findings by bioregion - Victorian Environmental Assessment Council

5.2 Site conditionand landscapecontext scoresThe unique assemblage of biophysical attributes of eachVictorian bioregion has resulted in different historicalpatterns of land use, and hence the extent and patternof vegetation clearance. The extent of native vegetationindicates how much of the bioregion has been cleared,and the site condition and landscape context scoresprovide information on the quality and spatial confi gurationof remaining vegetation within the fragmented landscapein individual bioregions.Bioregions may have the same extent of clearedvegetation but differences in the pattern of clearance,which is infl uenced by landscape features and land use,which will in turn infl uence landscape context and sitecondition scores of remnant vegetation. A bioregionor landscape consisting of a high proportion of smallunconnected remnants will have a correspondingly highproportion of native vegetation subject to edge effects andis likely to have low site condition and landscape contextscores. Bioregions that are heavily cleared, but contain afew large, high quality remnants, are likely to score betterfor site condition and landscape context.5.3 Conservation reservesThe most cleared bioregions have little, if any, area oflargely-intact landscapes and the lowest proportions ofnative vegetation represented in the conservation reservesystem. Several of the moderately cleared bioregionshave a signifi cant proportion of their area within largelyintactlandscapes. However, outside the largely-intactlandscape, these bioregions (with the exception of theLowan Mallee) generally have a low proportion of nativevegetation in conservation reserves. The remainingbioregions either have a large proportion of the bioregionconsisting of largely-intact landscapes or a signifi cantproportion of remnant native vegetation outside largelyintactlandscapes in conservation reserves.Several Victorian bioregions are traversed by many riversystems. Native vegetation of linear confi guration in theform of river and stream systems (or extensive areasof vegetated road reserves) will contribute to higherlandscape context scores, but the high edge to patch sizeratio of linear features will contribute to relatively poor sitecondition scores.60