Sunday 10 March 2024

EARTH MATTERS SESSIONS IN GRAFTON START IN MARCH

 The Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition (CVCC) is restarting its Earth Matters environmental information sessions on March 18 after a break in 2020 following the advent of covid. 

These public events, introduced in 2004, were held every two months between March and November and were conducted by a range of people from the community, or from government or local environment groups. Sometimes the goal was acquiring information about an issue while at other times it involved exploration of an idea, the seeking of a solution or celebrating the wonders of the natural world.

The range of subjects over the years has included sustainable farming, climate change, the impact of light at night, flying fox ecology, cane toads in the Clarence Valley, Grafton’s tree heritage, riparian vegetation on the floodplain, native bees, waste management and recycling, inspiration for your town garden, conservation in north-west Tasmania, national parks in India and Bhutan, and restoring rainforest.

Recently the CVCC decided to restart these public information sessions.  The new venue is the Joan Muir Community Centre in Turf Street, Grafton.  Sessions will be held between 6 and 8 pm on the third Monday of the month in March, May, July, September and November.  The events will generally consist of a presentation by one or more speakers for an hour, followed by a short question and discussion session and light refreshments.  Those attending will be asked to contribute a gold coin to assist with expenses.  

The first two presentations have been arranged and the CVCC is looking forward to providing the community with information on a range of important environmental matters from March onwards.

Proposed Mineral Mining in the Clarence Catchment is the subject of the first Earth Matters session on March 18.  Shae Fleming, Clarence Catchment Alliance Coordinator (CCA), will discuss the current situation on mining in the Clarence Catchment, CCA's role, the community campaign's aim and progress to date, the threat of mineral mining to our local water, species, environment, social, cultural and economic wellbeing and how you can help.

-        Leonie Blain

 Published in the "Voices for the Earth" column in The Clarence Valley Independent , February 6, 2024.

Saturday 2 March 2024

CALL TO STOP LOGGING KOALA HABITAT ON NSW PUBLIC LANDS

 North East Forest Alliance

MEDIA  RELEASE

February 29, 2024

The NSW Government has released Reviewing the NSW Koala Strategy  discussion paper  and is seeking community input on current koala conservation actions.

The NSW Government’s 2021 Koala Strategy identifies that the highest priority to avoid the extinction of Koalas in the wild by 2050 is to protect their habitat, to this end they have allocated $71 million to buy private properties and implement conservation agreements over up to 22,000 hectares.

So far they have bought 10,000 ha of land to add to national parks and entered conservation agreements over 7,700 ha of private land.

Only part of this is high quality Koala habitat, said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

“There are 230,000 hectares of State Forests on the NSW North Coast identified as high quality Koala habitat by the NSW Government and as Nationally Important Koala Areas by the Commonwealth Government, yet both Governments refuse to stop logging them.

“The Forestry Corporation is losing $15 million a year, and getting tens of millions in equity injections, to log tens of thousands of Koala feed trees in thousands of hectares of high quality Koala habitat every year.

“If the Government was serious about saving Koalas and saving money then their highest priority must be to protect Koala habitat on public land

“The Government has identified 50 koala populations “where koalas have the potential to persist over the long term”, and in 2021 prioritised 19 of these for immediate protection of strongholds, including in the Banyabba Area of Regional Koala Significance (Whiporie-Rappville).

“Despite this they are right now logging identified Koala strongholds in Braemar and Myrtle State Forests within the Banyabba ARKS.

“The Government is asking people to tell them what else they should be doing to protect koala habitat.

“Please tell them to immediately stop logging Koala habitat on public lands” Mr. Pugh said.

 


 

 

Sunday 25 February 2024

THROWING MONEY AWAY

The last time I wrote in this column, I vented my frustration over the malaise that is affecting a vast majority of people when it comes to acting responsibly when facing the challenge of climate change.

I focussed specifically on the fact that, despite knowing that burning fossil fuels will have dire consequences for the planet and future generations, more than 50% of new car buyers in Australia purchased a gas-guzzling SUV in 2022.

It’s not only the additional fuel, but the mass of materials needed to construct them. The average SUV weighs double that of a modest hatchback. That’s double the steel, copper, plastic - you name it. All finite resources that will eventually run out.

That brings me to another big irritation - Australia’s dismal failure when it comes to recycling which, when it all boils down (excuse any suggestion of a pun), has stemmed from the fact that most recycling is not cost-effective.

It’s much more profitable to cut down a forest to manufacture toilet paper than it is to go through the process of cleaning up and reusing waste paper, and the same applies to plastics, minerals and everything else.

Cost-of-living pressures are forcing many consumers to go for the cheaper option, but the afore-mentioned malaise doesn’t stop there. Take a close look at clearly marked communal waste bins and you’ll see even the most obvious recyclables unceremoniously dumped with food scraps and the like into the nearest receptacle.

Everyone knows that cash refunds are available for most cans and bottles, but walk into any fast-food premises, which rarely provide specific bins for recyclables, and you’ll see bins overflowing with refundable items, or often left on tables for staff to clean up.

Would you take coins from your car’s console and casually toss them out the window? No, you wouldn’t, yet our roadsides are littered with discarded cans and bottles.

It simply comes down to this:  most of us are just too lazy and apathetic to do the right thing, and we all need to smarten up; this is serious!

 

-        John Edwards

 

Published in the "Voices for the Earth" column in The Clarence Valley Independent , January 10, 2024.