2016-12-12 General Committee - Attachment 1 to Item 6 - Biodiversity Assessment Report

                                                  Noosa Biodiversity Plan – Biodiversity Assessment Report



          4.3.1    Rural areas
Much of the hinterland area of the Shire are farming and forestry production areas, which are dotted with
small, well-defined towns and villages (Lewis et al., 2007). This comprises approximately 59% of the
Noosa Shire area. Rural zoned areas coincide with a number of key areas of biodiversity values and in
some case such values are confined within this area. A number of key landscape corridors occur within
the rural areas of Kin Kin, Cooran, Pomona, Cootharaba and Cooroy. Similarly, nearly all areas of
Lowland Rainforest TEC and potential Lowland Rainforest TEC are restricted to the rural areas of the
shire. The majority of riverine wetlands also occurs within rural areas of Noosa as well as waterways
within identified High Ecological Value areas.

Land clearing in Noosa primarily occurs for pasture development. The conversion of woodland areas to
pasture often requires ongoing control of native regrowth and shrubs through thinning, slashing and
burning. Whilst mature canopy trees may initially remain, the ongoing removal of recruiting species
eventually results in the complete conversion of areas to cleared grassland (Burrows, 2003). Within
Noosa this has particularly occurred across the Eucalypt woodland communities on the alluvial plains.
Heathland and Melaleuca wetlands have also been impacted by pasture conversion with large areas
slashed, fertilised and sown for exotic grasses (Burrows, 2003).

Based on the extensive coverage of productive agricultural land within the shire combined with the
presence of some key biodiversity values, the potential threat to biodiversity is of relevance. The planning
scheme can play an important role in helping to resolve land use conflict between prime agricultural land
and conservation. Recommended biodiversity conservation management actions should therefore
include protection of such values under the Planning Scheme to ensure a no-net loss approach to
protecting and maintaining biodiversity values. Vegetation controls for regrowth (i.e. non- remnant woody
vegetation) should also be maintained in the Planning Scheme to enable the expansion and protection of
biodiversity values associated with the vegetation.

4.4       Al t e red f ir e r eg im es
Altered fire regimes are a change in frequency or intensity of natural fires that native vegetation
communities are adapted to. It can be a result of a weed incursion that has altered the understorey fuel
loads of a native vegetation community or a deliberately lit un-natural fire event (Burrows, 2003). In both
cases the frequency and intensity of fires can be much greater than natural regimes; however a reduction
in frequency and intensity can also have a detrimental effect. Fire protection measures associated with
nearby urban development can reduce the events of natural fires and impact on communities that are
reliant on this process for seeding and recruitment (Burrows, 2003).

The greatest impact of altered fire regimes are on vegetation communities that are fire sensitive or fire
specific. Within Noosa this includes:

      •    Rainforest and dry vine thickets – destruction of communities, reduced recruitment of rainforest
           seedlings and increased susceptibility to weed invasion due to the introduction of fire
      •    Wet sclerophyll forests (or ecotonal communities) – invasion by rainforest communities due to
           the lack of fire and loss of breeding resources such as mature hollow-bearing Eucalypt trees
      •    Heathland communities – reduction of obligate seeders (plants with fire-activated seedbanks
           that reproduce only via seed) or species shift to dominant obligate seeder species due to an
           increase in fire frequency and intensity favouring species or removing species before reaching
           reproductive maturity
      •    Melaleuca wetlands –reduced recruitment of native seedlings and increased susceptibility to
           weed invasion due to the introduction of fire.



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