THE UGLY SIDE OF FORTIS CREEK NATIONAL PARK

John Edwards' description of the beauties of Fortis Creek National Park featured in an earlier post .  In a subsequent visit, described below, John was horrified at park management.

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Just weeks ago I raved in this column about the marvellous array of rare and threatened flora found in the Fortis Creek National Park, urging readers to take the opportunity to visit national parks to enjoy nature at its very best.

Today, after a return visit to another part of Fortis Creek NP which had been subjected to a prescribed hazard reduction burn, I'm forced to describe the ugly side of the way our national parks are managed.

Aside from the fact that frequent fire is negatively impacting biodiversity, and the question of whether there is a need for frequent hazard reduction in areas which have no nearby urban settlements under threat from fire, what we observed was environmental bastardy at its worst. For kilometres along a service trail, practically every old-growth tree within 40m of the track had been bulldozed, vandalism that would result in prosecution had it occurred on private land.

The loss to native fauna through destroying those hollow-bearing trees is incalculable, and animals occupying those hollows would undoubtedly have been killed or injured.

It is well documented that about half of all threatened fauna in Australia are tree-hollow dependent, and loss of habitat is the primary reason for their decline. What is not so well known is the time frame required for those trees to form hollows, which is literally hundreds of years.

Research undertaken at the Australian National University has determined that: “Large hollows, in Blackbutts (the main species targeted in this instance) with a minimum entrance greater than 10cm, are formed after approximately 240 years”. I observed some hollows greater than 30 cm.

In reality, many of these trees were already mature when Captain Cook sailed by 250 years ago, and survived the timber getter's axe in the 1800s because they were already too old, only to be mindlessly destroyed today.

Tourism is the life blood of the Valley, one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, and it's supported by wonderful national parks and world heritage areas, but what tourist wants to see this?

-          John Edwards

This post was initially published in the VOICES FOR THE EARTH column in The Daily Examiner on November 11, 2015.

A WALK IN THE PARK

In mid August, I was prompted to visit the Fortis Creek National Park. Where's that? I hear you ask, and it's likely that very few Clarence Valley residents, much less visitors to the area, have any idea where it is. Even the Department's web site is pretty uninformative, stating its location and geology, explaining only that: “The reserve contains vegetation associated with sandstone geology and provides opportunities for low-key and self-reliant nature-based recreation”.

What an understatement that is. At the right time of year – late winter to early spring, the park is a wonderland of flowering plants many of which can only be found on the local sandstone outcrops, and nowhere else in the world. 

Much of that floristic beauty can normally be seen from the Coaldale Road, but this year much of that had been burned, so we opted to walk in to Morgan's Camp (no more than a dot on the map), a hike of some 12 km round trip, and enjoy the breath-taking profusion of colour on offer. Splashes of red Boronias and Match heads, yellow wattles and various bush peas species, and white Melaleuccas, Hakeas and Wedding Bushes covered the landscape.

The diversity, and significance of the flora is outstanding, and by basically observing little more than the road verges, we were able to identify more than 200 plant species, including 5 that are listed as threatened, 4 others that have been identified as meeting the criteria for listing, along with 20 species that are protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Act.

We actually met up with the Park Ranger on the day.  He made the comment that it was wonderful to see people walking in and enjoying the park, giving us the impression that this was not common. I can really recommend others to take the opportunity, particularly during the late winter – early spring flowering season, and make time, and to look closer for the small but amazing ground orchids that also occur there.

-          John Edwards

This post was originally published in The Daily Examiner on 26 October 2015.