Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00270:body:0:p62
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00270
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 170745–173701

trees (pre-1900) and all live trees greater than 2.5 m DBH are offered some, but not necessarily effective, protection under timber harvesting prescriptions (Department of Environment and Primary Industries 2014c). However, other hollow-bearing trees fall outside this definition and are not protected, as well as some larger trees that may not yet have hollows but will be the hollow-bearing trees of the future (approximately 30% of mountain ash with a DBH of 150 cm have not yet formed hollows (Fox et al. 2008)). More recent analyses of the relationship between tree diameter and hollow abundance show a steep increase across the range of tree diameters from 100 cm to 200 cm in the likelihood of a tree providing hollows, with trees of 150 cm DBH having a probability of about 50% of having at least one hollow, rendering this diameter an appropriate threshold for protection (P. Baker pers. comm), although it is notable also that a proportion of trees with smaller diameter also have hollows.
Given their importance for provision of hollows, all large (greater than 150 cm DBH) live and dead trees need to be protected irrespective of whether or not they currently have visible hollows. In addition, all smaller trees (dead or live), greater than 80 cm DBH, that contain obvious hollows should be retained, as such trees will provide critical resources for Leadbeater's possum now. This protection applies to all tree species in montane ash forests within the distributional range of Leadbeater's possum (including non-ash species if within a predominantly ash stand), and independent of any future land tenure and associated management regimes. Consideration should be given to how this action might be applied when implementing the Victorian Government's policy of hazardous tree removal post fire.

Action 2.10 – Priority: Urgent
Enhance current and future habitat suitability and extent of swamp forest habitat for the lowland subpopulation.
Currently, there is limited eucalypt regeneration in the floodplain at Yellingbo, and habitat management and restoration is required to increase the amount of structurally dense forest to provide additional foraging habitat and connectivity at Yellingbo and in other potentially suitable sites. This includes hydrological restoration in the floodplains of the Cockatoo and Macclesfield Creeks and the development and application of a disturbance regime to promote the regeneration of dense stands of canopy and midstorey species on the floodplain and terraces immediately adjacent to the floodplain. Until appropriate broad-scale disturbance mechanisms are developed, manual revegetation should be undertaken in priority sites, notably those currently supporting Leadbeater's possum colonies, at Yellingbo and sites with suitable hydrology elsewhere in the Yarra Valley (for example, Haining Farm). The long-term target is to provide at least 220 ha of suitable foraging habitat for lowland Leadbeater's