The Community Rapid Assessment and Monitoring (CRAM) Project promotes Community Environmental Monitoring (CEM) within the Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment.  The project has been conducted by the Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment Management Trust (HNCMT) for several years, funded by the National Heritage Trust (NHT).  CRAM is a project that helps community groups to assess and monitor their environment, and effectively use their data, by providing support training, information networking and data management.  The CRAM Project brings together a collection of methods that measure indicators of catchment health.  These methods, designed as quick and simple checklists, have been devised and tested through community and professional (technical & management) cooperation.  

 

 Why was the CRAM Project started ?

To CRAM Project was initiated with the aim of helping the community, and management agencies like councils, to work together in managing the local environment and associated natural resources. Under the Local Government Act (1993) – Local Government Amendment (Ecologically Sustainable Development Act 1997), councils must in preparing State of the Environment (SoE) reports:

Consult with the community and involve the community in monitoring changes to the environment over time and produce a report that can be readily understood by the general community.

Representatives from the community, management agencies (councils), and technical experts have worked together on this project, thus the assessment and monitoring methods may help councils begin meeting the requirements of the above legislation. 

 

 Philosophy behind the CRAM Project

Successful management of the environment requires regular assessment and monitoring of the condition of natural resources – the land, water, vegetation, and fauna.  Successful assessment and monitoring requires consistent recording of data collected through standard methods, so that comparisons can be made over time and across different sites.

We all view things differently, so methods used for assessment and monitoring must take into account the different ways people make their observations. The methods must be repeatable (rigorous) enough to allow comparisons across sites in a region and across time, and supply information that people can confidently use.  

 

 Definitions used in the CRAM Manual

 

Assessment – initial measurement of an area, generally of things that change slowly.  Monitoring – regular measurement of an area, or quality/quantity of items over time, generally of things that can change rapidly.

 

 Why should we assess and monitor ?                          

1.  It allows us to know if the condition of our environment is declining, stable, or improving

2.  It gives us a tool to help improve our management practicesand projects

 

  

 How does assessment and monitoring help us ?

 

• we can learn more about the natural environment and how it works

• it gives us information for planning and exercising management strategies

• it gives us information for planning projects

• it gives us evidence for lobbying management agencies

• it acts as an early warning system of resource and environmental decline

• it measures how successful our previous management actions have been

• it allows the community to be actively involved in resource and environmental planning and management

 

 

 

 Who will help us assess and monitor ?

 

CRAM is working to provide:

• standard methods of community assessment and monitoring

• field training in effective application of the methods

• expertise in resource and environmental science and management

• data management and explanation/interpretation

• a network between stakeholders - community, councils, and technical experts

 

 

 

 

 

 What can we assess and monitor ?

 

Vegetation	Fauna	Land	Remediation Works
Species numbers, distribution, and abundance	Species numbers, distribution, and abundance	Type of Landuse Area of Landuse (past, present and planned future use)	Type of activity eg. revegetation, or bank stabilization
Presence of rare and endangered species	Presence of rare and endangered species	Erosion    Type, Area affected  and severity	Area  - how much and where?
Extent of cover eg. percentage of groundcover	Habitat availability and loss	Disturbances  impact type and magnitude	Outcomes – how successful are responses?
Remnant vegetation size, shape, connectivity	Feral/exotic pest populations and impacts	who/what is causing the impact?	Number of volunteers and time spent working
Exotic/weed invasion Type and severity			Net worth of volunteer work
Vegetation clearing rates and areas affected

 

 

 How do we assess and monitor ?

CRAM manual compiles methods for assessment and monitoring under the following titles:

• Guidelines for Monitoring a Bushcare Project

• Guidelines for Assessing and Monitoring Riverbank Health

• Guidelines for Assessing and Monitoring Sclerophyll Bushland Health

• Guidelines for Bushland Weed Mapping

• Wetlands Assessment

• Saltmarsh Assessment

 

 

A number of additional monitoring checklists are also being developed, to cover areas such as: Roadside Vegetation Assessment In-Stream Channel Assessment (Stormwater) Remnant Bush Habitat Assessment