As the black crows of the NSW logging industry begin to gather for an assault on remaining forests, this from Australian Labor Party Leader.......

MEDIA RELEASE – ECOLOGICAL AUDIT NEEDED FOLLOWING NATIONAL DISASTER – WEDNESDAY, 8 JANUARY 2020

THE HON ANTHONY ALBANESE MP
LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY
MEMBER FOR GRAYNDLER

TERRI BUTLER MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER
MEMBER FOR GRIFFITH

ECOLOGICAL AUDIT NEEDED FOLLOWING NATIONAL DISASTER

The Morrison Government should convene a meeting of state and territory environment ministers and commence an Australian Natural Asset Audit, amid estimates that up to one billion animals have perished in the nation’s bushfire disaster.

The Government must also guarantee continued funding for the nation’s Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre, which will cease to exist from July next year because it does not conform to the Government’s rewritten guidelines for CRCs, which favour commercial research.

Australians love the bush. Many of us live in the bush and our precious wildlife is deeply ingrained in Australian sense of identity.

With more than eight million hectares burned so far this bushfire season, we must turn to land management specialists and scientists to assess the scale of this ecological disaster and advise governments on a national approach to recovery efforts.

The Melbourne-based Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre is building disaster resilient communities across the country by bringing together all of Australia and New Zealand’s fire and emergency services authorities with leading experts across a range of scientific fields.

In 2013 the Labor Government provided $48 million to fund the centre for eight years through to June 2021 based on warnings by scientists that climate change would increase the severity and frequency of extreme weather events.

Despite its strong record of success and ongoing need for national collaboration over natural disasters, the centre is ineligible for further funding under the Morrison Government’s current CRC Guidelines.

This bushfire season, up to 26 lives have been lost and at least 1800 homes have been destroyed.

Our key focus must be to support affected communities, victims and families of those who have lost their lives.

But Australians have also been shocked by graphic and heart-rending images of dead and injured wildlife as well as farm stock.

It is critical that as part of the recovery we understand the impact of the tragedy on the National Estate, including our wildlife, and that we better understand how to reduce bushfires and protect our precious natural habitat.

As part of whole-of-government approach to rebuilding our communities, the Federal Government must act now to better protect Australia’s unique natural assets.

The bushfire emergency is a national crisis that requires a national response.

Labor is proposing:

1. An Australian Natural Asset Audit

• The Morrison Government should immediately commence Australian Natural Asset Audit to understand the true impact that these devastating bushfires on our national icons and natural assets. The audit would assess the loss of our native animal and plants species that have been wiped out an unprecedented rate during the bushfire crisis engulfing Australia, and would assess habitat loss and impacts on environmental assets.

• The Commonwealth should mobilise Australian scientists and land management professionals to immediately begin the mammoth task of assessing the ecological and biodiversity damage to Australia’s natural assets. The audit would enable the government to bring together Australia’s best ecologists and on the ground practitioners, including rangers from our national parks, local and state government environmental management staff, farmers and indigenous leaders from impacted areas.

• The audit should be used to inform short, medium and long-term recovery efforts, including urgently supporting the Threatened Species Scientific Committee on immediate actions to increase the recovery, management and protection of Australia’s threatened species, including any new listings required, and to recommend proactive measures for the next bushfire crisis.

2. Start national recovery planning now: The Commonwealth should urgently convene a meeting of the environment ministerial council to commence recovery planning now

• Immediately start recovery planning through the joint environment ministerial council with the states, to assess animal hospital services, demand and funding and short to medium-term recovery measures in key habitats for existing critically endangered species.

• The Government should also take steps to activate a coordinated national group of Landcare volunteers in an Australia-wide effort to recover and regenerate our key natural assets and to protect the economic benefits and jobs that flow from our international reputation as a natural wonderland.

3. Immediately guarantee funding for the Cooperative Research Centre

• Prime Minister Scott Morrison must provide funding certainty to the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre.

• The Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC has less than 18 months of funding left and is currently ineligible for renewed funding under the Morrison Government’s amended CRC Guidelines.

• The Centre predicts a return on Commonwealth investment of 7:1 through reduced loss of life and injury, reducing government costs and reducing insurance costs.

For example, the town of Gracemere in Queensland was saved in 2018 as a result of science-based predictive capacity developed by the Centre.

Bushfire ash & debris as well as drought now killing fish in NSW coastal and inland rivers

"Fish kills are defined as a sudden mass mortality of wild fish. In NSW we are likely to see further severe fish kills across coastal and inland catchments during the summer of 2019/20....Fish can be directly impacted during fires through extreme high temperatures, loss of habitat, or be threatened from rapid declines in water quality if rainfall occurs in recently burnt areas. Run-off from rainfall events can wash large amounts of ash and sediment into rivers following fires, causing rapid drops in oxygen levels and threatening the survival of fish populations." [NSW Dept of Primary Industries]

The upper reaches of the Clarence River have been badly stressed by low water flows since 2018, so when bushfires began to eat their way through the severely drought affected Clarence Valley in mid-2019 it was obvious that the rolling impacts wouldn't stop when the fires diminished or when rain fell.

There has been a fish kill at Big Fish Flat, an area known for the protected eastern freshwater cod now only found in parts of this river system and commonly known as Clarence River Cod.

The most likely cause of this kill is bushfire ash entering a river which has all but ceased to flow - turning what water there is into a toxic brew.

At Baryulgil on the Clarence est. 1,000 fish died due to low dissolved oxygen within an isolated pool receiving minimal inflows due to drought conditions.

There was also a fish kill on the Mann River, a major tributary of the Clarence which reportedly coincided with ash in the water.

Two fish kills were experienced to the north at Emigrant Creek at Tintenbar in the Ballina Shire and the Brunswick River near Byron Bay - possibly due to low dissolved oxygen within an isolated pool and minimal freshwater inflows. 

Another fish kill occurred to the south on an 8km stretch of the Macleay River where locals describe the bushfire ash and burned debris turning that river's water into a thick sludge killing hundreds of thousands including Australian Bass, Bull Trout, Freshwater Mullet, Eel-tailed Catfish and Eels.

The Guardian, 17 January 2020: Results of a fish kill in the Macleay River in northern New South Wales, which locals said was like ‘cake mix’. Photograph: Larry Newberry

Similarly bushfire affected water ways in the NSW-Qld Border Rivers system appear to have been similarly affected by run-off from the fire grounds and reported fish kills there are being investigated.

All in all a total of 23 coastal and 17 inland NSW waterways have experienced small to large fish kills to date during the 2019-20 bushfire season.

Look out, emus are about in the Clarence Valley

Clarence Valley Council on Facebook, 5 January 2020:

 

👀 Look out emus about

👍Emus often move large distances to forage, often crossing roads in their travels where they become at risk of vehicle strike.

❗️There are currently male emus caring for young chicks and their parental duties can slow down their road crossings considerably.

🚗 There is also increased traffic in the region with school holidays.

✅We ask everyone to be mindful of emus when travelling in vegetated areas and if you see one on the road please slow down.

"The unnoticed apocalypse": insect declines and why they matter

"In early 2019, Australian entomologist Francisco Sanchez-Bayo published a scientific review of all existing evidence for insect declines [Sanchez-Bayo & Wyckhuys 2019]. He located 73 studies, mainly from Europe and North America, which collectively suggest that the rate of local extinction of insect species is eight times faster than that of vertebrates. He also estimated that, on average, insects are declining by 2.5% each year, with 41% of insect species threatened with extinction. The paper concludes: “we are witnessing the largest extinction event on Earth since the late Permian” (a geological epoch 250 million years ago)."  [Professor Dave Goulson, FRES, "Insect declines and why they matter", 2019]

This report originates in Britain but it is relevant to insect decline world-wide, including the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales.

The Wildlife Trusts (Somerset), Insect declinesand why they matter:

In the last fifty years, we have reduced the abundance of wildlife on Earth dramatically. Many species that were once common are now scarce. Much attention focusses on declines of large, charismatic animals, but recent evidence suggests that abundance of insects may have fallen by 50% or more since 1970. This is troubling, because insects are vitally important, as food, pollinators and recyclers amongst other things. Perhaps more frightening, most of us have not noticed that anything has changed. Even those of us who can remember the 1970s, and who are interested in nature, can’t accurately remember how many butterflies or bumblebees there were when we were children. 

The bulk of all animal life, whether measured by biomass, numerical abundance or numbers of species, is comprised of invertebrates such as insects, spiders, worms and so on. These innumerable little creatures are far more important for the functioning of ecosystems than the large animals that tend to attract most of our attention. Insects are food for numerous larger animals including birds, bats, reptiles, amphibians and fish, and they perform vital roles such as pollination of crops and wildflowers, pest control and nutrient recycling. 

There have been several recent scientific reports describing the rapid decline of insects at a global scale, and these should be a cause of the gravest concern (summarised in Sanchez-Bayo & Wyckhuys 2019). These studies suggest that, in some places, insects may be in a state of catastrophic population collapse. We do not know for sure whether similar reductions in overall insect abundance have happened in the UK. The best UK data are for butterflies and moths which are broadly in decline, particularly in farmland and in the south. UK bees and hoverflies have also shown marked range contractions. The causes of insect declines are much debated, but almost certainly include habitat loss, chronic exposure to mixtures of pesticides, and climate change. The consequences are clear; if insect declines are not halted, terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems will collapse, with profound consequences for human wellbeing. 

The good news is that it is not too late; few insects have gone extinct so far, and populations can rapidly recover. 

We urgently need to stop all routine and unnecessary use of pesticides and start to build a nature recovery network by creating more and better connected, insect friendly habitat in our gardens, towns, cities and countryside. 

Only by working together can we address the causes of insect decline, halt and reverse them, and secure a sustainable future for insect life and for ourselves. 

This report summarises some of the best available evidence of insect declines and proposes a comprehensive series of actions that can be taken at all levels of society to recover their diversity and abundance.

Read the full report here.

POSTPONED DUE TO BUSHFIRES UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE: Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition presentation on "Flying-Foxes: Little Aussie Battlers", 5.30pm Monday 18 November 2019 at Grafton Public School

Rescuing flying foxes across Northern NSW & Southern Queensland in the current drought

The Daily Examiner, 23 September 2019, p.10:

As WIRES becomes inundated with sick and starving bats, residents are being urged to give them a helping hand.

A bat starvation event is occurring across Northern NSW and Southern Queensland as WIRES works hard to nurse sick and starving back into health.

WIRES officer Linda Harrison said she had been receiving a large number of flying foxes, particularly juveniles, which were severely undernourished.

The lack of blossoms due to a combination of worsening drought conditions and continued destruction of the natural habitat went some way to explain the event.

“I have had them come in near dead. They are just starving, there is just no food out there for them,” she said.

“A big part of that is the amount of clearing that has been done – 200 years ago this would not have affected them near as much as it what it is now because there would have been more trees out there.”

Ms Harrison said the lack of blossoms meant the bats were starting to look for alternative food sources and were increasingly being found in backyards and trees lower to the ground.

“They are flying in and finding a food source and because they are just so worn out they are staying where they are,” she said.

“People are finding them in their backyards because they don’t have the energy to go anywhere.

“They do have a fairly specific diet but at the moment they are eating anything.”

Ms Harrison said while the bats should be left alone, there were a few things people could do to give them a helping hand, including putting fruit out on string for the bats to have a feed.

“As a rule we don’t usually encourage people to feed them but at the moment they are eating anything and we are doing what we can to keep them alive,” she said.

“Cut up some soft fruit or hang some fruit on bits of rope.”

Despite some rainfall in the last week, Ms Harrison said she was expecting the problems to continue and flying foxes were not the only animals having a hard time.

“I think I am in for a long couple of months, this is going to go on for a while. I think we are in for a long summer.”

“You can see there are more kangaroos coming into people’s yards around South Grafton, they are just coming in for fresh grass.”

WIRES rescue line: 1300094737.

Insecticide poisoning caused the death of 15 Satin Bowerbirds found at Modanville, near Lismore in recent weeks

Echo NetDaily,  September 2019:

Insecticide poisoning caused the death of 15 satin bowerbirds found at Modanville, near Lismore in recent weeks, investigators have revealed.

A Satin Bowerbird. Source: Wikipedia

Investigations conducted by North Coast Local Land Services have confirmed that the bird deaths were caused by the banned insecticide Fenthion.

The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) is now seeking assistance from members of the public in a bid to determine how the poisoning occurred.

As the responsible regulator for pesticide use, the EPA is exploring the possibility that the birds, which are a protected native species, may have been deliberately targeted.

No other bird species is known to have been impacted.

EPA Manager Regional Operations North Coast Benjamin Lewin said the killing of native birds, whether through intentional or reckless pesticide misuse, was a serious offence.

‘We are encouraging anyone with information on these deaths, or anyone who may have seen some activity that could be related to this illegal baiting, to contact the EPA as soon as possible,’ Mr Lewin said.

Fenthion, which was banned from use in 2014 with a phase out period of one year, is a broad-spectrum organophosphorus insecticide.

It is extremely toxic to birds and substantial penalties exist for its possession and use.

The chemical was widely used in the past for insect control on a broad range of fruit crops and for external parasite control on livestock.

Northern Regional Planning Panel to consider 140 lot development on 19 September 2019

29 August 2019 

Dear Sir or Madam 

NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING – NORTHERN REGIONAL PLANNING PANEL 

The panel will meet to determine the following development application: 

  2015NTH026 – Clarence Valley – SUB2015/0034 ‐ Hickey Street, Iluka ‐ 140 lot residential (Community Title) subdivision and new roads 

Relevant documents will be available on the Planning Panels website www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/planningpanels at least seven days before the meeting. 

The purpose of the meeting is to give interested people the opportunity to speak directly to the panel before a decision is made. If you wish to present to the panel, you must register to speak by contacting the Planning Panels Secretariat before 4pm Tuesday, 17 September 2019 on 02 8217 2060 or via email to enquiry@planningpanels.nsw.gov.au 

Any person is welcome to attend the public meeting to observe. 

The panel is required to make an audio record of the meeting and make the recording publicly available on the Planning Panels website. You should be aware that this may include your personal information if you are presenting to the panel. 

The panel will aim to publish its decision on the Planning Panels website within 7 days of the meeting. 

 Guidelines for speakers 

 As a guide, individuals will have 3 minutes to speak, a community group will have 10 minutes in total, and the applicant, including consultant(s), a total of 15 minutes to present and address issues raised in public submissions. Any requests for extending time limits are to be granted at the discretion of the Chair. 

 Please consider focussing your oral submission on how the assessment report has addressed your concerns, as the panel will have read your written submission before the meeting. 

If you have any questions, please contact the Planning Panels Secretariat on 02 8217 2060. 

Yours sincerely 

Lisa Foley Project Officer

Clarence Valley Council voted to recommend the subdivision 6 to 1 on 27 August 2019.

More koala news....

Last Friday morning my neighbour James alerted me to this boy who he followed across the Barrage. He was a young dispersing male looking for a new home,from Lismore to Ballina LGA. Koalas often just keep on their merry way even with a car @Matt_KeanMP @greencate @KateRWashington pic.twitter.com/UL5V5K3WvR

— Maria Matthes (@talkingkoala) August 25, 2019

It's Koala Breeding Season in the NSW Northern Rivers - keep an eye out for animals crossing the road and slow down when driving at night

Images: @talkingkoala

Although the Koala is a tree dwelling marsupial it often has to travel across the ground, especially during breeding season when males are searching for females. 

These photos are of a Clarence Valley male koala hit by a car on 24 August 2019 at a crossing 'hot spot' on Broadwater-Evans Head Rd .

He was partially scalped, with multiple wounds and sheared nails. 

Please drive with extra care, so this scene is not repeated with you at the wheel.

Presentations on the plight of Koala populations will be held at Maclean and Lawrence on 14 August 2019 - be there to support Lower Clarence koalas

Koala at Lawrence in the Lower Clarence Valley
Photograph supplied

Deborah Tabart, Chairman of the Australian Koala Foundation is coming to brief the local community on the plight of koalas and why we need a Koala Protection Act. 

It is amazing that we do not have such an Act to protect one of Australia’s iconic animals. As we know, koala numbers are declining and this issue is now very topical in our area, especially around Lawrence, where koala habitat trees are under threat.

Ms Tabart will be visiting Lawrence and adding the koalas there to the Foundation’s koala map. If you know where koalas are living in the Lower Clarence please come along to the presentation to make sure that all the koala habitats are added to the map. 

There will be two information sessions in the Clarence Valley on Wednesday the 14th August one at 11 AM and one at 6.00 PM. 

Maclean Branch of the NSW Country Women’s Association invites everyone to the Koala presentation at 11 AM on Wednesday 14 August at the CWA Rooms, 40 River Street, Maclean followed by a light lunch. 

A donation of $5 is requested to help with catering. Please let the CWA know via Linda if you are coming so that we will have enough chairs and lunch. Ring Linda on 02 66 47 7373 or email santilinda@aapt.net.au 

The next session is at 6 PM in the evening at the Lawrence Hall, located between the pub and the shop, with a light supper provided for free. 

Ring or text Elizabeth on 0407 883 656 or email elizabethparker96@rocketmail.com. It helps to know how many to cater for. 

These events are friendly and informal and a great way to meet interesting people. 

Bring your Koala questions and your appetite.

Land clearing law in New South Wales

Environmental Defenders Office NSW (EDO), 17 July 2019:

It’s been almost two years since the NSW Government introduced a new scheme for regulating land clearing and biodiversity in NSW. While the business of tree clearing has continued apace under self-assessed codes and a new Vegetation SEPP, fundamentally important parts of the scheme are still missing. This EDO NSW series of legal updates looks at how the laws are being implemented and the regulatory gaps that are putting our wildlife and healthy sustainable landscapes at risk.

Our first update looked at clearing in rural areas and outlined the fundamentally important parts of the scheme that are still missing even while tree clearing has continued apace under self-assessed codes. The second update looks at elements of the new scheme that are missing or lack clarity for tree clearing in urban areas and e-zones. This third update looks at compliance and enforcement of new clearing laws.

Read the third update here.

In the Kalang River forests of New South Wales......

According to the NSW Office of Environment & Heritage the Milky Silkpod is found only within NSW, with scattered populations in the north coast region between Kendall and Woolgoolga.

This plant is currently listed as Vulnerable in NSW and has a Commonwealth conservation status of Endangered. Little is known of its reproductive biology.

However, this means little to the Forestry Corporation of NSW, its board of directors and workers or the Berejiklian Coalition Government.

The Belligen Shire Courier, 16 July 2019:

 OEH-Milky Silkpod profile. Photo Shane Ruming

A volunteer survey team that trekked through the Upper Kalang forests on the weekend found dozens of endangered plants damaged by Forestry Corporation's logging preparations.

The Milky Silkpod (Parsonia dorrigoensis) is listed as 'vulnerable' in NSW and is a nationally endangered plant.

As the name suggests, the forests of the Mid North Coast are a stronghold for it, with most records found between Kendall and Woolgoolga.

In 1999 it was estimated that there were less than 2000 individual plants and the main threat to the survival of this species is low numbers.

Official government advice on how to manage the plant says that "searches for the species should be conducted prior to any logging operations" and known habitat should be "protect[ed] from clearing, high levels of disturbance and development".

"Yet once again Forestry Corporation has shown its disregard for the the environment," survey team member Jonas Bellchambers said.

"Of the 110 confirmed new records identified on the weekend, 39 specimens were found that had already been damaged and are unlikely to recover.

"With more logging and roading imminent it is highly likely to wipe out a good part of this population.

"Like for most species, it's a death of 1000 cuts, and before we know it another plant has blinked out and has gone from our planet completely. We are in the midst of a major extinction event. Here we have a clear example of why. Because government and industry just don't care....

Who will be to blame if Essential Energy cuts down koala trees in Lawrence, NSW?

Koala habitat within Lawrence, NSW

Essential Energy is a NSW state-owned corporation supplying ‘poles and wire’ infrastructure to communities on the North Coast.

One of those communities is the small village of Lawrence on the Lower Clarence River.

An attractive feature of living in this village is that it is one of the ever diminishing small regional/rural urban areas which still have resident koalas.

Koalas like this one sitting in a tree line marked by Essential Energy for felling.

Photograph of Lawrence koala supplied

Koala mid-canopy & circled in black
Photograph supplied

Apparently those surveying the short new route for a section of poles and wires in Lawrence neglected to look up into the trees – what else can explain the fact that known koala trees have been marked for destruction?

So who is it that employs such incredibly blind staff?

Well Essential Energy has a Board of Directors (very comfortably remunerated from $60,600 up to $764,200 pa) and all apparently living far from this particular group of koalas.

These board members are:

Patricia McKenzie – Chair, Non-Executive Director

Robyn Clubb – Non-Executive Director

Jennifer Douglas – Non-Executive Director

John Fletcher – Non-Executive Director

Peter Garling – Non-Executive Director

Patrick Strange – Non-Executive Director

Diane Elert – Non-Executive Director

John Cleland – CEO and Executive Director.

The shareholders are represented by the NSW Treasurer and Minister for Finance, Services and Property. Current Treasurer is MP for Epping Dominic Perrottet.

With the exception of the Treasurer all these people belong to what might be called the professional directors class and, between them are associated with a number of other businesses and a research facility:

APA Group, Health Direct Australia,

Australian Wool Exchange Ltd, Craig Moyston Group Ltd, Elders Ltd, NSW Primary Industries Ministerial Advisory Council, Rice Marketing Board of NSW,
Hansen Technologies Limited, Opticomm Pty Ltd, Peter MacCullum Cancer Foundation,

Charter Hall Funds Management Limited, Charter Hall Limited, Energy Group Limited, Downer EDI Limited, Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Limited, Tellus Holdings Limited,

Auckland International Airport Limited. Chorus Limited, Mercury Energy, NZX Limited.

Annotated image; photograph supplied

A fair number of people in Lawrence have told Essential Energy that they want these koala trees to be left standing and the corporation states it has taken its plan under review.

So if Essential Energy does decide these koala trees are to be cut down in the next few months, don’t blame the men with chainsaws, blame these eight professional directors and the successive NSW Coalition governments who appointed them - from the O'Farrell Government in 2013 through to the Berejiklian Government in 2018.

Because state government is clearly appointing directors who cannot even ensure that Essential Energy’s environmental policy (for which they are responsible) is comprehensive and actually mentions vulnerable and threatened flora and fauna.

It is a policy which (aside from a brief mention of greenhouse gas emission reduction) fails to give clear direction to staff, given there is only a single broadly worded line in its 12 point health, safety & environmental policy to cover all manner of environmental issues ie., "Comply with relevant legislation, regulations, standards, codes, licences and commitments"

These directors appear so divorced from real life that they apparently never thought that their regional/rural staff need to be trained to look up into tree canopies before they decide to mark a tree line for destruction.

The bottom line is that the Koala as a species is at risk of localised extinction across the areas in which populations still survive and, sadly is at risk of total extinction across the entire country by as early as 2050 if  those in positions of power continue to be deliberately blind to the fate of this Australian icon.