Appendix 1 - Victorian Environmental Assessment Council

Appendix 3
Appendix 3
Reservation status of Ecological Vegetation Classes (EVCs) expressed as the percentage of
pre‐1750 EVC extent represented in the conservation reserve system
The following is a detailed key for the column headings and symbols used in the Representation Table which follows the
key.
KEY
Data in the Representation Table were derived by GIS analysis, that is overlaying, on computer, maps of:
• the pre-1750 extent of EVCs (Map B); that is, the distribution of EVCs as it is thought to have been immediately
prior to European settlement;
• current extent of tree cover; that is, areas where indigenous tree cover is present, based on satellite imagery; and
• existing and recommended public land use categories.
Key features of the EVC-based system of vegetation classification are described in Appendix 2, including brief
explanations of the methods used to determine the pre-1750 extent of EVCs, and of changes to the list of Box-Ironbark
EVCs identified in the ECC Resources and Issues Report (1997). Descriptions of EVCs are also provided in Appendix 2.
The area of public land covered by the table (other than for pre-1750 area) is 419 915 ha. Of this, 190 493 ha is within
the ‘Recommended New Reserve System’ and 175 934 ha is ‘Other public land’. There is an additional 53 488 ha of
public land which has been cleared. This is mostly comprised of water storage areas and the large areas at Puckapunyal
Military Area which have been cleared.
XXX The most recent available GIS map layers were used for the analysis and, as a result, both the EVC and public land
layers differ from those used in the Draft Report. Together with changes in recommendations in response to
submissions, and correction of some mistakes, these are the main source of differences between data in this analysis and
corresponding data in the Draft Report analysis. Some differences can also be attributed to errors in the Draft Report,
and the variability inherent in GIS mapping and analysis. For example, minor changes to the study area boundary since
the Draft Report have increased the size of the study area by 400 ha, but the total extent of the study area in this new
analysis is approximately 900 ha smaller than the corresponding figure in the Draft Report. While this might sound like a
large margin for error, it is less than 0.05% of the study area, and is inconsequential at the broad scale at which
ecosystem representation should be interpreted.
Similarly, many small public land units are not picked up in the public land GIS layer. For example, none of these figures
include roads and roadsides, for which no estimate of extent exists. ECC estimates indicate that the actual extent of
public land in the study area is around 427 000 ha. The approximate nature of this figure also more accurately conveys
its level of precision than the single hectare figures produced by the GIS analyses. Accordingly, except where precise
figures are required for clarity, round figures are generally used throughout this report for statistics which apply at a
broad scale. Again, the difference between round and precise figures is inconsequential at this scale.
In addition to the Representation Table for the study area as a whole, presented here, the ECC has prepared
Representation Tables for each of the main bioregions which overlap with the study area. These tables are available by
request from the ECC. XXX
Column 1: Ecological Vegetation Classes and Vegetation Communities
The names of the 73 Box-Ironbark EVCs mapped within the study area. Here, the term ‘EVCs’ is used to describe
several units of classification: EVCs per se, vegetation communities (components of names which relate to vegetation
communities are indicated by italics), and complexes and mosaics—see Appendix 2 for definitions of these units and
their relationships to each other. ‘Other’ includes non-Box-Ironbark EVCs (see Appendix 2), and various small
mapping gaps.
Column 2: Pre-1750 extent
The total area in hectares thought to have been occupied by each EVC prior to European settlement, corresponding to
the mapped extent of EVCs in Map B.
Column 3: Current extent (public and private land)
The total area in hectares currently occupied by each EVC—that is, that part of the pre-1750 distribution where
indigenous tree cover is currently present.
Environment Conservation Council – Box-Ironbark Forests and Woodlands Investigation 1