OUR NEWEST NATIONAL PARK : Seminar in Grafton, March 4

Everlasting Swamp National Park

Presented by Dean Egan, NPWS

Wednesday 4 March @ 12 noon

Environment Protection Authority, Level 2, Grafton Government Office Block

Have you heard? The newest of NSW’s national parks is on Grafton’s doorstep: Everlasting Swamp National Park was gazetted in November 2014. 

Located near Lawrence, this freshwater meadow backswamp is a hive of activity for brolgas, black-necked storks, black swans and a vast array of wader species.

The site’s hydrology was modified during its interesting history of vegetable and tea tree cropping, and cattle production. It requires an extensive wetland restoration project to allow the previous moniker of ‘The Kakadu of the South’ to be fully realised.

Learn more about the site’s values and challenges, and get a rare fly-over glimpse of the potential of this local wetland.

These seminars are hosted by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, part of the Office of Environment and Heritage. They are free and open to anyone within the community who has a passion for learning about the environment, and for discovering and critically discussing policy work or research relevant to the Clarence Valley. You can bring your lunch.

NEW CLARENCE VALLEY NATIONAL PARK - EVERLASTING SWAMP NP

The NSW Minister for the Environment, Rob Stokes, announced the creation of a new national park in the Clarence Valley early in November .  The Government purchased 1700 hectares of the Everlasting Swamp which will be added to the area already protected as the Everlasting Swamp State Conservation Area.

In his media release, Mr Stokes said: "The Everlasting Swamp and the adjacent Imersons Swamp form one of the largest coastal floodplain wetlands remaining in NSW and an intact ecosystem of this size is extremely rare and globally significant."

 “With the support of the local community, the National Parks and Wildlife Service plans to restore the wetland to a more natural hydrological cycle and functioning wetland which will alleviate the acid flush risk and support a more sustainable fishing industry for the Clarence River."

Clarence Valley ecologist Dr Greg Clancy who has been visiting these wetlands since the late 1970s is delighted that the Everlasting Swamp has become a national Park.  He said this wetland is very important for brolgas. "We've had up to 100 brolgas in that area and that's very rare in NSW.  And there's a whole range of other waterbirds like whiskered terns, which come in their hundreds, and glossy ibis. The abundance and diversity is just incredible."

Because many wetlands in the Clarence have been drained, the Everlasting Swamp has become increasingly important as a habitat for birds. But Dr Clancy notes it is not pristine. Parts of the swamp have been invaded by feral pigs, weirs have been built to prevent salt water flowing in and cattle have turned some areas into temporary dustbowls. "It's going to be an interesting management challenge," said Dr Clancy.

"Now that it's a national park, I would certainly be keen to take tourists or birdwatchers into the area."

LAND FOR WILDLIFE PROJECTS IN CLARENCE VALLEY HELPING EMUS AND KOALAS

 In 2013 the Clarence Environment Centre (CEC), local provider of the national Land for Wildlife program, initiated what has become known as the Emu Gully re-vegetation project. In partnership with a private landowner near Pillar Valley, the previously cleared, mown gully has now been landscaped and planted by volunteers, creating a corridor containing specific feed species for our embattled Coastal Emus as well as other wildlife.

Nine months later shrubs and young trees, helped by recent rains, are well over head height, and  significantly the landowners have recently reported seeing an emu with 5 chicks. Amid speculation that Emu numbers have fallen to well below the previous estimate of 100 birds, this is great news indeed.

However the CEC is not getting too excited about the chicks at this stage. As Emus lay upwards of 15 eggs there should be an expectation of at least 10 chicks surviving, but wild dogs, cats, foxes and feral pigs are having a negative impact on their survival, and ultimately on the survival of the Coastal Emu.

A further positive note is that, with land-use changes in the Pillar Valley in the past 30 years, Koalas might potentially be reintroduced, or naturally disperse back to the area. In 2012 the CEC identified fresh Koala scats and scratches throughout the Sandy Crossing travelling stock route, near Wants Lane, and botanic surveys have since revealed considerable tracts of suitable habitat over many  properties in the area.

Now, with some help by the National Parks & Wildlife Foundation under the Private Land Conservation Grants program, CEC's Land for Wildlife assessor, Peter Turland, has embarked on two other local projects. One, dubbed Koala Gully, again undertaken largely by the landowners, is focused on re-establishing a forested corridor with koalas' preferred feed trees, particularly Forest Red Gum, Grey Gum and Tallowwoods.

The third project, probably the most ambitious, is aimed at restoring a 2 hectare site with Subtropical Coastal Floodplain Forest, along river flats adjoining Chaffin Creek that were previously cleared for agriculture.

Well done Land for Wildlife, and well done Pete.

- Patricia Edwards 

This post was originally published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on Monday 22    September, 2014.

WIRES' RECORDS RAISE AWARENESS OF KOALAS IN THE CLARENCE VALLEY

For many years the Clarence Valley was not exactly seen as a hotspot for koalas. In fact many residents did not suspect we even had koalas in the Valley. In a landscape of sugar cane, cattle and sprawling rural development, koalas did not readily spring to mind.

A small but viable koala population was known around Ashby, for which the then Maclean Shire Council developed a plan of management to try to maintain it in perpetuity. But it seemed isolated. The previous Iluka colony was believed extinct, and only a few forestry workers and local landowners with eucalypts on their properties mentioned seeing an occasional koala.

With the introduction of the NSW Wildlife Atlas and the advent of WIRES into the Valley things began to change. At first WIRES' records were hazy - jottings in dog-eared notebooks with little information about where an animal was found. But as the significance of location became clearer so the importance of WIRES' records began to be noticed. No other group was able to collect so much data, about so many different species, in a short space of time, totally free of charge.

Due mainly to WIRES' records we now know koalas survive in scattered numbers along the rivers, creeks and tributaries in a rough crescent around the floodplains. We also know they still exist in Iluka, from where a small but regular inflow of records triggered another survey by ecologist Steve Phillips, whose ensuing report warned Council to tread carefully around Iluka because koalas were returning.

Now the Clarence Valley has been mapped as hosting two meta koala populations, Coffs Harbour/Guy Fawkes to the South and Clarence/Richmond to the north.

Clarence Valley WIRES will hold their next training course on 22-23 March. Anyone interested in rescuing and caring for native wildlife should book by the hotline 6643 4055

Patricia Edwards

Young koala in care

 

HIGHWAY UPGRADE THROUGH CLARENCE VALLEY TO DEVASTATE WILDLIFE

NSW Roads and Maritime Services (RMS), an agency of the NSW Government, is upgrading the Pacific Highway in the north of the state.  The proposal for the upgrade of the 155 km section from Woolgoolga, north of Coffs Harbour, to Ballina recently went on public exhibition. 

The Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition has grave concerns about the environmental impact of the proposed route of this upgrade through the Clarence Valley.   Below is part of the CVCC’s submission on the proposal.

A.  COMMENTS ON ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS - GLENUGIE TO THE  ILUKA TURNOFF

1. The Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition opposes the proposed highway route through the Clarence Valley because of the severe impact it will have on the biodiversity of the area.

2. The 48 km of the route from Glenugie to the Clarence River will have a devastating effect on flora and fauna. 

• Around 948 hectares of vegetation will be cleared in an area important for its biodiversity. Threatened  flora species to be destroyed include Square-fruited Ironbark and Weeping Paperbark.

• Vegetation to be cleared includes 337 hectares of Endangered Ecological Communities (EECs).  Amongst these EECs are sections of Nationally Listed  Lowland Rainforest.

• The Endangered Coastal Emu (with an existing population of only about 100 birds in the Clarence Valley) will have its range bisected by the highway. This almost certainly will have a disastrous effect on this remnant population.

• More than 80 other threatened species will be impacted by the chosen route.   Some species relying on this area for habitat include the Rufous Bettong, Powerful Owl, Yellow-bellied Glider, Grey-crowned Babbler, Diamond Firetail, Black-chinned Honeyeater, Brown Treecreeper and Squirrel Glider.

3.  At a time when scientists and members of the community are becoming increasingly concerned about extinctions and the threat of extinctions as well as general biodiversity loss, we need to be taking a much more precautionary approach to developments which are certain to have severe impacts on the natural world.

4. The CVCC is concerned that the RMS has chosen from its original list of possible routes the one which will cause the most severe environmental damage.

5. While social and economic factors need to be considered in route selection, it is important to remember that both the economy and society are subsets of the environment.  Neither will continue in a healthy state if the environment continues to be damaged.  It is not just this one development – damaging as it will be – but the cumulative impact of many developments which place unreasonable stress on the natural world.

6. The CVCC believes that the least damaging route environmentally would have been the orange route in the original list – the route which follows the existing highway.  Construction of the highway upgrade in the Kempsey area clearly indicates that such a route, with the highway raised to limit problems with flooding, is possible.  While this may be dismissed as being too expensive, there is the question of valuing the environment and biodiversity loss along the route already chosen by the RMS.  The true cost of the chosen route has not been assessed because the cost of the environmental damage that is inevitable has not been factored in.

B. COMMENTS ON SOME OF THE MITIGATION MEASURES

1. The Endangered Coastal Emu

The CVCC is very concerned about the mitigation measures proposed for the endangered coastal emu.

• There is no certainty that the underpasses described in the documentation will be an effective measure in allowing the emus access to their range.  As well as the issue of whether the species will use an underpass, there is the issue of the location of these structures to suit the birds’ movement pattern.

• ·        The RMS (former RTA) has known about the coastal emu issue in the Clarence Valley for years and the fact that its highway upgrade will impact on this species. However, it has not undertaken or, as far as we know, moved to have undertaken any scientific studies of this species until very recently.  Moreover this recent satellite-tracking study of young birds raised in captivity has been a failure. It did not run its intended course, largely, as we understand it, because of the mortality of a number of the subject emus. The RMS’ lack of commitment to any research on this matter is extremely disappointing and does not augur well for its mitigation proposals.

2. Off-sets

• ·          The CVCC acknowledges that offsets are supported by government instrumentalities and developers as a way to expedite developments in areas with important natural values which will be destroyed or severely damaged by developments.

• ·        However, it cannot be logically argued that providing another area as compensation will result in no net biodiversity loss.  Quite obviously biodiversity lost in one area cannot be relaced by biodiversity already existing in another area.

• ·        And net biodiversity loss is a major issue. Scientists and members of the community are concerned about this and about the cumulative impact of biodiversity loss across the nation.

• ·        Governments and their instrumentalities continue to pay lipservice to the concept of ecologically sustainable development and its principles but, in reality, little has changed.  Putting in place measures such as off-sets merely gives the appearance that something positive is being done.

• ·        Even if off-sets were a valid compensation for loss of ecosystems, there is always the problem of finding the equivalent or even near-equivalent ecosystems to use as off-sets.  Where, for example, will the RMS or its agents find suitable offsets for the Clarence Lowland Rainforest EECs ?

CONCLUSION

In conclusion the Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition strongly opposes the chosen route for the Pacific Highway through the Clarence Valley because of the devastating environmental impact this development with have on an area with significant remnant native vegetation which provides habitat for a broad range of fauna, including many which are threatened.