Project Description
AABR National Forum 2024 – The Rs of Restoration
Applying the 18 elements from the National Standards to contract specifications –Craig McGrath, City Of Yarra
Craig is the Biodiversity Officer from the City of Yarra.
The principles of the SERA National Standards pretty much underwrite the City of Yarra’s contracts. Back in 2016, I thought that when we write our contracts, we needed to use these principles, and get these elements in the contracts. There are 18 elements in the recovery circumplex we use.
Original Recovery Circumplex c.2016
12 Elements from SERA’s National Standards
6 x SERA Principles
- Ecological restoration practice is based on an appropriate local native reference ecosystem
- Restoration inputs will be dictated by level of resilience and degradation
- Recovery of ecosystem attributes is facilitated by identifying clear targets, goals and objectives
- The goal of ecological restoration is full recovery, insofar as possible, even if outcomes take long timeframes or involve high inputs
- Restoration science and practice are synergistic (SMART)
- Social aspects are critical to successful ecological restoration
6 x Progress Evaluation Attributes to achieve ecosystem goals
Social Engagement Circumplex c.2022
- Absence of Threats
- Physical Conditions
- Species Composition
- Structural Diversity
- Ecosystem Function
- External Exchanges
In 2016, we had Lincoln Kern’s team from Practical Ecology put together this amazing work over 2 years. Combining Victorian Government data bases and ground truthing, over 200 floristic species were identified as indigenous to the City of Yarra. A lot of this data when broken down, fitted into this circumplex. We had also been through 15 years of on and off drought, which provided insights into how each system was reacting through some of the harshest times. This initiated further thinking about how to embed adaptive management responses to climate change.
Different states use different descriptors like NSW’s ‘Plant Community Types’ (PCTs). The Victorian Government’s terminology ‘Ecological Vegetation Classes’ (EVC) classifies one or several floristic communities that can be distinguished within an environmental niche and has similar habitat and ecological processes operating. In highly degraded urban areas, where remnant vegetation has negligible coverage, this synthesised context is our next best option when reflecting upon restoration efforts to ensure an appropriate cover from different strata is represented.
We use this to describe what our sites might look like to address the 1st SERA Principal – appropriate local native reference ecosystem.
What do you need to do to make a good contract?
Nine years (contract) was daunting, but to get long-term change, you need to plan long-term, reflect on what’s happening and project what might happen in the next few years. Our contract structure starts with a Bushland Service plan to cover the first four years for each reserve. Then we develop annual plans within reserves for each EVC which have separate management plans. Ongoing monthly contract meetings reflect upon auditing criteria that align to the recovery circumplex and are reflective of service levels in the annual plans.
Yarra’s New Contract: 9 years lump sum.
Moving away from the inputs & rates model, this contract asked vendors to price each site/EVC to deliver a range of outcomes related to the recovery circumplex. This Outcome Focused contract is generically structured to classify EVC/sites within reserves into aspirational/achievable service levels over time.
- Rates Per Site m² & Condition Classification (4 star & below service level)
- Bushland Maintenance Service Plans
- Strategic bushland restoration objectives
- Site specific approaches and issues
- Annual Works Plan
- Monthly Contract Meetings
- Programmed Works Complete/Arising
- Rapid Assessment Results
- Maintenance Record Keeping
Establishing benchmarks and targets are reflective of levels of resilience and/or sites exhibiting accelerated degradation so the objectives within these plans need to provide specific goals. (These plans address the 2nd & 3rd SERA Principles).
Yarra Contract Goals
A feature of the contract is that by creating EVC condition targets we also apply timelines for those targets to be achieved. Ideally, we would like to achieve ‘full potential recovery’. However, we also acknowledge that there are constraints like budget and ‘edge effect’ (i.e. threatening processes outside our control). Maintenance Plans classify EVCs into their potential level of improvement and assign a timeframe for that outcome to be achieved.
Ongoing Monitoring
The SERA Standards have been revised since 2016. By and large, the City of Yarra is in the reintroduction phase because a lot of our areas are highly modified. Many of Yarra’s urban reserves harbour ‘fill’ that may be contaminated. Remnant areas are hard to find, but there are some small patches.
In terms of the generic standards for one to five-star recovery levels, the levels of degradation and site resilience, all Yarra’s sites fall below that condition classification, so we work from four-star and below. Developing the contract, we needed to set some achievable targets, and 80% of the EVC benchmark seemed to be as good as we were getting. Going down to our poorer quality sites, our maintenance plans tended to focus on reducing threatening processes. Yarra’s better sites focus on improving biodiversity.
Yarra’s Modified Circumplex :Rapid Monthly assessments review conditions across 13 elements. Annual Audits review all 18 elements in the Recovery Wheel circumplex
Annual Audit (e.g. case study Halls Reserve)
Every year we have ecologist consultants perform an independent annual audit using a rapid assessment tool and combine that information with our contractor’s fieldwork with audits from both contractor and council staff. We pass that information over to the consultants, and they (for example) quantify how many life forms and the percentage each species covers.
Auditing drives evolving the circumplex and we add new things in there (to reflect EVC condition changes) e.g. the percentage of life-form cover. We are monitoring outcomes with the annual audit and trying to collect information about Bioindicators. For quick assessments, it’s really easy to take photos and put them onto ‘iNaturalist.’ This involves some citizen science and getting people interested in your projects and reflects the 6th element of the SERA Principles.
I love the idea of the ‘Incomplete Puzzle Hypothesis.’ If you are doing a lot of the right work, you’ll pull together these pieces of the puzzle, and this means that ‘only the understanding of all possible pieces will allow an adequate view of restoration potential of the image’. The defined goals must be conditioned on how complete this puzzle is.
The final word to think about is trust. Trust is a big word, but trust doesn’t exist without ‘results driven the right way’.
References and useful sources:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.107458
https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/ecological-indicators