2017-10-13 Special Meeting

SPECIAL MEETING AGENDA                                                          13 OCTOBER 2017


      ii.    How the State will hold that funding until the pre-conditions for release are achieved
             (i.e. gazettal of Council as trustee of the Conservation Parks for the PLA land and
             gazettal of a substantial part of the non PLA land as National Park).
      iii.   Establishing a transition committee that will help manage the transition process over
             the next 5 + years. The agreement will include a terms of reference for the Transition
             Committee (see Schedule 2 of the Draft MOU); and
c)    A Funding Deed between Council and NPA. That deed will include:
      i.    Details of how NPA will provide their funding for acquisition costs (including timing).
      ii.   Details of how NPA will provide their funding towards remediation costs (including
            timing).
Council has retained McDonnells Solicitors to provide advice on the legal aspects of this project.
That firm has assisted in settling the terms of the MOU and will also provide specialist advice on
the transactional documents.

6.    The Environmental Benefits

The purpose of this project is to provide regional environmental connectivity at a broad scale to
promote biodiversity. Specifically, this project will protect and create broad scale koala habitat in
the Noosa hinterland.

As part of an assessment process of this project, Council’s Environmental Services staff and E&HP
staff have undertaken as assessment of the both the actual and potential environmental values of
these lands as follows. An extract of an assessment by E&HP undertaken on the non PLA State
Forest land is also provided at Attachment 3. Obviously, the non-disturbed State Forest lands
have the highest current environmental values as identified in the attachment with the PLA areas
to re-generate over a number of years. Indeed, that is one of the unique elements of this project.
Not only does it protect lands with current high environmental values but in the long term, it will
also add to the conservation estate by remediating land that is currently being used for pine
planation. It also protects hardwood areas that would otherwise have been logged.

6.1   Ringtail Creek and Yurol State Forest Natural Values
Ringtail and Yurol State Forest form an important central corridor between the hinterland and the
coast connecting several existing National Parks and Council bushland reserves. The State
Forests consists of pine plantation, former pine plantation (fallow), hardwood plantation and
remnant vegetation, particularly along creek lines. Both plantation areas and fallow land exhibit
significant natural regrowth and will return to a natural vegetative state over time.

6.2   Remnant Vegetation
The majority of the remnant vegetation is classed as Endangered or Of Concern Regional
Ecosystems. Vegetation types include gallery and hoop pine rainforest, eucalypt forest, paperbark
and banksia woodland. Forty threatened species have been recorded in the State Forests.
Threatened fauna records include the Koala, the Glossy-black cockatoo, Mary River cod, Giant
barred frog, Tusked frog, Australian lungfish, Swamp crayfish and Honey blue eye. Threatened
flora records include Key’s boronia, Swamp stringybark and Southern penda. Significantly the
remnant vegetation supports high or very high wetland values which helps protect water quality in
the Noosa River and Six Mile Creek catchments. Koalas have been recorded in both the Yurol and
Ringtail State Forest areas and indicatively koala populations around Pomona (Yurol State Forest
side) are on the increase (based on feedback from local fauna carers).




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