PORT Macquarie-Hastings Council will host two information sessions next week as part of the exhibition process for its vegetation and koala habitat mapping reports.
The first of the information sessions will be for members of the general community and the second for industry representatives.
Council has been working with Biolink Pty Ltd for the past two years to develop vegetation and koala habitat mapping datasets for the local government area.
The two draft reports were tabled at last month’s council meeting before being placed on public exhibition.They will remain on public exhibition – and open for comment until 18 October.
The vegetation mapping found a diversity of vegetation communities across the local government area, reflecting a unique combination of geological history, altitude and climate.
Biolink found these factors contributed to the Port Macquarie-Hastings LGA being “an important but invariably understated element of the biodiversity of the north coast bioregion and eastern Australia in general”.
The koala mapping report found the koala population in the local government area had remained stable since 1949, but koalas are only occupying 24 per cent of potential habitat.
The population size is conservatively estimated at 2000 koalas with the largest koala population located around the northern margins at Lake Innes.The information sessions are being provided for community members and industry representatives to view the koala and vegetation mapping at a local site scale and to clarify any issues with council staff.
The community information session will be held today at the Emergency Operations Centre in Central Road, Port Macquarie, between 5.30pm and 7.30pm. It will be followed by the industry session tomorrow, between 2pm and 4pm at the same venue.
Both reports can be viewed online at www.pmhc.nsw.gov.au
For more information or to RSVP for an information session contact council’s natural resources officer Thor Aaso on 6581 8111.
