What with Clarence Valley Council on a Eurocentric vision trip which has it intent on chemically clearing around park specimen trees, urban weed-spraying at the drop of a hat, pulling out mature native bushes in the mistaken belief that these were introduced species and mowing sedge plants down so that only a matter of inches remain around the edge of some bodies of water, it takes a brave soul like Greg Clancy to keep at council over the matter of the threatened Swamp Foxglove.Well done, Greg for highlighting the battle.
The Daily Examiner reports on the battle to save this little flower.
"According to Coutts Crossing ecologist, Greg Clancy, the plant only grows in a few spots in NSW and one of its most prolific patches is in the Coutts Crossing Cemetery.
But that could change if something is not done to protect it from vandals.
Mr Clancy said a car had run roughshod over the foxgloves just as they were flowering, breaking stems and destroying the surrounding environment.
Although Mr Clancy could not prove the damage was deliberate, he had no doubt the plants had been the target.
He said some Coutts Crossing residents were upset when Clarence Valley Council built a fence to protect the foxgloves as they believed the area contained old graves and should not be fenced off.
As a result, council removed the fence a year ago. But Mr Clancy said council had a duty of care to protect the foxglove which was listed as endangered and the fence should be reinstated.
"Before they fenced it off we had a couple of plants here, but when they fenced it off and stopped mowing it we got over 120 plants that came up through the grass," he said.
A week after the fence was removed Mr Clancy found the swamp foxgloves slashed to the ground by vandals."
Photograph at www.environment.nsw.gov.au
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