Scientific Licence: SL101883 “Eastern Pygmy Possum Program and Recovery Plan for Ku-ring-gai Municipality” Concise Report to OEH for period May 2020 to April 2023 Date: 30 March 2023 Updated: 15 April 2023 Author: Bob I Jones All work conducted under this licence involved non-contact observation of animals. All observations are strictly limited in frequency and duration to minimise any stress the animals may feel. I conducted 37 site samples capturing videos (of fauna mainly) by targeting nectar-producing floral blooms with my 5 own IR motion wildlife cameras. Additionally, I conducted 27 site samples capturing videos or photos targeting /monitoring one of my own 9 nest boxes that I had set up in Ku- ring-gai Chase and Garigal NPs. From these, I uploaded 33 site sample sightings in 18 uploads to BioNet under 2 observer IDs allocated by OEH staff. In addition, I conducted 2 releases of rescued baby pygmy possums (one female and one male) from a wildlife carer, informing the ranger delegate of the area, and monitored them into the Ryland Trail area of Ku-ring-gai Chase NP. Site inspections were conducted into unauthorised and proposed mountain bike trails to ascertain the habitat damage to these bushland areas. Focus of work was on several threatened or endemic species and habitats: Eastern Pygmy Possum (vulnerable), Pookila New Holland Mouse (vulnerable). Grey- headed Flying Fox (vulnerable), Quenda Southern Brown Bandicoot (endangered), Powerful Owl (calls, vulnerable), Red-crowned Toadlet (calls - vulnerable), and Rosenberg’s Goanna (vulnerable) for the animals; Caley’s Grevillea (critically endangered), Angophora crassifolia (endemic) and Yellow Top Mallee Ash (endemic) for the plants; Duffys Forest (EEC), CUS (CEEC), Sydney Coastal Heaths with mallee (endemic). Shortly following renewal of my licence in May 2020, I was informed that the NPWS rangers Elise McCarthy and Eleanor Saxon-Mills were conducting a nest box program and pygmy possum monitoring using wildlife cameras in conjunction with Gibberagong Field Studies Centre. Accordingly, my activities in these areas of Ku-ring-Gai Chase NP were wound up in the following months, except as permitted by prior arrangement. In September 2020, I resigned as a KMC volunteer, partly in protest at lack of action of KMC against unauthorised mountain bike track builds at pygmy possum hotspots like Surgeon White Reserve. In addition, I was made aware of pygmy possum nest box and camera monitoring in the eastern Garigal NP area near Belrose and at Duffys Forest by other parties. Hence my area of study was essentially restricted to Ku-ring-gai Chase NP Ryland Trail area and western Garigal NP, except for resampling of some areas such as upper Lane Cove NP and remnant undisturbed “old growth” areas of Surgeon White Reserve (adjacent to the unauthorised track build there). From 2020 my field work was further restricted by the COVID19 travel restrictions imposed by the NSW government which put this area just out of reach and by COVID19 vulnerability that restricted the contacts I could make outside of the family circle. Concise description of results and findings of the research for my OEH/NPWS Scientific Licence SL101883 for 2023 since my last report in 2020: 1. Eastern Pygmy Possums have reappeared in 2020 in some but not all areas that they disappeared from during the 2018 climate change exacerbated drought maximum. We await the next iteration of the cycle to ascertain further habitat damage. As stated in my last report https://www.academia.edu/43861745/An_Assessment_of_the_Vulnerability_of_Eastern_Pygmy_Po ssums_to_Climate_Change_Exacerbated_Drought_Final_2019 : “Populations have shown resilience