engagement of Indigenous people. Key Task of the Consultation Reference Group:

to provide community advice to the CC with respect to the development and implementation of the coordinated Icon Site EMP; and

to provide advice on consultation with regional and local groups who have an interest in the management of the site.

Sub-tasks In order to fulfil the main functions outlined above, the CRG will be required to:

identify stakeholders and people with an interest in the management of the asset; communicate with community members and groups to provide information and elicit

views; provide advice on community values to assist in formulating objectives for the Icon

Site EMP; provide advice on knowledge within the community that could contribute to the

management of the icon site; provide advice on potential impacts, risks and opportunities of proposed projects; provide advice on the development, implementation and review of a Community

Engagement Strategy including: o suitable consultation activities; o research and monitoring priorities to fulfil community knowledge gaps; o communication and information requirements; and o ways to monitor community participation.

Activities outside the scope of the CRG The CRG is an advisory group. Direct management of budgets, project officers and Environmental Water Allocation is outside the scope of the group. Land tenure issues are outside the scope of The Living Murray. Relationships The CRG will need to communicate with the community, CC and Technical Advisory Committee and Indigenous processes.

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Composition of Consultation reference group The CRG will consist of 15 – 18 members plus people with Indigenous connections2. Membership of the CRG will be based on skills, knowledge and experience in a number of areas with an emphasis on the ability of members to represent community interests. Members will be expected to demonstrate:

a spiritual, social, economic or environmental connection to the Barmah-Millewa Forest;

an ability to represent a range of interests in the orest; a capacity to contribute to the Coordinating Committees understanding of community

issues (including social, spiritual, economic and environmental) as they relate to water management within the forest (experience in leadership, negotiation, consultation and communication would be desirable); and

a knowledge of water, wetland, natural resource or forestry management (desirable but not essential).

Membership at any given time will be appointed in order to ensure key skills and knowledge and access to community networks is maintained within the group. The Project Officer will be an ex-officio member of the CRG. Selection process CMAs are responsible for selection and will provide membership advice to the CC, who in turn will provide membership advice to the Murray Darling Basin Commission. The Goulburn Broken CMA has recommended membership be drawn from the Shepparton Irrigation Region Implementation Committee. In addition, the Murray CMA will select up to nine members under an Expression of Interest process. Processes to seek Indigenous membership are yet to be identified in collaboration with Indigenous communities. Expression of Interest Process:

advertisements will be placed in local papers; applications from NSW or Victorian residents will be accepted; a selection panel consisting of a Murray CMA Board member, Murray CMA staff

member and the Lead Asset Manager will review applications and select applicants based on ability to fulfil key skills, experience and knowledge requirements; and

the selection panel will also give consideration to the collective makeup of the CRG to achieve a balance in skills and knowledge of community issues and access to community networks.

Dispute resolution: Should an applicant have a dispute in relation to the selection process - their complaint should be addressed to the CC. Reimbursement Members of the CRG will be reimbursed for expenses such as travel costs and meals. 2 Summary of Outcomes – Barmah-Millewa Forest Significant Ecological Asset: Community Consultation Workshop – 7/7/2005

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Terms of Appointment A member is appointed: a) for an initial period not exceeding 2 years. Members can nominate for a further term

after the expiry of their initial term. A maximum of two consecutive terms is recommended; and

b) on the terms and conditions set out in the code of conduct. Meetings The ability to attend meetings is a key selection criteria for the CRG. It is anticipated the CRG will meet on an as-needs basis but expect two or three meetings per year.