Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01094:body:0:p17
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L01094
Segment Type: other
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Character Range: 51335–54353

since European colonisation has brought about changed forest structures and increased wildfire intensity (Mariani et al. 2022).

Over 80% of the species' currently occupied habitat or AOO (now largely confined to Maria and Bruny Islands) is at high risk of wildfire; Only 17% of occupied habitat has burnt since 1969, most of that occurring during one fire event on Flinders Island (Bryant et al. 2021). The fire history of the adjacent mainland is indicative of the vulnerability of the habitat to fire on hot, windy days during drought (Webb et al. 2019). Single extensive fires on Maria, Bruny and Flinders Islands could result in local extinctions of a large proportion of the total population, and render affected locations unsuitable for recolonisation for many years (Bryant et al. 2021).

The forty-spotted pardalote would likely benefit from fire management that mimics the fire frequencies and intensities which regularly occurred prior to European colonisation. Controlled low-intensity burning regimes ranging from every 7–10 years for dry grassy white gum forests, to every 10–20 years for dry shrubby white gum forest will aid in maintaining ecosystem health, recruitment, and manage fuel levels to reduce the impacts of wildfire (DPIPWE 2015, Leonard 2021). Controlled burns should be planned outside of the key forty-spotted pardalote breeding season and under controlled conditions to ensure the intensity does not cause crown scorch.

3.2.2 Habitat loss and modification
In Australia, the main threats to bird survival in agricultural areas is habitat loss caused by clearing of native vegetation, and subsequent degradation of the remnant vegetation (Stevens 2001). Loss of suitable habitat (dry sclerophyll forests and woodlands supporting white gum) through land clearing for agriculture has been extensive in eastern Tasmania (Bryant et al. 2021). For example, grassy white gum forest in the southeast bioregion has been reduced by over 50% since European colonisation, and major clearing of dry sclerophyll forests has taken place along the coastal plains (TSS 2006). Remaining vegetation remnants are generally isolated and small, and often below the critical size needed to sustain healthy populations of forty-spotted pardalotes. However, Webb et al. (2019) noted that less than 2% of forty-spotted pardalote habitat has been cleared since 1996.

The historical reduction in suitable habitat is compounded by loss in quality of habitat through drought, tree decline, and probably a range of other factors including displacement by other competitive species of birds (Bryant 2010). Any loss of suitable habitat can lead to a loss of breeding populations and also increased fragmentation, resulting in reduced dispersal opportunities.

Development in forty-spotted pardalote habitat impacts the species, either through direct impacts from activities such as housing and road developments and the associated infrastructure (for example, increased window strike), or indirectly through increased