Rainforest Overview
In the Sydney Basin Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation of Australia Region there are currently 538 entities listed under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act plus 48 species listed on the EPBC Act 
. Of the 538 NSW listings there are; 216 vulnerable species, 142 endangered species, 34 critically endangered species, 0 extinct species, 32 endangered population, 45 endangered ecological communities and 4 vulnerable ecological communities.
Description
Ecological Surveys & Planning Pty Ltd (ESP) was engaged by Blue Mountains City Council to map the native vegetation of Planning Areas 1 to 5. This area comprises all lands in Blue Mountains Local Government Area (LGA) other than those under the control of the NSW National Park & Wildlife Service (with the exception of the recently declared Yellomundee Regional Park). The boundaries of each of the Planning Areas have been determined by Council for planning and management purposes and are shown in Figure 1. Unlike the other Planning Areas, Area 1 was divided into 3 sections for ease of survey: The Mounts (basalt capped mountains and adjoining sandstone terrain in the north); Western Plateau (sandstone plateau and western escarpment from Medlow Bath to Bell); and Megalong Valley (Megalong Valley east of Cox’s River plus Shipley Plateau and the upper Kanimbla Valley).
Bushland within the study area occurs mainly on vacant Crown land and to a lesser extent on Councilowned land, Sydney Catchment Authority properties associated with the provision of potable water, and substantial areas of freehold and leasehold, with the latter being most common in the largely rural Megalong Valley. The vegetation of the study area has been previously mapped within the 1:100,000 vegetation map sheet for Katoomba as published by Keith and Benson (1988), the 1:100,000 sheet for Penrith by Benson (1992), with Mount Irvine, parts of Mount Wilson and Bell being within the Wallerawang 1:100,000 vegetation sheet by Benson and Keith (1990). Following this mapping, Smith and Smith (1995) mapped parts of the LGA at 1:25,000. Those vegetation communities recognized in these previous studies and identified from the API vegetation mapping process are presented in Appendix One.