Showing posts with label land clearing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label land clearing. Show all posts

Sunday 16 July 2023

Tree by tree and hollow by hollow, regional coastal villages are being made over into the almost sterile landscapes of distant metropolises

 

All up and down the NSW coastal zone local residents are involved in conversations like this and, as in this case, local government staff are well aware of what is happening.


Concerning DA 2022/0100 - tree removal and erection of a shed - at 35 and 37 Riverview St, Iluka, at the mouth of the Clarence River estuary:


Click on image to enlarge












Melaleuca quinquenervia. Current common names: Broad-leaved Paperbark or alternatively Paperbark Tea Tree.

Tree grows 10 to 15m high and can live to more than 100 years. It produces clusters of cream to white flower spikes in summer, attracting birds, bats, bees and insects. Koala have been known to shelter in mature paperbark tree stands during storms or excessive heat. 

Grows on seasonally inundated coastal & near coastal plains, along stream banks and in low-lying coastal swamps.


Melaleuca quinquenervia is found as plantings in the grounds of The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust.



























Hollow in mature paperbark prior to removal on lots 35 to 37 Riverview Street, Iluka. IMAGE: Contributed




Section of a felled paperbark on site showing hollow


REMARKS:


"They are dreadful images,.. and are pretty damning of the approval process. Those hollows should have been identified prior to clearing, and normally there should have been a requirement to have an ecologist or animal rescue person present at the time of felling. Microbats also live under the bark of those Melaleucas.


Of course, as Council refused to approve the hiring of an ecologist, they have no suitably qualified person to assess DAs, and are therefore at the mercy of the developer and what they chose to tell council.

[Email 11 July 2023, copied to Clarence Valley Council, councillors and relevant staff, transcript excerpt supplied]



NOTE: Paperbark tree taxonomy and general description have been altered since this post was first published.


Sunday 18 June 2023

The Great Koala National Park is no closer to becoming a reality than it was when Labor made a commitment to such a park in January 2015

 

IMAGE: Animal Justice Party NSW


"Of more than 458 000 hectares of Areas of Regional Koala Significance (ARKS) mapped in NSW, only 21% are inside a National Park.

"One of our most iconic species is being subjected to native forest logging and out of control land clearing, and the National Parks estate can't save it unless something big changes.

"Koalas now face extinction in our lifetimes without urgent action. Yet their habitat has virtually no protection from the logging and clearing that is driving this decline.”

[Nature Conservation Council (NCC) chief executive Jacqui Mumford, 28 February 2023]



This was NSW Labor eight years and five months ago….


AAP General News Wire, excerpt, 19 January 2015:


Labor has announced it will work with the Wilderness Society to help nature conservation in NSW.


The Great Koala National Park proposal would take in 315,000 hectares of hinterland forest between Macksville and Woolgoolga, north of Coffs Harbour, combining 176,000 hectares of state forest with 140,000 hectares of existing protected areas.


The park will provide a lifeline to the population of about 4500 koalas that live in the region……


This was NSW Labor in 2023 at Day 81 of its new term as state government – still no further ahead than the talking points of 2015, ignoring the fact that Koala numbers in New South Wales had fallen from est. 36,000 in 2016 to perhaps as few as 11,000 remaining in the wild by 2020 and, as a political party as deep in the pocket of Forestry NSW as the Liberal & National parties..




Excerpt from letter to the Clerk of the NSW Legislative Assembly from Minister for Climate Change, Minister for Energy, Minister for the Environment, Minister for Heritage & Labor MLC Penny SharpeClick to enlarge


Tuesday 6 December 2022

Australian Koala Foundation: human management rather than koala management may be the best way to save the species from extinction

 






The Koala Kiss project comes to town















Australian Koala Foundation announces first 'Koala Kiss Site': A first-of-its-kind Human Plan of Management will see Koala numbers grow over the next 50 years


__________________________________________________________

Australian Koala Foundation

__________________________________________________________


The nation’s first ‘Koala Kiss Site’, which is part of the larger Koala Kiss Project has been announced by the Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) today, to ensure abundant Koala populations in 50 years.


AKF Chair Deborah Tabart OAM said they had selected the Gwydir Shire in NSW because it contained secure habitat with the ability to have certain points of the landscape connected, creating the first ‘Koala Kiss Site’.


We see the Gwydir Shire as the perfect pilot project for our long-term vision for the Koalas’ recovery and for the first-of-its-kind Human Plan of Management,” Ms Tabart, also known as the Koala Woman, said.


There are small discrete populations where Koalas are doing well in this area, and if we reduce the threats there should be healthy Koala populations there in 50 years.”


The Koala Kiss Project aims to link fragmented Koala habitats and identify strategic and/or regrowth opportunities. With the ultimate vision of creating the 'Koala Kamino' - approximately 2,543kms of prime koala habitat from Cairns to Melbourne, that can be created into an uninterrupted conservation corridor by connecting key 'kiss points'.


This is possible with the use of the AKF’s scientific, first-of-its-kind Koala Habitat Atlas, which maps the entire geographic habitat of the Koala across 1.5 million square kilometres.


Rather than a Koala Plan of Management, AKF will demonstrate in the Gwydir Shire how a Human Plan of Management, with Koalas as a flagship can create sustainable communities, despite environmental and human threats.


We estimate there are less than 1000 Koalas in the Parkes electorate which includes Gunnedah, Inverell, Moree and Gwydir Shire, but, we believe, with careful management their populations can become robust and sustainable into the future. I have seen so many Koala Plans of Management, but what we need is a Human Plan of Management – manage human development and we will have Koalas,” Ms Tabart said.


It is time for a new way of thinking about Koala conservation and most importantly to not rely on Governments, of all levels, coming and going and changing their laws to allow destruction of Koala habitat.”


Given 80% of Australia’s Koalas live on private land, it is up to us; those that own that land to become stewards of the biodiversity that is on our properties.”


It should be simple and I think it could be. That is why the Koala Kiss Project was born. I know it will thrive because it relies on common sense and I truly have faith in us, the people to do the right thing.”


It is time to write Human Plans of Management that incorporate a holistic approach to each and every landscape with complex and often conflicting priorities.”


The AKF will hold a workshop in Warialda with key stakeholders and community in February 2023 to discuss how a Human Plan of Management can help transform the long-term viability of Koalas in the region.


This workshop will not just be lamenting the loss of Koalas but inspiring abundance. We can do it if we all work together. We are welcoming everyone from all walks of life to join us at this two-day workshop in Warialda - to think through the complexities and also the excitement of thinking Koalas will be in the Gwydir Shire landscape in 2075,” said Ms Tabart.


AKF is all about recovery of the species – with the Federal Government officially listing the Koala as Endangered in parts of Australia earlier this year, a Koala Recovery Plan and EPBC Act waiting to be re-written, we’re not sitting idle - it’s clear we must take matters into our own hands and AKF does not need permission from the government to make this vision possible!


Imagine if we achieve contiguous habitat across the entire stretch of the Koala range, then all creatures great and small could traverse through the bush unthreatened – that is the ultimate goal.”


To find out more about this new vision for the koala visit savethekoala.com/our-work/kiss


The Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) is the principal non-profit, non-government organisation dedicated to the effective management and conservation of the Koala and its habitat.

_________________________________________________





Monday 12 September 2022

An example of what land clearing and landfilling looks like in the small coastal town of Yamba in Northern NSW



THEN





Section of WEST YAMBA URBAN RELEASE AREA to the west (left) of Carrs Drive from below Harold Tory Drive down to Miles Street. IMAGE: Google Earth. Click on image to enlarge




The Sydney Morning Herald, 19 March 2007:


Plans to build 1100 homes on a flood plain have triggered a wave of worry, writes Linton Besser.


FOR 250 kilometres, the Clarence River snakes through northern NSW before it meets the coast at Yamba.


There, during heavy rain and high tide, the estuary spills its briny current over a huge flood plain just west of the town. The 340 or so hectares of salt marsh, melaleuca forest and mangrove swamp act like a giant sieve, filtering the floodwaters as they make their way into Lake Wooloweyah to the south.


Now though, the Clarence Valley Council is one vote away from rezoning the West Yamba flood plain and turning it into a busy residential area.


In a monumental decision, the council has foreshadowed dumping 270,000 truck loads of fill on the area to raise it high enough to make it habitable.


Council planners want the area to house a new population of 2700 people in 1100 dwellings, with development levies to pay for an overhauled sewerage scheme, roads and other infrastructure.


But green groups say the proposal, first mooted in 1995, will put Yamba at risk from rising sea levels, and represents a dramatic threat to the area's sensitive wetland ecology.


And even the proposal's architect, the council's environment and planning director, Rob Donges, acknowledges it is out of step with today's planning regime.


"There are acknowledged problems there. It is flood-prone, low-lying land with a high water table," he said. "We have never hidden the fact that if we were to start the process of West Yamba today there would be doubts as to whether council would proceed."


The council has not yet received the findings of a flood risk management plan, commissioned to examine the effects of altering the area's natural drainage corridors, but Mr Donges has recommended the draft local environment plan go ahead anyway.


He insists the wheel has turned too far to stop now……


NOTE: Former member of Maclean Shire Council & Clarence Valley Council senior planning staff, Mr. Donges now acts as a planning consultant, advising property development companies and assisting with their development applications. Applications he has been associated with include large-scale subdivisions in Yamba (including West Yamba), James Creek and elsewhere in the Clarence Valley. Mr. Donges has previously been involved with the West Yamba Urban Release Area as a local government employee.



NOW


Townes Contracting Group

Yamba Residential Developments

Carrs Drive 160 lot subdivision stage 1

Contract value: $12.5 million

150,000m3 of select fill 




Section of WEST YAMBA URBAN RELEASE AREA  that is currently being developed. IMAGE: Townes Contracting Group, 5 Riley Street, Tenterfield, NSW, 2372. Click on image to enlarge

 

Tuesday 23 August 2022

Almost singlehandedly the policies and actions of the NSW O'Farrell-Baird-Berejiklian-Perrottet coalition governments have brought the Koala to the brink of extinction


https://youtu.be/w8LiyaMs0xU


This century started with celebrations across the state. 

Twenty-two years in and there is little to celebrate in New South Wales.

The state is at the sharp end of climate change impacts, the sharp end of a pandemic and, the sharp end of the Koala extinction crisis.

In 2019-20 alone over 17 million hectares were burnt or impacted and more than 61,000 koalas killed, injured or impacted by fire in the east coast mega bushfire season.

More than than 5.3 million hectares were burnt or impacted in NSW, including 2.7 million hectares of national parks.

In NSW more koala have also been lost to widespread flooding and the stress of habitat loss as the NSW Government continues to allow an unsustainable level of land clearing.

A total of 646,418 hectares have been approved for land clearing in the state between 9 March 2018 and 1 April 2022. The rate at which native vegetation was being cleared was over 61,00 hectares a year.

In 2020-21 the state-owned forestry corporation logged an est. 13,500 hectares of native forest and, as in the past, repeatedly logged in protected areas or known koala habitat.

Currently it is estimated that Australia-wide there may be as few as 43,000 koala left of the est. 7-10 million koala population calculated to exist in 1788. Almost certainly less than 80,000 koala.

In NSW there is some suggestion that the current number of koala left in the wild could be as low as <11,000 individuals in increasingly isolated colonies. Since the 2019-20 devastation of national parks, many of these koalas are now found on private land.

It should be noted that the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison federal coalition governments' support of the continued logging of New South Wales native forests between September 2013 to May 2022 had exacerbated the rate of land clearing/loss of native tree cover and the environmental impacts which flow from the removal of so many mature trees.

Thursday 11 August 2022

Once more NSW residents bring the issue of the Koala Extinction Crisis before state parliament......

 

Via @talkingkoala














A message from the New South Wales Legislative Assembly


9 August 2022


The ePetition "End Public Native Forest Logging" has closed for signatures and has been presented in the Legislative Assembly by Mrs Shelley Hancock.


The ePetition text in full is:


To the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly,


Public native forest logging is pushing iconic species like the koala, swift parrot and greater glider towards extinction.


The 2019/20 Black Summer bushfires burnt over 5 million hectares of forest and have left them more vulnerable to the impacts of logging. The Natural Resources Commission (NRC) and the Environmental Protection Agency have recommended that in bushfire affected areas logging should cease entirely or face tighter restrictions, as current logging practices may cause irreversible damage to ecosystems and wildlife.


Logging of public native forests is tax-payer subsidised. Forestry Corporation’s Hardwood Division has been operating at a significant loss for the past decade. In 2020/21 it ran at a loss of $20 million, with predictions that it will face losses of $15 million until 2024.


Reports also show our state forests can generate far more income through their protection than from logging, through recreation, tourism and carbon abatement.


The Western Australian and Victorian Governments have already committed to ending this industry and have developed transition plans to support affected workers and businesses.


The petitioners ask the Legislative Assembly to:


1. Develop a plan to transition the native forestry industry to 100% sustainable plantations by 2024.


2. In the interim, place a moratorium on public native forest logging until the regulatory framework reflects the recommendations of the leaked NRC report.


3. Immediately protect high-conservation value forests through gazettal in the National Parks estate.


4. Ban use of native forest materials as biomass fuel.


The ePetition received 21046 signatures and has been sent to the NSW Government for a response.


You will receive an email with a link to the response when it is received.


As the ePetition received more than 20,000 signatures, it will also be debated in the Legislative Assembly at 4pm on 15/09/2022.


You can watch the debate on the webcast at https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/pages/la-webcast-page.aspx


Ms. Taneska Frank’s e-petition was signed by a total of 21,046 NSW residents by the end of the petition period on 2 August 2022.


Via @talkingkoala


Wednesday 6 July 2022

In New South Wales 75 hectares of wildlife habitat and carbon storage is bulldozed or logged every day. Something to remember when filling in your ballot paper at the March 2023 state election


IMAGE: Macquarie Port News















Nature Conservation Council (NSW), media release, 30 June 2022:


75 hectares of habitat lost each day in NSW


Latest land clearing data shows 75 hectares of wildlife habitat is bulldozed or logged every day in NSW, almost twice the average annual rate recorded before the Coalition overhauled nature laws in 2016. [1]


The annual Statewide Land and Tree Study (SLATS) data shows 27,610 hectares of native forest were destroyed for farming, forestry and development in 2020.


This astounding rate of deforestation is a disaster for wildlife and the climate. We call on the government to take urgent action to reverse the trend,” Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian said.


In just one year we have lost an area of native forest nearly double the size of Royal National Park. It is simply unsustainable.


Using widely accepted data on wildlife population densities, clearing on that scale would have killed up to 4.6 million animals - mammals, birds and reptiles – in just 12 months. [2]


Native forests in NSW can absorb up to 44 tonnes/hectare of C02 annually [3].


Protected from logging, NSW public native forests could store an additional 900 million tonnes of CO2 - equivalent to six years of NSW emissions.


These forests are a critical carbon sink that we need to protect to pursue meaningful action on climate change.


After the government weakened land clearing laws in 2016, deforestation rates doubled and have remained at these dangerously high levels ever since.


The Coalition promised it’s new laws would enhance protections for bushland and wildlife.


These figures, and the rising number of threatened species, shows the laws completely fail to deliver on that promise.


More than 1,040 plants and animals are now threatened with extinction in NSW, about 40 more than when the scheme was introduced.


The government must stop uncontrolled deforestation on private land and in state forests if it is going to tackle the extinction crisis.”


The SLATS data show a 43% increase in the amount of vegetation cover lost in production forests, presumably due to the 2019-20 Black Summer Bushfires.


Native forests in NSW can absorb up to 44 tonnes/hectare of C02 annually,” Mr Gambian said.


Protected from logging, NSW public native forests could store an additional 900 million tonnes of CO2 - equivalent to six years of NSW emissions.


These forests are a critical carbon sink that we need to protect to pursue meaningful action on climate change."


REFERENCES


[1] Land cover change reporting, DPIE, June 2022


[2] Native Animals Lost to Tree Clearing in NSW 1998-2015, WWF-Australia, 2018


[3] Green Carbon report, The Wilderness Society, 2008 (figure of 44 tonnes/hectare of CO2 arrived at by multiplying the figure of 12 tonnes of Carbon a year by 3.67)


Monday 16 May 2022

Nightcap Oak (Eidothea hardeniana): seeds of hope being planted in the Nightcap & Jerusalem districts

 

 


BACKGROUND



ABC News, 15 June 2020:

A stand of Gondwana-era trees ravaged by bushfire last year is showing what it takes to be one of nature's great survivors.

The critically endangered nightcap oak has survived in the rainforests of northern New South Wales since the Eocene epoch, about 40 million years ago. The species Eidothea hardeniana first emerged when Australia and Antarctica were a single land mass and it has thrived through climatic extremes and across the aeons as its habitat drifted slowly northwards. But late last year its damp forest home experienced something new. After a prolonged period without rain, lightning strikes set fire to the rainforest around Mount Nardi in the Nightcap National Park, eventually burning a total of more than 6,000 hectares.....

There are only 125 fully grown nightcap oaks, all located in a small area of rainforest in northern New South Wales......

Official numbers from the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service record less than a fifth of the total population was killed by the bushfire.....

Dr Kooyman said despite the positive signs, only time would tell whether Eidothea hardeniana's initial response to fire would result in its long-term future survival. 

He said a drying landscape and increased risks of fire were now the biggest threats to the trees.....

Saturday 7 May 2022

Sunday 27 February 2022

In an election year all incumbent governments tend to paint rosy pictures of their tenures to date. Here are a few matters to consider whenever Prime Minister Morrison or any of his Cabinet Ministers talk up their own record

 


On 21 February North Coast Voices took a brief look at some aspects of daily life that get an airing in an election year - jobs, unemployment, underemployment, cost of living and level of consumer confidence - those basic building blocks by which we often understand how the economy is treating ordinary Australians.

Today the focus is on how governments and industries are treating the environments in which we live. This brief outline primarily looks at the eastern half of the country and only covers gasfields & pipelines, land clearing and the looming extinction crisis.


The Guardian, 23 February 2022:

Australia is spending billions to build thousands of kilometres of new gas pipelines that may end up worthless stranded assets as the world moves to deal with climate change. 

The warning comes in a new report by Global Energy Monitor tracking 600km of pipelines currently under construction and 12,200km of proposed new infrastructure across Australia, with the total value of this work amounting to $25.8bn (USD$18.6bn). 

According to the report, these projects include “substantial capacity expansions planned along the existing national network”, which “highlights the Australian government’s unbridled enthusiasm” for the gas industry despite the risk of creating stranded assets. 

Should they all go ahead, these pipelines would lock in decades of new production in several basins on the east coast including Beetaloo and Narrabri, and the Scarborough gas field in the north-west, by connecting them to export terminals. 















The location of existing and potential future supply and infrastructure options across Australia in the 2021 National Gas Plan. Photograph: Commonwealth of Australia 

While the projects tracked in the report are consistent with what appears in the 2021 National Gas Plan, it also includes the west-east pipeline proposed by former Dow Chemical Global chairman Andrew Liveris. Liveris, the deputy chair of oil and gas engineering consultancy Worley and director of the world’s largest oil company, Saudi Aramco, revived the idea of a $6bn trans-continental pipeline in 2020 as an architect of the Australian government’s gas-fired recovery in response to the global pandemic

The proposal – first suggested in the mid-1970s – has long been considered unviable for a range of reasons and the most recent iteration has faced opposition even from within the fossil fuel sector.....

The burning of fossil fuels such as gas is a key driver of global heating. Last year the International Energy Agency said limiting global heating to 1.5C, a goal set out in the Paris agreement, meant exploration and exploitation of new fossil fuel basins had to stop in 2021. 

Dan Gocher, Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility’s director of climate and the environment, said the scale of construction in Australia showed the “toxic level of influence” fossil fuel companies had on government. 

“We don’t need the gas,” Gocher said. “Gas demand on the east coast is forecast to flatline or decline.

Read the full article here


NOTE:

The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 September 2020:

....Santos' proposed $3.6 billion Narrabri gasfield...

...evidence that a neighbouring coal mine will cause a larger drop in groundwater levels....

Leaks of highly saline groundwater produced from test wells caused localised pollution, killing parts of the Pilliga state forest. 

The long-standing concerns include the gasfield sits within a major recharge zone for the Great Artesian Basin, its greenhouse gas emissions include potent methane, and the as-yet unresolved disposal of salt brought to the surface by the 850 proposed wells. 

 Stuart Khan, a water expert at the University of NSW, noted in his submission that at the low end of estimates the gasfield will produce 430,000 tonnes of salt over its 25-year life – or as much as 850,000 at the high end. 

The Guardian, 2 August 2021: 

Traditional owners opposed to fracking in the Beetaloo Basin have condemned the Morrison government for handing tens of millions of dollars to gas companies while Indigenous communities lack basic housing and health infrastructure. 

 A Senate inquiry on Monday heard from a series of traditional owners in the Northern Territory about plans to open up the Beetaloo Basin to gas exploration and fracking. 

The plan is part of the so-called “gas-led recovery” for stimulating economic growth following the pandemic and the federal government has already handed $21m in grants to Empire Energy, a firm with some links to the Liberal party, for exploratory drilling.  

Two other companies with exploration permits, Falcon Oil and Gas and Sweetpea Petroleum, share links with tax secrecy jurisdictions, a previous hearing of the Senate inquiry has heard. 

Traditional owners from Borroloola and Minyerri told the inquiry they feared fracking would poison their water and destroy the land. 

The traditional owners criticised a poor consultation and consent process, saying they had been given no information about the plans or told of any risks posed to the land by the fracking process.


GetUp!, 20 February 2022:

Just hours ago, the Morrison Government confirmed it was "getting on with the job of gas exploration" by granting almost $20 million to Empire Energy to frack to the Northern Territory's Beetaloo Basin. 

It comes just days after the NT was confirmed as a key election battleground, with Morrison parachuting in to kick off his unofficial election campaign on the ground. 

But while Morrison invited media to watch him sink beers in a top end pub, his policies — including fracking and racist housing cuts — show Morrison only thinks of the NT and its First Nations communities as a political football ripe for exploitation.


The Guardian, 17 February 2022:

The New South Wales government has admitted that land clearing has increased threefold over the past decade, woodlands and grasslands are deteriorating, and 62% of vegetation in the state is now under pressure from too much fire. 

The NSW State of the Environment 2021 report, released every three years, paints a grim picture for land and freshwater ecosystems, which are under increasing threat from habitat destruction, invasive species and the climate crisis. 

The report provides an overview of the environmental issues facing the state including for biodiversity, waterways and the climate. 

The number of species in NSW threatened with extinction has grown by 18 (to 1,043) since the previous report in 2018 and 64% of mammals are now considered to have suffered long-term reductions in their habitat range. 

Clearing of woody vegetation increased to an annual average of 35,000 hectares between 2017 and 2019, up from 13,000 hectares between 2009 and 2015. The rate of clearing for non-woody vegetation such as shrubs and grasses was even higher. 

Bird populations are declining, so too are freshwater fish populations, which were singled out as being in “very poor condition” across the state. 

More than 70% of endangered plants, animals and habitats in the state are threatened by invasive species, with pest animals and weeds costing the state’s economy $170m and $1.8bn respectively each year. 

The report, released on Wednesday by the NSW Environment Protection Authority, notes that although 62% of land-based species in the state are not considered to be threatened, the number of endangered species is expected to continue to grow. 

Although habitat restoration and revegetation programs are in place, these are “not restoring native vegetation at the rate of permanent clearing”, the report states. 

“Management and conservation efforts will not be enough to save many species without addressing key threats such as habitat removal and climate change.” 

The report highlights the devastating effects of the 2019-20 bushfires disaster, which affected 62% of the state’s vegetation communities, which are now under pressure from too much burning. 

It finds that although native vegetation covers 69% of NSW, the ecological carrying capacity of this vegetation is estimated to be just 31% of natural levels in the aftermath of fires..... 

The full article can be read here.


On 29 January 2022 Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott Morrison in an election-focussed media release announced: "The Morrison Government will invest a record $50 million to boost the long-term protection and recovery efforts for Australia’s koalas". [my yellow highlighting]

Not one of the five aims this 'investment' involved stopping the barely regulated clearing of koala habitat including the felling of vital shelter & feed trees by the forestry industry, urban fringe developers and broad scale farming.

This was the response from the North East Forest Alliance

Scott Morrison announcement of $50 million for Koalas is a smokescreen to cover-up his Government’s approval for increased logging and clearing of Koala habitat, while allowing climate heating to run amok, threatening the future of both Koalas and the Great Barrier Reef, according to the North East Forest Alliance. 

“Without good policies on habitat protection and climate change no amount of money will save Koalas, said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh. 

“If Scott Morrison was fair dinkum about protecting Koala habitat the first thing he would do is to stop their feed and roost trees being logged and cleared. Money is no good for Koalas if they have nowhere to live. 

“The second is to take urgent and meaningful action on climate heating, as Koalas and their feed trees have already been decimated by intensifying droughts and heatwaves in western NSW, and bushfires in coastal areas. 

“If the Morrison Government doesn’t take urgent action on climate heating then neither Koalas nor the Great Barrier Reef will have a future. 

“When the Morrison Government issued an indefinite extension to the north-east NSW Regional Forest Agreement in 2018 they agreed to remove the need for Forestry Corporation to thoroughly search for Koalas ahead of logging and protect all identified Koala High Use Areas from logging. 

“They also agreed to overriding the NSW Governments own expert’s panel recommendations, supported by the EPA, to retain 25 Koala feed trees per hectare in modelled high quality habitat, by reducing retention down to just 10 smaller trees. 

“Thanks to the Morrison Government we now have a shoddy process where a few small trees are protected in inaccurately modelled habitat, while loggers rampage through Koala’s homes, and if a Koala is seen in a tree then all they need to do is wait until it leaves before cutting its tree down. 

“Now Scott Morrison is allowing the Forestry Corporation to log identified refuges in burnt forests where Koalas survived the fires

“The situation on private lands is just as dire. Morrison did nothing to save Koala habitat when his State National Party colleagues declared war on Koalas in mid 2020 and forced his Liberal colleagues to agree to remove protection for mapped core Koala habitat and to open up protected environmental zones for logging. This too is covered by Morrison’s Regional Forest Agreement. 

“If he really cared about the future of Koalas the first thing Morrison needs to do is amend the Regional Forest Agreement to ensure there are surveys by independent experts to identify core Koala habitat for protection before clearing or logging. 

“Paying for the surveys and providing assistance to affected landholders would be a good use of taxpayers money. 

“The second thing is to stop new coal and gas projects, because to have any chance of saving Koalas and the Great Barrier Reef we must act urgently to reduce our CO2 emissions, rather than increasing them. 

With the assistance of the Environmental Defenders Office, NEFA is challenging the validity of the North East NSW Regional Forest Agreement on the grounds that the Commonwealth has not duly considered climate change, threatened species and old growth forest. The case is listed for hearing by the Federal Court on 28 March. 

“For the future of Koalas, and our growing lists of threatened species, I hope we are successful” Mr. Pugh said. 

—————————————————————– 

NRC Advice – Coastal IFOA remake (November 2016) p41 

NEFA letter to NSW Environment Minister Griffin 10/1/22 https://www.nefa.org.au/fire 

[my yellow highlighting]


There is a sad list on Wikipedia containing the names of unique Australian fauna that is thought to have been driven to extinction since 1788. It includes the names of 24 birds, 4 frogs. 2 reptiles, 6 invertebrates and 26 mammals, with another 3 mammals thought to be extinct. The last extinction was listed as occurring just six years ago in 2016.

Under Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, effective July 2000, the list of fauna species driven to extinction include 22 birds, 4 frogs, 1 reptile, 1 invertebrate, 39 mammals with the last mammal extinction occurring in 2016 and, 1 fish listed as extinct in the wild since 2005.

There are another 470 birds, frogs, reptiles, mammals and fish on the EP&BC Act list which are considered Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable and another 8 fish which are considered Conservation Dependent. The last mammal classified as Endangered was the Koala in February 2022.

If one looks closely at this long list of disappeared and disappearing fauna, an uncomfortable fact presents itself – since 2014 the number of species which are another step closer to becoming functionally extinct at state, regional or local levels has increased and, some may be fully and irreversibly extinct in our lifetimes.

The plight of Australia's fauna is not an accident of history. It is the result of ignorance, greed, neglect and environmental vandalism, often ignored or condoned over centuries. For the first 113 years this occurred under Colonial and Dominion governments, however for the last 121 years this has occurred in an independent Federation under the by-laws, regulations and laws of the three tiers of government - local, state and federal. 

It is worth remembering it is federal legislation and regulations which have precedence. A fact Prime Minister Morrison is inclined to play down whenever he finds this politically inconvenient to acknowledge.

As for climate change mitigation.....


Crikey, 24 February 2022:

Australia’s largest fossil fuel companies systematically underestimate the amount of greenhouse gas emissions they will produce, according to new analysis.


What we know:

  • A report by the Australian Conservation Foundation found a fifth emit significantly more greenhouse gases than originally estimated in government approval processes (The Guardian);

  • Some fossil fuel operations emit more than 20 times what was predicted before they were approved;

  • Gas giant Chevron was the worst offender, with its Gorgon LNG plant producing an additional 16m tonnes of emissions;

  • Whitehaven’s Maules Creek coalmine was another major offender, emitting three to four times more greenhouse gas emissions than initially estimated;

  • ACF lead environmental investigator Annica Schoo said it proved the federal government’s safeguard mechanism was ineffective;

  • It comes as the Morrison government reissues almost $20m in grants to gas drilling projects in the Beetaloo Basin after the federal court thwarted its first attempt (Renew Economy);

  • A new study meanwhile finds climate change has intensified the water cycle and shifted at least twice the amount of freshwater away from warm regions than previously thought (The Guardian).


NOTE:

THE ENVIRONMENT CENTRE NT INC v MINISTER FOR RESOURCES AND WATER, THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA and IMPERIAL OIL & GAS PTY LTD (ACN 002 699 578), judgment 23 December 2021, in part reads:


“….I find that the Contracts Decision was legally unreasonable. No question arises as to the materiality of that error so as to avoid it being characterised as a jurisdictional error. Applying the approach in Project Blue Sky at [91] per McHugh, Gummow, Kirby and Hayne JJ, I accept the applicant’s submission that, where jurisdictional error is established in the exercise of the power under s 34 of the IRD Act, the Contracts Decision is invalid and, consequently, the Imperial Contracts themselves are void.”


See:

http://classic.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/FCA/2021/1635.html?stem=0&synonyms=0&query=Environment%20Centre%20NT