Ecological Vegetation Classes
Native vegetation in Victoria has been classified into distinctive groupings known as Ecological Vegetation Classes or EVCs. These groupings are based on floristic, structural and ecological features of the vegetation. We have over 300 EVCs defined within Victoria. Each EVC has been assigned a distinct descriptive name (e.g. “Coast Banksia Woodland”) and number (e.g. 002).
In 2006 the Mornington Peninsula Shire commissioned the Arthur Rylah Institute to map EVCs across the Peninsula. This was an enormous undertaking and resulted in what is probably the most complete and detailed EVC mapping project undertaken in Victoria at a Shire-wide level.
EVC Profiles
The Shire also commissioned Jeff Yugovic to put together a profile for each EVC that occurs on the Peninsula. These EVC profiles describe the structure of vegetation within that EVC, what sort of environment it occurs in, its bioregional conservation status, its past and present distribution and major species, all specific to the Mornington Peninsula.
Bioregions
EVCs are classified according to the geographic area or bioregion in which they occur. Victoria has been divided into 28 bioregions – the Mornington Peninsula occurs within the Gippsland Plains Bioregion.
The bioregional conservation status of an EVC is an assessment of its conservation status within a particular bioregion based on a number of factors including how commonly it originally occurred, its current level of depletion and current level of degradation. There are 5 bioregional conservation status categories – presumed extinct (X), endangered (E), vulnerable (V), depleted (D), rare (R) and of least concern (LC).
Why do I need to know about EVCs?
The term EVC and other related words like bioregion are now widely used across Victoria when people are talking about vegetation. EVCs are a very useful way to describe different types of vegetation; it means everyone across Victoria is using the same system and common terminology when talking about vegetation.
Becoming familiar with the EVC maps and profiles for your area is a great starting point to help you to understand the natural environment around you. Recognising how the composition and structure of native vegetation in your area changes and how these changes relate to soil, topography and other features can really help you to understand the broader ecological picture of what is happening in your patch. EVC profiles can also be used a guide to help you restore a particular EVC.
Limitations
EVC are a somewhat simplified way to look at vegetation – we humans have a tendency to want to categorise the natural world into distinct units such as EVCs, but nature is not so straight forward, plants do not always arrange themselves into clear, distinct groupings.
It can be difficult for the untrained eye (and sometimes the trained one) to discern just what EVC a certain patch of vegetation should be categorised as – especially if the vegetation is highly modified through weed infestation. Try not to get too bogged down in the finer details, just think of EVCs as a useful tool to for describing vegetation and use the maps and profiles provided by the Shire to help you to understand more about the bushland in your area.
Mornington Peninsula Indigenous Vegetation Mapping Tool
The Mornington Peninsula Shire’s indigenous plant mapping tool is there to assist you to select the plants that are best suited to your area, including the soil and climatic conditions. Planting indigenous vegetation also provides important habitat for native wildlife and helps maintain the local character of an area.
Search and download a list of local Indigenous plants using the online LOCAL NATIVE PLANT GUIDE
- Click on the search icon in the top left corner of the map to expand the search bar.
- Begin typing a Mornington Peninsula address into the search bar, starting with your street number.
- A list of addresses will display below the search bar, select your address from this list.
- A window will pop up on the map displaying the plant (EVC) list(s) for your property.
- Click on the plant list name, (e.g. Grassy Woodland Plant List) to download a copy of that list.