COASTAL EMUS FACE EXTINCTION

 Listing of the Coastal Emu as an Endangered Population in 2002 raised hopes that extra protection would be provided, thus halting, or preferably reversing, their steadily declining numbers. Sadly it was not. The 2017 census recorded just 33 birds, down from 47 a year earlier.

The census records more than bird sightings, and includes feathers, tracks, and scats. Of course not all birds are located, but numbers have likely reached the point where the population is no longer viable.

Emus face many threats. Wild dogs, dingoes, feral cats and foxes, all pose a real threat to chicks and juveniles, while feral pigs are suspected of raiding nests and eating their eggs.

Humans pose an even greater threat, with vehicle strike historically taking an enormous toll, something authorities will not take seriously. An example of that negligence was the decision to increase the speed limit to 100km/hour along Iluka Road through Bundjalung National Park, and a refusal to reduce speed limits on Brooms Head and Wooli Roads.

Another human threat is the proliferation of tightly strung barbed wire fences, often 5 strands or more, that restrict Emu movement and can prove lethal if, when spooked by a predator, they run headlong into them. Many of these 'super-tight' fences are being installed along the highway upgrade, which passes directly through some 60km of the Emu's home range. The RMS washes its hands, claiming they have to provide what landowners request.

Emus breed in late winter, early spring, just when the authorities recommend everyone burn off, and every year, these fires 'escape' and cause havoc, giving an Emu chick little chance of escaping the flames.

There has been pig trapping, and dog baiting, and work using a trained tracker dog, aiming to locate nests so that surveillance can occur to determine why so few chicks are surviving. But with only 20 breeding pairs remaining, and nesting every second year, finding any of those 10 nests across more than 3,000 square kilometres, is improbable.

With no on-ground action to protect Emus, not even a plan, are we just monitoring another extinction event?

- John Edwards

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.

CLARENCE VALLEY ECOLOGIST PETITIONS ENVIRONMENT MINISTER ABOUT COASTAL EMUS

Dr Greg Clancy, ecologist and Clarence Valley resident, has emailed Rob Stokes, the NSW Minister for the Environment, about a petition he has started to help save the coastal emus of the Clarence. The emus' habitat will be affected by the proposed Pacific Highway upgrade through the Clarence Valley.

A link to Dr Clancy's petition is given at the end of this post.

 I have seen transcripts and heard sections of speeches that you have recently given to various groups.  From these I get the impression that you have a genuine concern for the environment and are willing to take the necessary action to protect it.   I have started a petition to you (that will be submitted in due course) requesting that you intervene to help save the Coastal Emu in the Grafton area.  The Coastal Emu is an endangered population under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 and as such deserves serious conservation attention.  Instead the Roads and Maritime Services are planning to run the Pacific Highway upgrade directly through the habitat of the Coastal Emu.  There is an alternative route available.   I would be happy to show you the old growth forests, wetlands, riparian areas and Emu habitat that will be affected by the preferred route of the Highway upgrade.  An additional 80 threatened species of flora and fauna will be impacted by the construction.  The alternative route will have minimal ecological impact.

SAVE THE COASTAL EMU PETITION

CLARENCE VALLEY HIGHWAY UPGRADE IS OVERKILL

Following the 31^st August public meeting on the threat the proposed Clarence Valley Pacific Highway upgrade will have to the Coastal Emu, John Edwards wrote to Bob Higgins on behalf of the Clarence Environment Centre. Bob Higgins is General Manager, Pacific Highway, Roads and Maritime Services of NSW (formerly the Roads and Traffic Authority).

Below is an edited extract from the letter which questions the RMS' plans for the proposed route for the highway through the Clarence Valley.

The North Coast Environment Council(NCEC), the Clarence Environment Centre (CEC), and other local  conservation groups, have always claimed that the 'motorway' concept for the Clarence Valley is 'over-kill'. The section of highway between Coffs Harbour and Ballina undeniably carries the lowest traffic volumes of anywhere along Highway One from Warrnambool in Victoria to Gympie in Queensland. So why a separate motorway?

We have always asserted that a simple addition of two more lanes to the current highway is all that is needed, and would save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. There would need to be minor straightening, and diversions around South Grafton and the hamlets of Ulmarra and Tyndale. There are already two sections of divided road, at Shark Creek and Cowper, that are perfectly adequate for the amount of traffic using the highway for the foreseeable future, and provide the safety levels demanded by the public.

We also assert that if that course of action had been pursued, the section of highway upgrade from Wells Crossing to at least Maclean could now have been completed at minimal cost. We acknowledge that that route has flooding problems, something that is likely to worsen over time with predicted sea level rise. However, I point out that the preferred route is only flood-proofed to a one in twenty year flood level, which means traffic would sometimes need to transfer to the New England Highway for 2 or 3 days, as is already the case; hardly an insurmountable problem.

To support our argument even further, the RTA (now the RMS) has identified that 70% of Pacific Highway road-users in the Clarence Valley are local commuters that will continue to use the existing highway, and that the existing road will also be upgraded to 4 lane status for safety reasons, bypassing Ulmarra in the process. So where is the logic for building a totally separate, highly environmentally damaging motorway, to cater for just 30% of the total traffic volume?

We believe the current bypass plan will not only be a disaster for the Coastal Emu and the scores of other threatened species  that will be directly impacted  (See CVCC Blog on Coastal Emu) , but will also be disastrous for Grafton, with the longest off-ramps in the country (12km from the south, and a further 30km to the north).

Finally, we also believe it is not too late to reassess the entire Clarence Valley proposal.

        - John Edwards

COASTAL EMUS THREATENED BY PACIFIC HIGHWAY PLANS

The NSW Government instrumentality Roads and Maritime Services (RMS), formerly known as the Roads and Traffic Authority  (RTA), is planning to re-route a section of the Pacific Highway in the Clarence Valley.  If the RMS proposal goes ahead there will be a severe impact on biodiversity.  The upgrade, from Glenugie to the Iluka turnoff, will leave the old highway south of Grafton, pass through the Tucabia area and re-join the current highway route near Tucabia.  This new route passes through significant areas of native vegetation which provides habitat for a variety of species, many of which are threatened.

Of particular concern is the Coastal Emu, a population which is listed as endangered in NSW.  The proposed route dissects the last significant habitat of this species.  According to local ecologist  Dr Greg Clancy there is another population at Main Camp between Grafton and Casino  (north west of the highway upgrade route) but the species is now apparently close to extinction in Bundjalung National Park, a coastal park north of the Clarence River, and is extinct in Broadwater National Park further to the north.

                                        Male Emu with Chick                    Photo: K Cranney

Dr Clancy is very pessimistic about the survival chances of the remaining Clarence Valley emus.  He said, "The biology and ecology of the Coastal Emu is poorly known but it appears to undergo annual movements from coastal sites to areas to the west.  The existing Pacific Highway constitutes the western boundary of the population centred on Yuragir National Park.  The highway proposal is likely to prevent this movement as it will create a barrier to Emu movement.  It is most unlikely that the usual underpasses constructed by the RTA (now the RMS) will be suitable for Emus.  Emus do not handle fences very well and do not easily find exits from large paddocks and are therefore unlikely  to find the underpasses they are supposed to use.  It is most likely that the Emus will enter culverts to access areas to the west of the highway and therefore further isolation of an already declining population will occur."

Dr Clancy pointed out that changes to the route from Tyndale to the Harwood Bridge (across the Clarence River) would also affect the Emus. The proposed upgrade  "originally ran at the western edge of the Emu's habitat but following representations by the Cane Growers of the area it has now been moved further east which will cause the northern birds to be isolated from habitat to the west of the new highway between Tyndale and Maclean if the highway is constructed there."

A large number of other threatened fauna as well as some flora species will be adversely affected if the proposed route goes ahead.

NSW-listed threatened fauna which will be adversely affected are:

 Rufous Bettong, Powerful Owl, Yellow-bellied Glider, Grey-crowned Babbler, Diamond Firetail, Black-chinned Honeyeater, Brown Treecreeper and Squirrel Glider.

Federally-listed flora and fauna likely to be adversely affected are:

Square-fruited Ironbark, Quassia sp. ‘Moonee Creek’, Lindsaea incisa, Grevillea quadricauda, Spotted-tailed Quoll, Koala, New Holland Mouse, Australasian Bittern, Bush Stone-curlew, Green and Golden Bell Frog, Grey-headed Flying-fox, Eastern Osprey, Regent Honeyeater, Glossy Ibis, Swift Parrot, Australian Painted Snipe, Latham’s Snipe, Marsh Sandpiper, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Pacific Golden Plover, Magpie Goose, White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Cattle Egret, Eastern Great Egret, White-throated Needletail, Fork-tailed Swift, Rainbow Bee-eater, Rufous Fantail, Black-faced Monarch, Spectacled Monarch, Three-toed Snake-toothed Skink.

Conservationists believe that the only route that will reduce the impact on the ecosystems of the area is the orange route which approximates the existing highway with a small by-pass at Clarenza and another at Ulmarra. It was rejected by the RMS on social and economic grounds.