Title

Leadbeater's Possum confirmed colonies within Central Highlands RFA 

Alternate title

LBPAG_SITES_CHRFA 

Resource Type

Dataset  

Purpose

To identify and protect Leadbeater¿s Possum colonies. A colony is defined as any confirmed record of a Leadbeater's Possum, based on the premise that an individual is part of a colony. This dataset consists of LBP colonies across all land tenures that contribute to meeting the two key Actions of the Advisory Group's recommendations: - Action 1.1: Establish timber harvest exclusion zones of a 200 metre radius centred on the detection site to protect each identified colony; and - Action 8.1: Identify known colonies and high quality habitat as critical assets on the natural values database to inform fire operations and risk landscape planning. The location of these confirmed colonies will help establish defined buffers (refer to LBPAG_BUFF_CHRFA) where threatening processes can be controlled or managed. Given one of the actions of the LBPAG is to identify and protect an additional 200 colonies within General Management Zone (GMZ) or Special Management Zone (SMZ) in state forest, this data will be subject to periodic updates. New colonies verified through the Victorian Biodiversity Atlas (VBA) and through the Land Management Policy process for assessing threatened species from community groups will be published to LBPAG_SITES_CHRFA (subject to certain conditions). Once 200 new colonies that impact upon GMZ or SMZ within state forest are identified, or after two years of surveying, there will be a review of this LBPAG action. This dataset is applicable to the Central Highlands Regional Forest Agreement area. 

Supplemental Information

Related Documents: None 

Status

Completed  

Time period

2014-02-01 

Spatial representation type

Vector  

Code

4283 

 

Maintenance and update frequency

As needed  

Topic category

• Biota
• Farming

Use limitation

Fire management (e.g. avoid impact through fire break creation; deemed an asset to protect from fire), road creation (avoid creating new roads through these areas or restricting upgrade or development to existing road footprint where applicable), timber harvesting management (timber exclusion zone within state forest). 

Classification

Unclassified  

Statement

Dataset Source: Based on an extract of all verified LBP records since 1998 from the Victorian Biodiversity Atlas (version February 2014). All new LBP records submitted via the VBA or the Timber Harvest Compliance Unit (DELWP) are assessed and verified using the Threatened Species Survey Standard: Leadbeater¿s Possum, April 2015. Those that are confirmed are progressively added to this dataset. Dataset Originality: Derived 

Description

Collection Method: Derived 

Description

1. Identifying LBP (baseline) records Verified LBP records extracted from the Victorian Biodiversity Atlas (VBA) within the 15 year period prior to February 2014 were extracted to form the basis of known LBP colonies across the Central Highlands RFA (baseline) for the purpose of implementing the LBPAG recommendations. 2. Determine impact of fire All verified baseline records were individually buffered by 200 metres to assess the impact of the 2009 bushfires to determine if the record should be excluded, based on the LBPAG recommendations under the assumption that the species would no longer be present in areas severely burnt. Fire severity classes 1, `Crown Burn¿ or 2, `Crown Scorch¿ (FIRE_SEV09_POLY) was identified for all buffered areas. If more than 50% of the area of LBP protection buffer was impacted, the record was excluded. This approach was used instead of simply using the point reference to exclude records, to account for records that happen to fall within an area of high fire severity by a couple of metres. Conversely, this method also excluded records that did not fall within the high fire severity area, but the surroundings were completely burnt using the following rules: Impacted by fire LBP 'exclusion area' class severity 1 or 2? >50% impacted? Include record? No No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No 

Classification

Unclassified