Assessment of River-Flat Eucalypt Forest
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Assessment of River-Flat Eucalypt Forest on Coastal floodplains TEC on NSW Crown Forest Estate Survey, Classification and Mapping Completed for the NSW Environment Protection Authority www.epa.nsw.gov.au Environment Protection Authority © 2016 State of NSW and Environment Protection Authority With the exception of photographs, the State of NSW and Environment Protection Authority are pleased to allow this material to be reproduced in whole or in part for educational and non-commercial use, provided the meaning is unchanged and its source, publisher and authorship are acknowledged. Specific permission is required for the reproduction of photographs. The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has compiled this report in good faith, exercising all due care and attention. No representation is made about the accuracy, completeness or suitability of the information in this publication for any particular purpose. The EPA shall not be liable for any damage which may occur to any person or organisation taking action or not on the basis of this publication. Readers should seek appropriate advice when applying the information to their specific needs. All content in this publication is owned by the EPA and is protected by Crown Copyright, unless credited otherwise. It is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), subject to the exemptions contained in the licence. The legal code for the licence is available at Creative Commons. The EPA asserts the right to be attributed as author of the original material in the following manner: © State of New South Wales and the Environment Protection Authority 2016. Published by: Environment Protection Authority 59 Goulburn Street, Sydney NSW 2000 PO Box A290, Sydney South NSW 1232 Phone: +61 2 9995 5000 (switchboard) Phone: 131 555 (NSW only – environment information and publications requests) Fax: +61 2 9995 5999 TTY users: phone 133 677, then ask for 131 555 Speak and listen users: phone 1300 555 727, then ask for 131 555 Email: [email protected] Website: www.epa.nsw.gov.au Report pollution and environmental incidents Environment Line: 131 555 (NSW only) or [email protected] See also www.epa.nsw.gov.au ISBN 978-1-76039-527-8 EPA 2016/0620 October 2016 i Contents 1 Overview ............................................................................................ 1 2 Introduction ....................................................................................... 2 2.1 Project Rationale ................................................................................. 2 2.2 Final Determination ............................................................................. 2 2.3 Initial TEC Reference Panel Interpretation .......................................... 3 2.4 Assessment Area ................................................................................ 4 2.5 Project Team ....................................................................................... 9 3 Methodology .................................................................................... 10 3.1 Approach ........................................................................................... 10 3.2 Identifying Alluvial Landforms ............................................................ 12 3.3 Compilation of Existing Vegetation Data ............................................ 15 3.4 New Survey Effort ............................................................................. 16 3.5 Classification Analyses ...................................................................... 18 3.6 Indicative Distribution Map ................................................................ 20 3.7 Operational TEC Map ........................................................................ 22 3.8 Validation .......................................................................................... 23 4 Results ............................................................................................. 25 4.1 Survey Effort ..................................................................................... 25 4.2 Classification Analyses ...................................................................... 27 4.3 Indicative TEC mapping .................................................................... 40 4.4 Aerial Photograph Interpretation ........................................................ 49 4.5 Operational TEC Map ........................................................................ 49 4.6 Validation .......................................................................................... 52 5 Discussion ....................................................................................... 54 5.1 Summary ........................................................................................... 54 5.2 TEC Panel Review and Assessment ................................................. 55 5.3 Final State Forest - TEC Occurrence Matrix ...................................... 58 6 References ....................................................................................... 59 Appendix A ........................................................................................................................ 61 Appendix B ........................................................................................................................ 65 Appendix C ........................................................................................................................ 69 Appendix D ........................................................................................................................ 72 Appendix E ........................................................................................................................ 73 Appendix F ......................................................................................................................... 76 Appendix G ........................................................................................................................ 79 Appendix H ........................................................................................................................ 80 ii iii Assessment of River Flat Eucalypt forest on Coastal Floodplains TEC 1 Overview River-flat Eucalypt Forest on coastal floodplains is one of several Threatened Ecological Communities (TECs) associated with coastal floodplains with a potential distribution that spans the entire NSW coastal region. River-flat Eucalypt Forest (RFEF) is a complex aggregate of a number of previously-described communities and has a very variable dominant tree stratum, with 14 eucalypts being listed as possible dominant species, depending on the Fauna Values Fauna location. For this report, we focus on the area south of Sydney, where widespread and common dominant species are listed as Eucalyptus tereticornis (forest red gum), E. amplifolia (cabbage gum), Angophora floribunda (rough-barked apple), Eucalyptus baueriana (blue box), E. botryoides (bangalay), E. elata (river peppermint) and E. ovata (swamp gum). The final determination cites seven previously described communities relevant to the South Coast. For each of the communities, the determination explicitly includes only certain components, either ‘dominated by eucalypts’ (in three cases), ‘mapped on alluvial soils’ (two cases) or ‘mapped Highest on floodplains’ (one community). However, there are no standard maps which may be used to make these assessments. The northern extent (Sydney north to Queensland) of this TEC is subject to a separate assessment and report. We used a combination of an existing map of coastal landforms and geology and several models of alluvial landform features to determine the likely extent of floodplains and alluvial soils in our study area. We used aerial photograph interpretation to map vegetation patterns within floodplain and alluvial areas, and to map photo-patterns likely to indicate the presence of River-flat Eucalypt Forest outside modelled areas. Over 350,000 hectares of state forest are included in our assessment. Our analyses of plot data assigned 520 plots (out of 6634) to either a previously defined River- flat Eucalypt Forest community or a new community, ‘South Coast Creek Flat River Peppermint Forest’ characterised by Eucalyptus elata, which we defined from additional plot data and which we regard as similar to River-flat Eucalypt Forest. Of these plots, we assessed 214 (89 of which are in state forest) as also meeting the qualifying criteria and belonging to River-flat Eucalypt Forest. We used plot data and a selection of environmental and remote- sensing variables to develop a Boosted Regression Tree (BRT) model of the probability of occurrence of River-flat Eucalypt Forest. We assigned our mapped polygons to River-flat Eucalypt Forest based on plot data, overstorey and understorey attributes, landform features and modelled probabilities. We also assessed the BRT model to ensure that all areas of potential River-flat Eucalypt Forest had been checked using API and mapped as appropriate. From these assignments we constructed a map of the TEC that is at a scale commensurate with the needs of field operations. In total, we identified approximately 3813 hectares of River- flat Eucalypt Forest in state forest south of Sydney. We used independent samples to demonstrate that there are few stands of this TEC situated in suitable habitat outside our mapped area. The major factors which affect the accuracy of our TEC map are the inherent uncertainty in