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Fine Scale Vegetation Map for the Bellingen Shire Local Government Area VOLUME 1: Project Report AUGUST 2014 © State of NSW and the Office of Environment and Heritage, NSW Department of Planning and Environment 2014. This document may not be reproduced without prior written permission from the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage. Published by: NSW Office of Environment and Heritage 59–61 Goulburn Street (PO Box A290) Sydney South NSW 1232 Phone: (02) 9995 5000 (switchboard) Phone: 131 555 (information & publications requests) TTY: (02) 9211 4723 Fax: (02) 9995 5999 Email: [email protected] Website: www.environment.nsw.gov.au Requests for information regarding this document are best directed to: Environment and Threatened Species Section Locked Bag 914 North East Branch Regional Operations Office of Environment & Heritage Coffs Harbour NSW 2450 Phone: (02) 6651 5946 Photography: Shane Ruming ISBN 978 1 74359 710 1 OEH 2014/0496 August 2014 Fine Scale Vegetation Map for the Bellingen Shire Local Government Area VOLUME 1: Project Report AUGUST 2014 Plant Community Type Mapping in the Bellingen Shire LGA i Credits and acknowledgements This project was made possible by a cooperative approach between Bellingen Shire Council and Office of Environment and Heritage, North East Region Ecosystems and Threatened Species Unit. Private land access was coordinated and conducted by Bellingen Shire Council. Plant Type Community mapping surveys were completed by Karen Caves, Brendan Rennison and Paul Sheringham. API rapid surveys were done by Paul Sheringham, Brendan Rennison and Karen Caves, Office of Environment and Heritage, with specialist botanical skill and input provided by Paul Sheringham. Digitising of the vegetation extant for the Bellingen study area was completed by Mark Cameron (OEH). All specialist technical GIS work including topology and database management was completed by Mark Cameron. This project was initiated and managed by Ernst Kemmerer. The report and vegetation profiles were prepared by Karen Caves and Paul Sheringham. ii Plant Community Type Mapping in the Bellingen Shire LGA Contents Summary 1 1. Introduction 3 1.1 Objectives of the study 3 1.2 Study area 4 1.3 Climate 4 1.4 Landscapes 6 1.5 Land use 6 1.6 Geology 6 1.7 Soils 7 1.8 Previous work 7 2. Methods 9 2.1 Vegetation extent 9 2.2 Plant Community Type (PCT) mapping 9 2.3 Develop a draft vegetation community map 10 2.4 Field Survey – API RAPID data collection 10 2.5 Completion of linework and attribution 10 2.6 Description of vegetation communities 11 3. Results 13 3.1 Vegetation extent 13 3.2 Vegetation Mapping 13 3.3 Equivalency of Plant Community Types to EECs and TECS 17 3.4 Significant Plants 19 4. Conclusion 20 5. References 22 APPENDIX 1 24 APPENDIX 2 27 Plant Community Type Mapping in the Bellingen Shire LGA iii List of abbreviations ADS40 airborne digital sensor (Lexica Ecosystems) API aerial photograph interpretation BSC Bellingen Shire Council EEC Endangered Ecological Community GIS geographic information system GPS global positioning system LGA local government area Lidar light detecting and ranging NPWS NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (now within the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage) NSW New South Wales OEH NSW Office of Environment and Heritage PCT Plant Community Type TEC Threatened Ecological Community VCA Vegetation Classification Assessment database VIS Vegetation Information System iv Plant Community Type Mapping in the Bellingen Shire LGA Summary A vegetation mapping and field verification program was conducted for parts of the Bellingen Shire Local Government Area using high resolution digital imagery. The aim of the project was to map vegetation extent and plant community types in the coast and lowland areas of the LGA outside National Parks and State Forests as baseline data to identify areas of potential Koala habitat. Vegetation was also assessed for equivalency to Endangered Ecological Communities and Threatened Ecological Communities listed under State and Federal legislation. Disturbance and exotics were recorded along with a mapping reliability code. The study area covered a net area of 24 326 ha of the Bellingen Shire across private property on the valley floors and Crown land on the coast excluding State Forests, National Parks and Nature Reserves. All extant vegetation was mapped within the study area and assessed and attributed to Plant Community Types (PCTs) within the Northern Rivers Vegetation Classification (OEH 2012a). The study area was mapped using Aerial Photo Interpretation (API) with a stepped approach that involved an initial draft vegetation map using high resolution digital aerial photography (ADS40 with 50cm resolution), a Stereo Analyst and PLANAR viewer. This was followed by extensive field checking where, overall, 874 “API Rapid points” were collected to check line boundaries and attribution. Subsequent polygon checking, error correction and blank polygon corrections were made. Finally, data stitching, topology checking, attribute table consistency checking and corrections were undertaken to finalise the map. The vegetation of the study area was attributed using a new vegetation classification for the Northern Rivers Catchment Management area (OEH 2012a). This classification will become part of the NSW Vegetation Classification and Assessment (VCA) module of the NSW Vegetation Information System, and used to update the biometric community types underpinning the vegetation regulation tools in NSW. This project extends fine scale mapping work completed for the Coffs Harbour LGA (OEH 2012b) and Nambucca Shire Local Government Area (OEH 2013b). A total of 49 plant community types were mapped in the Bellingen Shire LGA study area. Nine wet sclerophyll forests, 9 forested wetlands, 7 dry sclerophyll forests, 7 freshwater wetlands, 6 rainforests, 6 saline wetlands, 4 heathlands and1 grasslands. The total hectares of vegetation mapped by formation are: Vegetation formation mapped Hectares Wet sclerophyll forests 6907 Dry sclerophyll forests 1375 Rainforest 1038 Forested wetlands 913 Freshwater wetlands 432 Saline wetlands 275 Heathlands 73 Grasslands 3 Areas of native remnant, exotic, native and introduced Plantations, Rainforest and Acacia pioneers were also mapped and attributed. Plant Community Type Mapping in the Bellingen Shire LGA 1 Each PCT was also assessed for its equivalency to Endangered Ecological Communities or Threatened Ecological communities under State and Federal legislation. Twenty nine of the plant community types were assessed as containing 2508 ha of vegetation likely to be equivalent to 9 Endangered Ecological Communities under the New South Wales Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (TSC Act) and two Threatened Ecological Communities under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). Endangered ecological communities listed under the TSC Act included: EEC Hectares Coastal Saltmarsh in the NSW North Coast, Sydney Basin and South 129 East Corner bioregions Freshwater Wetlands on Coastal Floodplains of the NSW North Coast, 649 Sydney Basin and South East Corner bioregions Littoral Rainforest in the NSW North Coast, Sydney Basin and South 17 East Corner bioregions Lowland Rainforest in the NSW North Coast and Sydney Basin 815 bioregions Lowland Rainforest on Floodplain in the New South Wales North Coast 201 Bioregion Subtropical Coastal Floodplain Forest of the NSW North Coast 131 bioregion Swamp Oak Floodplain Forest of the NSW North Coast Sydney Basin 198 and South East Corner bioregions Swamp Sclerophyll Forest on Coastal Floodplains of the NSW North 299 Coast, Sydney Basin and South East Corner bioregions Themeda Grassland on Seacliffs and Coastal Headlands in the NSW 0.17 North Coast, Sydney Basin and South East Corner bioregions The vegetation map is suitable for use at a 1:5000 scale and will support environmental planning and assessment at the LGA regional level. The map is indicative of Plant Community Types (PCT) and Endangered Ecological Communities (EEC) present. Caution is recommended for assessing vegetation occurring within an individual property or development land area, and that decisions be based on further expert site assessment. 2 Plant Community Type Mapping in the Bellingen Shire LGA 1. Introduction The vegetation of the Bellingen Shire Local Government Area contains important forested and freshwater wetlands, lowland rainforests, forest communities and habitats for fauna, flora and endangered ecological communities. The Bellingen Shire LGA is a total of 159 978ha. The study area forms a small proportion of the total LGA, and comprises 24 326 ha of private land and Crown land in the valleys of the Bellinger and Kalang River Valleys (Figure 1). Prior to this survey, the vegetation of Bellingen Shire Local Government Area was mapped incompletely across the coastal lowlands of the Shire. Survey and mapping of coastal vegetation on Crown land was completed by Hawkins and Matthews (2006), and State Forests (Tweedie et al 1995; Binns 1995); National Parks (Clarke et al 2000), Rainforests (Floyd 1990) and Forest Corporation (SFNSW 1989; NPWS 1999). The purpose of this project was ro provide Bellingen Shire Council with more detailed information on Koala habitat and vegetation for Local Environmental Plans, Biodiversity, weed and vegetation management. The Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) was asked to map the vegetation on private land tenure within the study area. Recently, accurate fine scale

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