Threatened Ecological Communities within Castlereagh Area Reserves

Scout Ecology completed a desktop assessment of the Threatened Ecological Communities (TECs) across 33 National Parks, Nature Reserves, State Conservation Areas and Aboriginal Areas  within the Castlereagh Administrative Area of the NSW NPWS in 2024.
The reserve list is as follows:

•   Biddon SCA 
•   Binnaway NR 
•   Boonalla AA
•   Carrabear NR 
•   Coolah Tops NP 
•   Cooleburba SCA 
•   Dandry Gorge AA 
•   Dowe NP 
•   Garrawilla NP 
•   Gilwarny NR 
•   Ginghet NR including the Wilgavale Addition
•   Macquarie Marshes NR 
•   Melville Range NR 
•   Merriwindi SCA 
•   Pilliga NP 
•   Pilliga SCA 
•   Pilliga East SCA 
•   Pilliga NR 
•   Pilliga West NP 
•   Pilliga West SCA 
•   Rocky Glen NP 
•   Somerton NP 
•   Timmallallie NP 
•   Tinkrameanah NP 
•   Trinkey SCA 
•   Ukerbarley AA 
•   Ukerbarley SCA 
•   Warrumbungle NP 
•   Weetalibah NR 
•   Willala AA 
•   Wingadee NR 
•   Wondoba SCA 
•   Yarrigan NP 

The purpose of this project was to review existing vegetation mapping and associated technical reports to identify the likelihood of occurrence of TECs and develop a consolidated spatial layer with an accompanying report. This information is intended to be used to guide management decisions and actions for these highly sensitive biodiversity values.  The desktop review of mapping and the associated reports found a low confidence in assigning TECs within many reserves. Most vegetation mapping was completed at a broad scale (ie.1:50,000) between 2006 and 2012, with the oldest being Weetalibah NR in 1998. This has resulted in low quality, imprecise and overly broad vegetation boundary delineation where landscape patterns have been missed and/or incorrectly identified and do not reflect on-ground vegetation. It is particularly evident when reviewing GIS mapping at a finer scale (eg. 1:5,000). 
The low quality linework and subsequent low confidence in assigning TECs to existing vegetation units creates challenges in applying on-ground management decisions and can potentially lead to adverse outcomes such as the mismanagement of highly sensitive biodiversity. 
As a result of these issues, this Field Identification Guide for Threatened Ecological Communities in the Castlereagh Region has been prepared to accompany the spatial dataset, inform better decision making, and provide accessibility for the rapid on-ground validation of the presence of absence of TECs in the Castlereagh Region Reserves. 
The guide can be referred to by field staff for in-field diagnostic characteristics of TECs to confirm whether a TEC that has been assigned to a mapped vegetation community is present. 
If there is any uncertainty between observations in the field and this guide, it is recommended that further assessment is undertaken by suitably qualified and experienced botanists with specific reference to the Final Determination (NSW) or Listing and Conservation Advice (Federal) for Threatened Ecological Communities.

Note that this layer does not have a VIS ID because it references a collection of individual vegetation maps that all are registered in the Vegetation Information System (VIS).

For more information see:
24-012 Field Identification Guide for TECs in the Castlereagh Region | Prepared for NPWS by Martin Sullivan, Scout Ecology

https://iar.environment.nsw.gov.au/dataset/tecs-castlereagh-area-reserves-2024

Tags: Castlereagh, Threatened Ecological Communities
Organization: NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water