Introduction

These guidelines are designed to assist community groups in both establishing and monitoring a ‘Bushcare’ or bushland regeneration project.  In conducting such a project, you will probably need to assess the initial condition of the site, and also monitor subsequent changes, to see if you are meeting your project objectives.  These guideline are not “rules”, so your group may wish to use only relevant sections, or modify them where necessary.

These guidelines, described as “Rapid Assessment” because they only take a few hours to complete, include checklists which are standardized data collection forms.  The checklists have not been designed for use by scientists – although professional biologists/ecologists have contributed to their design. Interested individuals, community groups, students, landholders, and government/management agency staff, can all readily use the CRAM guidelines to learn more about their local environment.

  What's in the guidelines ?

The checklists and activities contained in these guidelines are arranged into three groups:

A.  "Setting Up" Activities and Checklists 

• site description (in conjunction with mapping and collecting background information)

• most common plant species

• plant species list 

• photo points

• quadrat maps

B.  Weed Invasion Mapping

• weed invasion map

C.  Monitoring Project Progress

• seedling germination

• plant response to weed control

• survival rates of plantings 

A section called Getting Started on a Bushcare Project is included at the end of this document as reference material, for planning community environmental monitoring programs.  If you're uncertain about filling out any part of the checklists (eg. full map coordinates), or need help in organizing your group for monitor, then you should read these sections.

• Getting Started in Community Environmental Monitoring

• Gathering Monitoring Data

• Using the Data

In order to assess changes to the health of your site over time, you may wish to use checklists in other guidelines of the CRAM Manual, especially Guidelines Assessing and Monitoring the Health of Sclerophyll Bushland.