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Approved Conservation Advice (Incorporating Listing Advice) for the Illawarra and South Coast Lowland Forest and Woodland Ecological Community

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Approved Conservation Advice (Incorporating Listing Advice) for the Illawarra and South Coast Lowland Forest and Woodland Ecological Community Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) (s266B) Approved conservation advice (incorporating listing advice) for the Illawarra and south coast lowland forest and woodland ecological community 1. The Threatened Species Scientific Committee (the Committee) was established under the EPBC Act and has obligations to present advice to the Minister for the Environment and Energy (the Minister) in relation to the listing and conservation of threatened ecological communities, including under sections 189, 194N and 266B of the EPBC Act. 2. The Committee provided its advice on the Illawarra and south coast lowland grassy forest and woodland ecological community to the Minister as a draft of this conservation advice. In 2016, the Minister accepted the Committee’s advice, and adopted this document as the approved conservation advice. 3. The Minister amended the list of threatened ecological communities under section 184 of the EPBC Act to include the Illawarra and south coast lowland forest and woodland ecological community in the critically endangered category. It is noted that a part of the ecological community is also listed as threatened in New South Wales (Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995). 4. The draft Conservation Advice for this ecological community was made available for expert and public comment for a minimum of 30 business days. The Committee and Minister had regard to all public and expert comment that was relevant to the consideration of the ecological community. 5. This approved conservation advice has been developed based on the best available information at the time it was approved; this includes scientific literature, advice from consultations, and existing plans, records or management prescriptions for this ecological community. Conservation advice approved 26 August 2016 Listing effective 16 September 2016 1 ILLAWARRA AND SOUTH COAST LOWLAND FOREST AND WOODLAND ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITY APPROVED LISTING ADVICE AND CONSERVATION ADVICE Contents 1 CONSERVATION OBJECTIVE ......................................................................... 4 2 DESCRIPTION OF THE ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITY .............................. 4 2.1 Name of the ecological community ........................................................................................ 4 2.2 Location and physical environment ........................................................................................ 4 2.3 Vegetative components of the ecological community ............................................................ 5 2.3.1 Canopy ............................................................................................................................. 6 2.3.2 Understorey ...................................................................................................................... 6 2.4 Faunal components of the ecological community ................................................................... 7 2.5 Key diagnostic characteristics and condition thresholds......................................................... 8 2.5.1 Key diagnostic characteristics.......................................................................................... 9 2.5.2 Other diagnostic considerations ..................................................................................... 10 2.5.3 Condition thresholds for EPBC Act protection ............................................................. 10 2.6 Further information to assist in determining the presence of the ecological community and significant impacts on the ecological community ............................................................................ 12 2.6.1 Defining a patch ............................................................................................................. 12 Defining a patch ........................................................................................................................... 12 2.6.2 Buffer Zone .................................................................................................................... 12 2.6.3 Revegetated areas and areas of regrowth ....................................................................... 13 2.6.4 Sampling protocol .......................................................................................................... 13 2.6.5 Surrounding environment, landscape context and other significant considerations ...... 14 2.6.6 Area critical to the survival of the ecological community ............................................. 15 2.6.7 Geographic extent and patch size distribution ............................................................... 15 2.7 Relationship with other vegetation classification systems .................................................... 17 2.8 Existing protection ................................................................................................................ 18 2.9 Relationship with other threatened ecological communities................................................. 18 2.9.1 Listed threatened flora and fauna species ...................................................................... 19 3 SUMMARY OF THREATS ................................................................................ 21 3.1 Key Threatening Processes ................................................................................................... 22 4 SUMMARY OF ELIGIBILITY FOR LISTING AGAINST EPBC ACT CRITERIA ................................................................................................................... 24 5 PRIORITY RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION ACTIONS ...................... 26 Conservation advice approved 26 August 2016 Listing effective 16 September 2016 2 5.1 Conservation Objective ......................................................................................................... 26 5.2 Priority protection and restoration actions ............................................................................ 26 5.3 Research and monitoring priorities ....................................................................................... 33 5.4 Derived grassland and shrublands conservation actions ....................................................... 34 5.5 Offsets ................................................................................................................................... 35 5.6 Existing plans/management prescriptions ............................................................................. 36 5.7 Recovery Plan Recommendation .......................................................................................... 37 APPENDICES ............................................................................................................. 38 Appendix A – Species lists .......................................................................................... 38 Appendix B- Land use history; Indigenous cultural values and knowledge of the ecological community .................................................................................................. 49 Appendix C- Additional information on landscape, ecology and biology ............. 51 Appendix D – Description of threats ......................................................................... 59 Appendix E – Eligibility for listing against EPBC Act criteria .............................. 66 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................... 75 List of tables Table 1 Mean annual rainfall for sites near where the ecological community occurs ........................... 5 Table 2 Condition thresholds for patches of Illawarra and south coast lowland forest and woodland 11 Table 3 Estimated spatial extent of the ecological community ........................................................... 16 Table 4 Remnant patch sizes................................................................................................................ 16 Table 5 Threatened flora and fauna that may occur in the ecological community .............................. 20 Table 6 Potentially relevant key threatening processes identified in the Threatened Species and Communities Act (NSW) and the EPBC Act. ..................................................................................... 23 Table 7 Fauna that are likely to be a part of the ecological community .............................................. 38 Table 8 Plants that may occur in the ecological community ............................................................... 40 Table 9 D'harawal seasonal calendar extract ....................................................................................... 50 Table 10 Additional weeds within the range of the ecological community ........................................ 61 Table 11 Estimated original and current extent of the ecological community .................................... 66 Table 12 Area of the ecological community by patch size .................................................................. 68 List of Figures Figure 1 Map of patches of Illawarra and south coast lowland forest and woodland ecological community patches and all native woody vegetation in the Illawarra subregion. ............................... 56 Figure 2 Patch size in the ecological community ................................................................................ 68 Conservation advice approved 26 August 2016 Listing effective 16 September 2016 3 1 CONSERVATION OBJECTIVE To mitigate the risk of extinction of the Illawarra
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