What is a Grassy Box Gum Woodland?

Box Gum Grassy Woodland is the name given to the endangered ecological community White Box, Yellow Box, Blakely’s Red Gum Grassy Woodland and is characterised by a diverse mix of species dominated by White Box, Yellow Box and/or Blakely's Red Gum trees.

Box Gum Grassy Woodland is listed as an endangered ecological community under the Australian Government’s Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and White Box - Yellow Box - Blakely's Red Gum Woodlands are listed as an endangered ecological community under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act.

Box Gum Grassy Woodlands are found on relatively fertile soils of the lower slopes on the tablelands and western slopes of NSW, grass and herbaceous species generally characterise the ground layer. Shrubs are generally sparse or absent.

Box Gum Grassy Woodlands have been drastically reduced in area and highly fragmented clearance due to disturbances such as cropping, pasture improvement, heavy-grazing by domestic stock urban development and transport infrastructure leaving them severely depleted and fragmented.

Some remnants of these communities survive with many of the trees partly of wholly removed by post-European settlement activities, and conversely, other remnants of these communities survive with the tree species largely intact but ground layers degraded to varying degrees through grazing or pasture modification.

Remnants are subject to varying degrees of threat that jeopardise their viability. These threats include: further clearing (for cropping, pasture improvement or urban development); deterioration of remnant condition (causes include firewood cutting, increased livestock grazing, weed invasion, inappropriate fire regimes, soil disturbance and increased nutrient loads); degradation of the landscape in which remnants occur (including soil acidification, salinity, and loss of connectivity between remnants).

For further information on the BGGW community go to the
Australian Government website:
» http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicshowcommunity.p...
NSW government website:
» http://www.threatenedspecies.environment.nsw.gov.au