PORT Macquarie-Hastings Council will seek public comment on Koala Habitat and Vegetation Mapping Datasets before they are considered for formal endorsement.
The datasets, once endorsed, will help guide future planning and policy development.
The vegetation mapping, conducted by Biolink over the entire local government area, found a diversity of vegetation communities reflecting a unique combination of geological history, altitude and climate.
Biolink found these factors contributed to Port Macquarie-Hastings being “an important but invariably understated element of the biodiversity of the north coast bioregion and eastern Australia in general”.
The koala habitat and population assessment, also undertaken by Biolink, found the local government area’s koala population had remained stable since 1949, but koalas were occupying 24 per cent of their potential habitat.
The population size is conservatively estimated at 2000 koalas, with the largest koala population located around the northern margins of Lake Innes.
There have been recent local extinctions of koala populations in King Creek, Laurieton and Bago.
The information will be on public exhibition for a period of six weeks from early September. The exhibition period will include information sessions for stakeholders and the general public.
