Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00270:body:0:p40
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00270
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 109581–112543

unsuitable for Leadbeater's possum in the short term. However, fire may promote the capacity for older trees to form hollows from fire scarring. If large live trees were present prior to the fire, many of those killed will remain as stags (or in some cases, as fire-scarred old live trees), providing suitable hollows for Leadbeater's possum. In the period after fire, the abundance of this resource gradually (over decades) diminishes, as the stags collapse.
While some hollows may be retained in burnt areas, it takes 7–10 years before the midstorey develops sufficiently to provide suitable foraging habitat. In the absence of other disturbance, by about 50 years after fire, the dense tall wattle midstorey senesces and thins out, reducing habitat quality again, so more frequent, but lower intensity, fire may be needed to maintain the extent and cover of the wattle understorey component of Leadbeater's possum habitat. The cohort of post-fire regeneration eucalypts takes more than 120 years to mature sufficiently to start forming hollows suitable for Leadbeater's possum, but – if undisturbed for this period – this cohort ultimately provides the hollows required for future suitable habitat.
If severe fire recurs at shorter intervals than the period required for hollow formation, the more recent fire will have more substantial consequences for habitat quality, as it will eliminate many of the stags that persisted after the earlier fire (Lindenmayer et al. 2011a; Lindenmayer et al. 2015b). Furthermore, young trees generally do not stand long after they are burned (Lindenmayer et al. 2013c), and areas repeatedly burnt by severe fire will not provide current or future hollow-bearing habitat for Leadbeater's possum. Indeed, if the inter-fire interval is shorter than the time taken for mountain ash trees to reach reproductive age (approximately 15–20 years), they will be lost entirely from stands and be replaced with other species with shorter reproductive periods, such as wattles (Lindenmayer et al. 2011a).
While the most acute fire-related detrimental impacts to Leadbeater's possum are due to severe bushfire, some pre-emption, prevention, suppression and recovery fire management measures may also pose some risks to Leadbeater's possum and its habitat. Such actions may include the establishment of networks of fire breaks, and the felling of 'hazardous' large dead trees after fire. There is scope to refine on-ground fire management activities to maximise as much as possible the positive benefits for this species and those for people and community safety. (see Section 7.2.2 Objectives, actions, outcomes and performance criteria).

4.2.2             Historical timber harvesting
Note that timber harvesting on state land by the Victorian government will cease 1 January 2024. Coverage is now restricted to past and legacy impacts of historical harvesting.
Timber harvesting has reduced habitat suitability, extent and connectivity