Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00270:body:0:p82
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2024L00270
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 238484–241568

for these species. Identifying areas of suitable habitat for other species will benefit from the mapping of Leadbeater's possum habitat features, such as large old trees.
Enhanced reservation and fire management across the core Leadbeater's possum range is likely to benefit the mountain ash forest ecological community generally, for which a recent assessment using IUCN criteria concluded that its conservation status was critically endangered (Burns et al. 2015).
The plan seeks to reduce the incidence of extensive fire, increase the area of montane ash forest in reserves and increase the extent of older-aged ash forest (and older-aged trees). Such outcomes would provide benefits for abatement of greenhouse gas emissions, especially given the very high reported carbon storage in older-aged ash forest (Keith et al. 2009; Keith et al. 2014a, b). In turn, such reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would contribute to global climate change mitigation, and hence provide benefits to biodiversity far more broadly.
It is unlikely that there will be significant detriment to other threatened species arising from the implementation of this plan. One possible detriment may involve actions that lead to increase in the extent of a dense wattle midstorey: such actions will improve a component of the habitat for Leadbeater's possum, but may reduce habitat quality for co-occurring (and rapidly declining) greater gliders, which prefer more open understorey (Smith 2019).
Some plant and animal species associated with drier forests adjacent to known Leadbeater's possum colonies or habitat may be disadvantaged if such habitat is used extensively for pre-emptive management to reduce the likelihood of bushfire in Leadbeater's possum habitat. Some disturbance-favoured species; for example, bush rat (Rattus fuscipes), swamp wallaby, agile antechinus (Antechinus agilis), superb fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus), flame robin (Petroica phoenicea), Australian magpie (Cracticus tibicen); Loyn (1985); Macfarlane (1988), may be disadvantaged by the enhanced fire management sought in this plan, but these are generally widespread and non-threatened species and any such detriment is likely to be minor relative to the benefits of this plan for threatened and other species.
Importantly, implementation of this plan will necessitate consideration of conservation and management needs of other threatened species, in particular those identified in Table 10 and for which approved conservation plans are in place, to ensure complementarity of actions. Engagement with these other recovery programs should seek to not only resolve any potential conflicts, particularly as they relate to fire management, but also to identify and realise opportunities for collaboration and any appropriate joint management responses. Examples of this are already occurring through habitat restoration projects at Yellingbo to benefit both the Leadbeater's possum and the helmeted honeyeater.
Table 10: Listed threatened species and ecological communities that occur in areas likely to be affected by this plan