Friends of the Prom Inc Reg.No. A0052167S

President - Mark Walter -

Secretary – Bill Hansen - info@friendsoftheprom.org.au -

Vice President - Deb Henry -

Submission: to the Parliamentary Committee: Inquiry into the Control of Invasive Animals on Crown Land.

Submitted: on behalf of the membership and committee of Friends of the Prom inc

Submission prepared by Vice President Deb Henry, Secretary Bill Hansen and staff of the Friends of the Prom Plant Nursery

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SUBMISSION 180RECEIVED 05/09/2016

Impact of hog deer at Wilsons Promontory National Park

This submission reports the observations of Friends of the Prom on the predation of hog deer at Tidal River, Wilsons Promontory National Park .

Friends of the Prom

The Friends of the Prom Inc. (FOTP) is a volunteer group which assists park staff with preservation and upkeep of one of Victoria's oldest and largest national parks. FOTP was established in 1979 and currently has 120 members.

On 6 weekends a year, FOTP members engage in a conservation activity arranged by Parks staff within the Prom such as tree planting, surveys of fauna or flora, track maintenance, beach-combing for rubbish, and weed removal.

On every second Thursday throughout the year, a small group of volunteers work at the FOTP plant nursery at Tidal River. The nursery is dedicated to growing plants for revegetation at the Prom – for example, repairing wear and tear in the Tidal River campground, popular carparks and lookouts, and revegetation of areas damaged by the catastrophic fires in 2005 and 2009 and the subsequent flooding in 2011, and degraded areas such as Doughboy Island and the Lighthouse Track, and restoring of habitat for shore birds along beaches and coast lines.

The nursery was established in 1995 and is managed and staffed by FOTP members who work under the general supervision of Parks Victoria staff. Seeds and cuttings for propagation are collected in the vicinity of the areas to be planted as it is important to preserve the local provenance of plantings in a national park.

The nursery volunteers propagate all the trees, shrubs, herbs and grasses used in Prom revegetation projects. The seedlings raised in the nursery are planted by volunteers of the nursery group, assisted by the wider FOTP membership for larger projects and members of the public on occasions like National Tree Day.

Observations the impact of deer at Tidal River

• Over the past 4 years, about 80% of the group’s revegetation effort has been centred on Tidal River camping ground;

• The revegetation at Tidal River is repairing damage caused by campers, native animals (such as wombats), hog deer and strong winds.

• We estimate that 60% of our revegetation activity at Tidal River can be attributed to hog deer damage

• The emergence of hog deer as a pest at Tidal River has occurred within the past 4 or 5 years. Prior to that hog deer were occasionally sighted around the Stockyards campsite at the park entrance at Yanakie, but not at Tidal River.

• Sightings of hog deer are now a common occurrence at Tidal River and their presence is apparent from their distinctive foot prints, the damage they inflict on plantings and the erosion they cause to dune-slopes.

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• Before the hog deer invaded Tidal River, 450mm high plastic sleeves supported by stakes were used to protect newly planted seedlings. These are no longer adequate to protect against hog deer and we have resorted to using more expensive heavy duty mesh tree guards up to 900 mm high. These need to be firmly tied to stakes with cable ties – all very time-consuming when there are thousands of plants to go in.

Even these sturdier guards offer only limited protection because the deer have a long reach and forage on any part of the plant growing outside or above the guard. This means the attrition rate of young trees, shrubs and grasses is high.

• Hog deer don’t seem to discriminate between species and will graze on Acacia verticillata, Bursaria spinosa, and the various Hakeas, all known for their prickly needle-like natural defences which native animals generally avoid.

• Hog deer rub themselves up against larger trees - banksias and casuarinas in particular. Younger trees, in the 4 to 5 year-old class are the most vulnerable. Their foliage is out of reach to the deer but their rubbing is starting to cause ring-barking, so protective guards must be installed.

• Hog deer have formed well-worn paths when they emerge from shelter in thick scrub surrounding Tidal River to graze on the grass and young plants in the camp ground. Scouring occurs where these paths go up and down the sandy dune slopes, undermining and destroying any vegetation in their way.

• The work required by the FOTP nursery’s revegetation program to remedy damage inflicted by hog deer accounts for:

o 750 volunteer hours/year; o 200 park ranger hours/year; and o an additional $3,000 expenditure from Parks Victoria’s Prom operating budget.

(Our calculations to arrive at these estimates are shown in Appendix 1.)

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Appendix 1 - Estimate of cost of deer damage

1. Assumptions • 80% of the group’s revegetation effort is centred on Tidal River camping ground • 60% of revegetation activity at Tidal River is attributed to deer damage

2. Volunteer hours

a) Nursery volunteers No. of nursery days/year: 26 Average attendance/day: 12 Average working time/day: 4.0 hours (not incl. travel time, and lunch and coffee breaks) No. of volunteer hours/year = 12x4x26 = 1,248

b) FOTP weekend activity No. of planting days/year: 1 Average attendance/day: 25

Average hours worked/day: 4 No. of volunteer hours/year = 25x4x1 = 100

c) Public planting days No. of planting days/year: 2 Average attendance/day: 30

Average hours worked/day: 3 No. of volunteer hours/year = 30x2x3 = 180

d) Total volunteer hours/year on revegetation = 1248+100+180=1,528 e) Total volunteer hours/year on revegetation attributed to deer damage = 80% of 60% of

1,528 = 733, rounded out to 750 3. Ranger hours

No. of ranger hours/fortnight on Tidal River revegetation averaged over a year = 121

No. of ranger hours/year on reveg attributed to deer damage = 12x60%x 26 = 187 4. Materials

Average annual cost of operating and maintaining FOTP nursery = $10,0002

Assume cost of materials 50% of annual O&M cost = 50% of $10,000 = $5,000 Cost of materials attributed to deer damage = 60% of $5,000 = $3,000

1 Estimate provided by the FOTP nursery group supervising ranger Sep 2016

2 Cost estimated by Parks Victoria Acting Head Ranger, May 2016

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