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On 17 February 2011 the Federal Court ruled against the Bat Advocacy Inc’s challenge to the decision of the Minister for Environment Protection Peter Garrett to allow the forced removal of the colony of Grey-Headed Flying-Foxes (GHFF) from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney. This was not an appeal to review the merits of the decision, but a hearing on points of law. The court said that its function was to examine whether “the correct processes were followed by the Minister in making his decision.”
Flying-foxes love the nectar of flowering Gums & will quietly drink from each flower of the tree
Bat Advocacy Inc raised 4 challenges, which were answered by the court as follows:
1. Q: Did the Minister fail to take into account a relevant consideration when exercising his power of approval. That consideration was the impact on the GHFF resulting from their removal from their critical habitat in the Gardens. A: The Minister concluded that the proposed action should be attempted if the GHFF could be acceptably & safely dispersed in order to prevent ongoing damage being occasioned to the internationally significant trees within the Gardens. Thus, the Minister did not fail to consider the loss of the GHFF habitat in the Gardens and the draft Recovery Plan.
2. Q: Did the Minister fail to take into account a relevant consideration, namely the social matters & the associated community conflicts resulting from the dispersal of the GHFF to areas outside the Gardens. A: The portion of the Reasons under the heading ‘Social & Economic Matters’ demonstrates that the Minister has given due regard to information on social matters identified in the PER & in public submissions.
3. Q: Did the Minister fail to take into account all adverse impacts, present & throughout the duration of the approval, that the approval would have on matters protected by Part 3 of the EPBC Act. The approval is stated to remain effective until 2039. The applicant does not identify the impacts which have allegedly been disregarded by the Minister. Rather, the submission merely suggests that there may be cumulative impacts which will adversely affect the GHFF. A: Based upon the precise nature of the monitoring, which will continue throughout the life of the approval, & upon which the life of the approval is contingent, it could not be said that the Minister failed to consider how the approval would operate to the date of expiry.
4. Q: Did the Minister fail to take into consideration other information in the Minister’s possession concerning similar GHFF dispersals which had been raised in public submissions and referred to in the Independent Expert Report of Dr Richards. A: The Minister was aware of the potential for the proposed action to be unsuccessful. In these circumstances, the Court cannot conclude that the Minister failed to consider previous unsuccessful attempts to disperse colonies of GHFF in Australia.
That still doesn’t make the decision the right one & the court hasn’t answered this question.
In May 2011, the Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust will start dispersal techniques of around 22,000 ‘threatened’ grey-headed flying foxes. The Sydney Morning Herald wrote – “But the Gardens said that to date the bats had destroyed 27 mature trees & more than 20 palms since they took up residence there 20 years ago. Another 300 trees were at risk, Dr Entwisle said. Several sites have been identified as possible homes for the bats, including existing flying fox camps at Ku-ring-gai, Cabramatta & Parramatta. Botany Bay National Park & Lane Cove National Park were also named, although the Gardens has said it could not be certain whether the bats would settle in any specific location.” http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/huge-sydney-bat-colony-to-be-evicted-20110217-1axtm.html
Flying-foxes also love the nectar from Grevillea flowers
According to bat experts, dispersal techniques will make the bats tired & stressed, making them prone to serious injury. They will have to join other colonies to fight & compete with food that was, at least during 2010, very scarce. Bats were found all along the east coast of Australia & as far as Adelaide looking for food with some eating citrus fruit in country orchards, although citrus is not their usual food.
The east coast situation of starving bats has resulted in an increase in anti-bat sentiment in the community with many complaining about bats in their garden keeping them or their children awake at night. This blog’s stats show with alarming regularity people searching the question, “How to get rid of bats?” I know what the answer will be. Some people will chop down their trees to take away the food & the tree/s that the bats are using. No tree, no bat. I predict there will be a great increase tree removal & despite the rules & regulations of Councils, many won’t bother to get permission. Our Council wouldn’t know the true numbers of tree removal across Marrickville LGA & I’d bet this is the same with other Councils.
Golf courses, when they have Fig trees, are wonderful for flying-foxes to find food
Sydney Councils have been saying throughout 2010 that they did not want the 22,000 Botanic Gardens flying-foxes to come to their area so it’s not as simple as removing the bats from the Gardens for them to happily fly away to another home. Their removal will have a ripple effect & I doubt it will be supportive of the bats.
The grey-headed flying fox is listed as ‘vulnerable to extinction’ with the major threat being loss of habitat. Other factors are: being killed by people & declining numbers. Flying foxes have a very low breeding rate so don’t breed & boom. They eat native fruit & nectar & do a terrific & vital job in pollination & seed distribution so we actually need them. When starving they will eat citrus fruit. Because of loss of habitat, flying-foxes come to feed on flowering trees in suburban back gardens. They eat & leave, rarely deciding to roost & usually only return for 2-3 weeks before moving on to a different food source. There is no evidence that people can get the Hendra virus from bats. Rather than hurt a flying fox if you want to stop it from visiting your garden, contact the Department of Environment Climate Change & Water for assistance – http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/contact/
If you net fruit trees it is important to pull the netting tight so a bat can walk over it, but not get entangled & injured. http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedspecies/NettingOfCommercialFruitTrees.htm
I appreciate the situation that the Trust is faced with & understand why they sought the eviction. However, there are many others like me who are sad & disappointed about this decision, who believe the bats should be allowed to continue to live in the Botanic Gardens & that their eviction will create many more problems for bats & other birds. It is also an enormous loss of opportunity for ‘natural tourism,’ as many people would travel to see such a glorious sight right in the heart of our city. Let’s hope that everything works out quickly so everyone can be happy, most of all the bats.
I last wrote about the flying foxes at the Royal Botanic Gardens here -http://savingourtrees.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/sydney’s-royal-botanic-gardens-trust-wants-‘threatened-species’-bats-banished/
A Fig tree in fruit - fabulous food for Flying-foxes
The Wolli Creek bushland is enormously beautiful
First the RTA tried to build their highway over the Cooks River & the Tempe Wetlands. Not content with that defeat, now they are going after Wolli Creek, the only remaining piece of inner suburban bushland that is largely as it was when white people came to settle in Sydney. It is more than precious. It is astoundingly beautiful in parts & a haven for urban wildlife, including flying foxes. We should be doing all we can to protect it for future generations, not having to fight the RTA & the state government to save it.
The state government promised to hand over the remaining section of Wolli Creek to National Parks & Wildlife Service 12 years ago. What happened? Why have they not lived up to their promise?
Putting a highway through a section of Wolli Creek will harm this area immeasurably. It is only a small pocket of bushland & is surrounded on all sides by roads & housing. A rail line runs beside it & planes fly overhead. To further stress the area with a highway will have major consequences on flora, fauna & water quality. Wolli Creek is home to rare frogs, orchids, many species of birds & the grey-headed flying fox that is listed as ‘vulnerable.’ More than 260 native plants have been identified within the Wolli Creek Valley.
The Thursday 11th November 2010 edition of the Cooks River Valley Times said in their front page article, that Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, Marrickville Mayor Fiona Byrne & Canterbury Greens Councillor Linda Eisler will “lay down in front of the bulldozers to prevent the RTA from mowing down sensitive remnant bushland at Wolli Creek to make way for expansion of the M5.”
I hope that people from the community, including those who don’t live near or use Wolli Creek will help with the fight to stop the RTA bulldozing Wolli Creek. This beautiful piece of bushland must be saved for future generations. Hundreds of volunteers have worked on the Wolli Creek bushland for years. They have been doing this to preserve this space for wildlife & for the heritage value & amenity of people.
As I hear of any action relating to save Wolli Creek from the M5 I will post about it. There will be people who say a highway is more important than a piece of bushland. I disagree. Wolli Creek is not an ordinary piece of bushland & I think many others feel likewise.
The Wolli Creek Preservation Society (contact details in the blogroll) have an online petition calling on the state government to honour its 1998 commitment to establish the Wolli Creek Regional Park. It doesn’t take long to sign – http://www.wollicreek.org.au/petition/petition.htm
You can read recent articles here - http://www.torchpublishing.com.au/read/Valley_Times_11_November_2010/index.php Pages 1 & 4
http://express.whereilive.com.au/news/story/rta-plans-m5-east-extension-at-wolli-creek-valley/ &
winter trees along the Cooks River
Conservation group Bat Advocacy with funding from Humane Society International is taking Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens Trust to the Federal Court to contest Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett’s decision to allow the bats to be dispersed using noise. I had not realized that permission was given for the noise dispersion to occur for the next 20 years.
The Royal Botanic Gardens Trust recently announced that the relocation, expected to start in July, has been postponed until next year, because of the inability to tag enough flying foxes. Dr Tim Entwisle, the executive director of the Botanic Gardens Trust, said many of the bats were too underweight to tag. Bats are also starving all over Australia & leaving QLD & flying as far as Adelaide & Tasmania in the search for food. http://sydney-central.whereilive.com.au/news/story/group-to-challenge-bat-relocation-in-court/
Up to 7,000 grey-headed flying foxes, a threatened species in NSW, have moved in to Parramatta Park along the banks of Parramatta River. They have come to this location due to severe food shortages in their usual habitat. I hope Parramatta Council don’t decide to use dispersion or chop the trees down. http://parramatta-advertiser.whereilive.com.au/news/story/bats-put-residents-in-a-flap-over-fruit/
Adjunct Professor at Charles Sturt & Sydney universities, Professor David Gloldney has been employed by Orange City Council to look at ways of preventing flying foxes returning to central western NSW. He says so far he has been looking at the legal implications of the recent arrival of the grey-headed flying foxes. “To look at the various acts under the National Parks and Wildlife and DECCW [the Department of Environment, Climate Change & Water] & the Federal Government’s Endangered Species Act.” http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/29/2967437.htm
Yet more critically endangered Cumberland Plain & endangered shale transition forest woodland is at risk of development in Kellyville. Hills Shire Council wants to clear 10 hectares of its own woodland at Withers Rd Kellyville despite massive community opposition. They have applied for a State Government BioBanking Agreement that would allow it the Council to clear this land in return for protecting land somewhere else. The community met a fortnight ago as part of Council’s community consultation. http://hills-shire-times.whereilive.com.au/news/story/fight-to-save-woodland-at-kellyville/
Wyong Council has directed that all gardens around caravans & mobile homes be removed in all caravan parks in Budgewoi, Canton Beach, Norah Head & Toowoon Bay. Another win for the fans of concrete. http://express-advocate-wyong.whereilive.com.au/news/story/anger-over-council-order-to-turn-beautified-caravan-sites-ugly/
Music for Trees is a non-profit organisation & part of the UN’s Billion tree program, about which I have written in previous posts. They are holding a free music event at Carriage Works Eveleigh this Saturday 17th July 2010. Playing will be Stiff Gins, Ray Mann, The Slowdowns, The Anon Anons & The Deroys. $10 plants 50 trees. $200 starts a forest. For information – http://www.musicfortrees.com/
Planet Ark has a competition for National Tree Day on 1st August 2010. They are looking for the best tree tale. The top stories will be added to their Australian Tree Stories campaign & the prize is a $1,000 green get-away. This year’s National Tree Day, more than 2 million volunteers will plant 15 million native trees & shrubs. I knew it could be done. treeday.planetark.org
Spring blossoms in winter
I was excited to read about a report commissioned by the NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change & Water. The report, Connectivity Conservation & the Great Eastern Ranges Corridor, recommends the establishment of a conservation corridor spanning 2,800 km along the Great Eastern Ranges from the Australian Alps in Victoria to the Atherton Tablelands in Queensland.
“To halt and reverse the biodiversity extinction crisis, we must counter the threats and reverse the trends. This means reconnecting habitat so native ecosystems don’t end up becoming isolated “islands”, buffering protected areas and protecting and restoring habitat on other land tenures.”
It’s a fantastic idea & will go a long way to helping wildlife. Hopefully it will also help the Koala who are seriously at risk of extinction from loss of habitat in Australia.
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/media/DecMedia10071402.htm
The Pew Environment Group did a recent study that found the area from the central west of NSW, up to Cape York, across the top end & down to the wheat belt in Western Australia, absorbs more than 9.5 billion tonnes of carbon. They say that if this area is managed properly, it could reduce carbon pollution by 5% by 2050, the equivalent of taking 7.5 a million cars off the road every year for the next 40 years.
Terrific changes seem to be happening in the way Australia is looking at the value & use of trees. It will be wonderful to see land planted with trees & other plants rather than have the massive chain that pulls down everything in its path. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/14/2952894.htm
Researchers from the University of Sydney say all the world’s topsoil is set to vanish within 60-100 years “if current patterns do not change.” Current patterns mean;
- overuse of plowing,
- over-application of synthetic fertilizers,
- poor erosion control &
- unsustainable farming
In Australia, soil is being lost 5 times faster than it is regenerating through natural processes. In the United States, it is being lost 10 times faster. In Europe it is being lost 17 times faster, and in China, an astonishing 57 times faster.
Hopefully, farmers will take notice & the government will provide the funding to help them regenerate the natural vegetation without too much delay.
http://www.naturalnews.com/029176_topsoil_food_production.html
Lilly Pilly flower
I read 2 articles about Railcorp recently. The first reported that Beecroft residents were furious at tree-lopping & removal at a site marked ‘environmentally sensitive’ along railway land near Beecroft Railway Station. It’s a shame because Gang Gang birds lived in those trees.
City Rail said, “The trees lopped were wattles which had become a safety hazard. The trees we removed were predominantly wattles (Acacia) that had been planted by Railcorp around 10 years ago inside the rail corridor.” In response the Beecroft Cheltenham Civic Trust employed a professional arborist to assess the tree removal. They found young Eucalypts & Acacias had been removed.
3 weeks later in an article about Railcorp’s plans to replant the stripped area, a RailCorp staff representative said, “the plants had to be removed because 95 per cent of them were noxious species.” Wattle a noxious species? Railcorp intend to replant with native grasses & shrubs, but no trees.
Epping residents also complained that everything near the railway station has been stripped, including the grasses. Both communities complained about the lack of community consultation. To my understanding, being government-owned land, they don’t need to notify the community. That the community expects that they do tells me that trees & habitat for urban wildlife are becoming important issues for the community. I think this is a good thing.
Lawrence Pope, the president of the Victorian Advocates for Animals wrote a fantastic letter to the Bendigo Advertiser about Grey-headed flying-foxes that I would love to post in full. Unfortunately copyright prevents me from doing so, but I sincerely hope that any readers who dislike bats, are afraid of them or have concerns about their presence around Sydney of late take the time to read this letter. It’s not a long letter as Mr Pope has the skill of writing succinctly.
The following are snippets: “Grey-headed flying foxes are struggling to survive right down Australia’s east coast & now inland. Many are seriously underweight from lack of food. This land is their home & has been for the past 2 million years. Being fair dinkum about conservation sometimes means putting the serious interests of other species ahead of your own less-serious ones….” & “….species that has declined by more than 95% in the past century & is listed as vulnerable to extinction.”
The Department of Environment & Resources reports that nearly 400 tonnes of seed has been dropped from planes on 5,000 hectares of exposed lakebed & more than 1.1 million native sedges have been planted on exposed lakebeds in South Australia by volunteers. On top of this, volunteers are also planting 130,000 shrub & tree seedlings on shorelines & wetlands in the Lower Murray River areas. I am always impressed & heartened about our future when volunteers come together like this. http://www.landscapes.sa.gov.au/lsmain.jsp?xcid=187
Lastly, I missed Saving Our Tree’s birthday. We were 1 year old on 16 June 2010. Isn’t that lovely. A very big thanks from me to everyone who has supported SoT by reading this blog, sending submissions & for all your ideas & words of encouragement. Don’t know what to say except the trees & the urban wildlife have hooked me & I couldn’t imagine not doing this.
Once I woke up to balloons on my bedroom ceiling
1. Environmental groups plan to protest to stop National Parks in NSW being developed for tourism by private development consortiums TOMORROW 2nd June 2010 outside Parliament House, Macquarie Street Sydney at 12 noon . The web-site of the Colong Foundation goes into the issue of development of National Parks in detail. http://www.colongwilderness.org.au/tourism/Stop_exploitation_of_national_parks.htm
2. East Sydney residents are protesting against the RTAs plans to drop the creation of a garden at the corner of Bourke & Stanley streets around the Eastern Distributor chimneystack & instead, rezone the land for residential units. http://sydney-central.whereilive.com.au/news/story/east-sydney-locals-fuming-with-rta/
3. The Sydney Botanical Gardens Trust have been given the go-ahead from the Federal Environment Department to use noise dispersal & water spraying to remove the grey-headed flying foxes, a threatened species, from the Gardens. Respected conservation groups were against the proposal to remove the bats from the gardens. For background see http://savingourtrees.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/sydney’s-royal-botanic-gardens-trust-wants-‘threatened-species’-bats-banished/
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/syndeys-bats-to-get-the-boot.htm
4. Vandals destroyed more than 40 mature trees in Patterson Lakes & Moorabbin in May 2010. The trees were planted to replace other trees vandalized 18 months previously. http://moorabbin-kingston-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/trees-butchered-in-outrageous-attack-at-patterson-lakes-moorabbin/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
5. I’ve previously posted about the battle by the community who are against a DA for a new Woolworths supermarket at Newport. To date Pittwater Council has received 1,353 submissions from the community, most against the DA. The community fears that local shopping strips will be lost when the Woolworths giant moves in. There is a similar concern with the proposed Marrickville Metro development. http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/room-for-improvement-woolies/
6. More than 100 people attended a protest at the ADI site mid May 2010 including State Opposition Environment Spokeswoman Catherine Cusack, Liberal candidate for Londonderry Bart Bassett, Penrith Mayor Kevin Crameri, Councillor Ross Fowler & a representative of Lindsay Federal Labor MP David Bradbury. The community is trying to save 100 hectares of critically endangered Cumberland Plains woodland. Interestingly, the news headline is – ‘There is still time to put things right.’ http://cumberland-courier.whereilive.com.au/news/story/there-s-still-time-to-put-things-right-at-adi-site/
Pansies & Marigolds in an island bed on Botany Road - far better than cement
The 1535 hectare site is to be developed by Delfin Lend Lease to create a new suburb – Jordan Springs. It is one of the few green belts left in Western Sydney & is home to 110 bird species, 10 reptiles, 9 mammals, 8 frog species, 3 of them endangered & many plant species, including 4 rare ones.
I found an article from the Green Left written in 1996 where they say residents have been fighting to protect this land for the past 6 years. This means the community has been fighting for 20 years to save this green corridor. This is an interesting article as it provides a background history. http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/12798
The ADI Residents Action Group website also provides a great synopsis of what is going to happen & why the ADI site is important to preserve. http://www.adisite.org/
7. Environmental protestors & Aboriginal traditional owners of the land continue to fight to prevent logging of the Mumbulla State Forest in South East NSW. http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/anti-logging-activists-lock-on-to-timber-harvesting-machinery/story-e6freuyi-1225867563540?from=public_rss
It is the last remaining habitat for around 50 Koalas. This may not seem many Koalas to require the stopping of logging a forest, but at The Australian Koala Foundation website, https://www.savethekoala.com/ they say, “there are less than 80,000 koalas left in the wild, possibly as few as 43,000.” This certainly makes 50 Koalas extremely significant. Personally, I think every Koala is significant, but we are talking about big money to be made here versus the habitat & survival of an animal. This is always a problem because the animals generally lose. That the Koala is listed as vulnerable in NSW is supremely important.
The Nature Conservation Council of NSW is calling for urgent action to stop logging & save the Mumbulla State Forest & have outlined ways in which the community can become involved. http://nccnsw.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3002&Itemid=1
Last Friday 28th May 2010 a coalition of conservationists, including Chipstop & the Nature Conservation Council of NSW have called for the Federal Government to step in & order that the logging be stopped. Intensive wood-chipping of Mumbulla State Forest has taken place this week. Interestingly, due to countries buying less of our woodchip at the moment, there is some concern that they won’t even be able to sell the woodchips they have made from the torn down forest. The Tasmanian timber company Gunns recently posted a 98% drop in its ½ yearly profit, partly due to a drop in woodchip sales. http://bigpondnews.com/articles/Environment/2010/05/28/Fed_govt_needs_to_protect_NSW_koalas_467192.html
8. Landcare is collecting old mobile phones to help their aim of planting 30,000 trees along the Murray River, at the Mallee in WA & in the Daintree Forest in Far North QLD. 90% of each mobile phone is recyclable so giving your old mobile to collection points stops them landing up in landfill where they don’t degrade. Collection points are Australia-wide & to find a collection point near you – www.mobilemuster.com.au
9. Great news in that the Federal Government contributed to the purchase of a 14,000 hectare property called Bowra Station located in western QLD. The property, purchased by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy is home to 200 species of birds. Birdwatchers will be able to go there. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/21/2906362.htm
10. More great news as the NSW Labor government has decided to pay logging industry $97 million & in turn, they are to stop logging the River Red Gums by the end of June 2010. A National Park in the Millewa group of forests will be established in July 2010 & will be jointly managed with the Yorta Yorta people. http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/19/2903840.htm
11. I found the Environmental Volunteers Newsletter on Marrickville Council’s web-site. It’s a great newsletter with information about current activities & contact details of all the environmental groups working in the LGA. http://www.marrickville.nsw.gov.au/environment/volunteering.htm
As of last weekend the historic Fig tree at the IKEA development Tempe was still standing. Its shape has changed so I think it has been pruned.
In the May 2010 edition of Marrickville Matters magazine, Mayor Iskandar said, “I urge Marrickville residents to find that piece of land that is not being used & come to us for help to establish their own community garden.” Marrickville Councils Community Sustainability Co-ordinator can be contacted on 9335-2222. May’s magazine has a environmental feel with many articles focusing on the environment across the LGA. Council also says Mackey Park in Marrickville South will be carbon-neutral with all power needs being offset by the use of photovoltaic cells which generate electricity when exposed to sunlight. This is really good.
12. Go easy on the mince & bacon rashers if you feed Kookaburras because a Kookaburra was found in a Mosman Park being chased by dogs because he was too fat to fly. He is currently in rehab at Taronga Zoo Sydney & on a diet, poor birdie. http://bigpondnews.com/articles/OddSpot/2010/06/01/Hefty_Kookaburra_has_grams_to_go_468341.html
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