Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00270:body:0:p26
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00270
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 71037–74074

of climate change.

Implications for conservation management
    * Management to reduce the likelihood of extensive and severe bushfire will be critical for the long-term persistence of Leadbeater's possum in montane ash forests.
    * The 1939 regrowth is, in most areas, the oldest cohort of forest, and hence protection of this age class will be essential for the long-term availability of hollows suitable as breeding sites in the Central Highlands. However, it should also be noted that the Acacia midstorey of such forests will have thinned considerably, reducing the quality of the habitat for Leadbeater's possum.
    * Hollow-bearing trees are declining in the Central Highlands and will not be naturally replaced for decades. The existing hollow-bearing trees are therefore a critical resource that require full protection.

3.4.4             Sub-alpine (snow gum) woodlands
Leadbeater's possum is now known from several areas (including the Baw Baw Plateau, Mt Bullfight, Mt Useful and Lake Mountain) of sub-alpine woodlands dominated by snow gum (E. pauciflora), particularly where there is a dense midstorey of mountain tea tree Leptospermum grandifolium ('montane riparian thickets') along drainage lines (Jelinek et al. 1995; Department of Environment and Primary Industries 2014a; Harley 2016) at altitudes of 1300–1500 m. Within the Central Highlands region, such habitat is relatively restricted, with a total area of approximately 8000 ha, most of which occurs on the Baw Baw Plateau (Department of Environment and Primary Industries 2014a). Targeted camera trapping surveys in sub-alpine woodland outside the Central Highlands (for example, Mt Stirling, Tamboritha, Dinner Plain) have to date failed to detect the species (Eyre et al. 2022).

3.4.5             Decline in habitat extent, suitability and connectivity: sub-alpine (snow gum) woodlands
The 2009 bushfires markedly reduced the extent and quality of sub-alpine woodland habitat at Lake Mountain and Mt Bullfight, and caused the loss of many known Leadbeater's possum colonies. At Lake Mountain, more than 95% of the known population was killed by the 2009 fires or failed to persist afterwards (Harley 2016). Post-fire vegetation dynamics are less well known in sub-alpine woodlands than in montane ash forests, but it is likely that it will take several decades for a midstorey layer of mountain tea tree to regenerate in burnt areas and, relative to montane ash forest, vegetation recovery in sub-alpine woodland and as a consequence, possum recolonization rates are far slower (Zoos Victoria, unpublished data). Not all areas of snow gum woodland inhabited by Leadbeater's possum were burnt in the 2009 bushfires, with the Baw Baw Plateau area notably retaining its suitable habitat and Leadbeater's possum populations (Harley 2016).

Implications for conservation management
    * Management to reduce the likelihood of extensive and severe bushfire will be critical for the long-term persistence of Leadbeater's possum in sub-alpine woodlands.

3.4.6