Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00777:body:0:p12
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00777
Segment Type: other
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Character Range: 31917–35042

buloke) in which the species occurs, have been heavily cleared and
             degraded to the extent that they are now nationally endangered ecological communities (Department of the Environment 2015a; Garnett et al. 2011).

             2.1 Current threatening processes
             Habitat loss is the key threat to this species. In its breeding strongholds of south-eastern Australia, woodlands are being cleared at a greater rate than they are being restored.
             Regrowth woodland in particular, is viewed as having little conservation value and is   being cleared at an unsustainable rate (Lindsay, pers. comm., 2014). This is a particular issue for the Painted Honeyeater as regrowth woodland contains similar or higher densities of mistletoe than remnant woodland.

             2.2.1        Habitat loss
             Ongoing clearing of woodland and forest containing the key acacia and eucalypt
             species preferred by Painted Honeyeaters is a major threat. For example, 83 percent of           box-ironbark habitat has been cleared in Victoria, and 70 percent has been cleared in
             New South Wales (Siversten 1993; Robinson and Traill 1996; Environment Conservation Council 2001). White Box-Yellow Gum-Blakely's Red Gum woodland, another important habitat in New South Wales, has been reduced to less than 4 percent of its pre-European extent on the south-western slopes and southern tablelands of New South Wales (Saunders 2003). The historical clearance of foraging and nesting habitat has been extensive and dramatic in many areas of Victoria and New South Wales, reducing the available nesting and foraging habitat to small remnants. These remnants continue to decline in size as a result of residential, agricultural and industrial developments.

    Impacts on woodland bird habitat in New South Wales have been so severe that only
    5 to 30 percent of the original vegetation now remains and what is left is often degraded (Saunders and Russell 2016). With such extensive losses of habitat there is an increased risk that the remaining areas may fail to produce the necessary food resources in any       one year, which may lead to rapid population decline of woodland birds due to the accumulated extinction debt (Saunders and Russell 2016). Habitat clearance could   increase nest predation as individuals could be forced to nest near habitat edges
           (Boulton and Clarke 2003).

    The widespread loss of mature paddock trees throughout agricultural areas of the
    Painted Honeyeater's range represents another threat to the species. Many records
    of the species are from scattered paddock trees or stands, and loss of these from the landscape will likely impact the ability of the birds to disperse.

    2.2.2        Habitat degradation
    Remaining Painted Honeyeater habitat faces ongoing degradation, particularly on agricultural land in central and north-east Victoria and on the western slopes of
    New South Wales. Loss of mature trees occurs through senescence, eucalypt dieback,
    harvesting for fence posts or firewood, or drought-induced