Issues

The main issue for Biodiversity in Tumut was:

• Conserving biodiversity

Background

Close to 60% of Tumut Shire is found within State Forests or Kosciuszko National Park and most of the remainder is privately owned land.

Australia has been divided into a series of bioregions, based on dominant landscape scale attributes. Three of the four bioregions occurring in the Australian Capital Region, are represented in Tumut Shire. This demonstrates the considerable variety in the landscape features and biodiversity of the Shire.

Approximately one-eighth of the Shire lies in the Australian Alps bioregion,in the high alltitude part of the Shire in the south-east. Typical vegetation types include alpine herbfields, and other treeless communities, Snow Gum woodlands and montane forests dominated by Alpine Ash. The landscape has been described as a 'series of high elevation plateaux capping the South Eastern Highlands Region (SEH) and the Southern Tablelands in NSW. The geology is these areas is predominantly granitic and basaltic rocks.'

The South-Eastern Highlands bioregion follows the general topography of the highlands, covering an area running from north-east to south-west of the Shire. Vegetation is typically wet and dry sclerophyll forests, woodland, minor cool temperate rainforest and minor grassland and herbaceous communities, found on a landscape characterised by steep dissected and rugged ranges. Approximately half the Shire is in this bioregion.

The NSW South Western Slopes (NSS) bioregion is towards the north-west of the Shire (on the Tumut-Wagga-Gundagai Shire boundaries) and comprises roughly one-third of the Shire. The South Western Slopes cover an extensive area of NSW, and Tumut is on the extremity. They are described by Thackway and Cresswell (1995) as 'an extensive area of foothills and isolated ranges. Vegetation consists of wet/damp sclerophyll forests, Peppermint forests and Box/Ironbark woodlands.'

In addition to Kosciuszko National Park, Tumut Shire has areas of special environmental value. Pine Mountain is valued for its vegetation and scenic value - Black Cypress pine Callitris enclicheri is found on high slopes and ridges, and an important association of Yellow Box Eucalyptus melliodora and Red Gum E.blakelyi is on the lower slopes. The Yellow Box-Red Gum association is recognised as poorly conserved within the State reservation system, and is of particular value here. Goobarrangandra Valley, is valued for its scenic and tourist qualities, particularly in the upper part of the valley, and it links with the Hume and Hovell Walking Track.

Reference:

R. Thackway and E.D. Cresswell (1995) An Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia: A Framework for Setting Priorities in the National Reserves System Cooperative Program, Version 4.0 Australian Nature Conservation Agency, Canberra.
Note: Thackway and Cresswell established this Regionalisation for Australia on the basis of dominant landscape scale attributes.