Roadside Vegetation Management Plan

Roadside Vegetation Management Plans are an important tool to enable local governments to meet their obligations under the Native Vegetation Act 1991 and associated Regulations. The Act contains protective and penalty clauses designed to prevent the un-necessary damage or destruction of native vegetation. However, local governments are chartered with a number of activities which may damage vegetation or otherwise compromise the Act. Some engineering and management activities likely to damage vegetation are exempted under the Act, whereas some traditional methods are not. The purpose of this management plan is to outline work practices which protect native vegetation and meet the requirements of the Act, while still providing the minimum of restrictions on local government engineering and maintenance responsibilities. This report sets out the major issues to be addressed in roadside management in the Barunga West district. Additional management guidelines will apply to those roads which have been mapped using the Roadside Vegetation Drive-By Survey methods as designed by Planning SA and Transport SA. It is Council’s desire that the remaining roads be considered for mapping, when suitable funds can be accessed by Council. A large number of issues are relevant to the management of roadside native vegetation. They are summarised in Table One and then explained in detail in the following text. Many of the present uses of, and impacts on, roadside vegetation are detrimental to the conservation value of the vegetation. Some are necessary, some require careful planning, and some should be discontinued. For example, engineering works and maintenance of existing roadways must be continued, although they may at times compromise ideal conservation management. Pest control and fire hazard reduction on roadsides are issues which need to be considered, but require carefully planned guidelines to prevent damaging native vegetation unnecessarily. There are a number of amenity and recreational uses of the roadsides such as motorbike riding which are traditional, but should be discouraged or prevented.