ENDANGERED species such as pygmy possums, bats, mice and striped wallabies will become extinct in northern NSW if the state's largest gas field goes ahead as planned, biologists have warned the federal government.
A planned coal seam gas operation near Narrabri would put at least 110 gas wells and 1000 kilometres of pipelines through the Pilliga woodland area, according to a plan being put forward by Eastern Star Gas.
Eastern Star said it was positive that this could be done with minimal impact on plants and animals and said it welcomed the independent wildlife survey.
But the study, commissioned by the Northern Inland Council for the Environment, found 20 endangered species living in the area slated for the gas field, only some of which had been identified by the company's own research.
A report will be forwarded to the federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke, who will be required to assess the gas field's impact on endangered fauna.
The team of 15 biologists and volunteers who completed the study on a pro bono basis said vulnerable animals would be severely affected.
''These animals will become locally extinct … exotic species will proliferate instead - foxes, goats, feral pigs,'' a director of the consultancy Landmark Ecological Services, David Milledge, said.
''This is 4000 square kilometres of forest and woodland. It is very important for these species.''
A spokesman for Eastern Star Gas, which is about to be taken over by Santos, said more than 2800 hours had been spent over the past year gathering information about the area's plants and animals.
''ESG's proposals … are meticulously planned to avoid areas of high ecological value, minimise impacts where possible and undertake to rehabilitate fully, with a significant amount of this rehabilitation occurring immediately after the construction phase,'' the spokesman, Peter Fox, said.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/biologists-warn-species-at-risk-from-new-field-20111023-1meim.html#ixzz1bn08hdqE
Showing posts with label NSW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NSW. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Coffs Harbour koalas lose habitat to red tape
THE state Environment Department has approved logging of almost 2000 hectares of significant koala habitat contrary to its own guidelines, conservationists say.
Since 2007, at least 60 separate logging applications on private land have been approved in areas containing ''core koala habitat'' around Coffs Harbour, according to an analysis by the North Coast Environment Council.
The department does not dispute the council's figures, but said the Coffs Harbour koala plan of management, which identifies the vulnerable species' local habitats, is not officially gazetted.
Advertisement: Story continues below Because of this, the prohibition on logging that normally applies to important koala habitats under state environmental planning policies could not be enforced in that council area, the department's director of landscapes and ecosystems conservation, Tom Grosskopf, said.
''We're helping them to get their plan updated and get it going,'' he said.
But local environmentalists are appalled and have accused the department of playing word games. The environment council's vice-president, Susie Russell, said the department knew full well where the region's key koala areas were. It had been integral in mapping the habitats, but was ignoring the results and approving their destruction.
The NSW Private Native Forestry code of practice prohibits forestry operations in core koala habitats.
Mr Grosskopf said that despite the logging approvals around Coffs Harbour, the department protected koalas.
The department could not say when the koala management plan would be officially gazetted.
Saffron Howden
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/coffs-harbour-koalas-lose-habitat-to-red-tape-20110103-19dwt.html
Since 2007, at least 60 separate logging applications on private land have been approved in areas containing ''core koala habitat'' around Coffs Harbour, according to an analysis by the North Coast Environment Council.
The department does not dispute the council's figures, but said the Coffs Harbour koala plan of management, which identifies the vulnerable species' local habitats, is not officially gazetted.
Advertisement: Story continues below Because of this, the prohibition on logging that normally applies to important koala habitats under state environmental planning policies could not be enforced in that council area, the department's director of landscapes and ecosystems conservation, Tom Grosskopf, said.
''We're helping them to get their plan updated and get it going,'' he said.
But local environmentalists are appalled and have accused the department of playing word games. The environment council's vice-president, Susie Russell, said the department knew full well where the region's key koala areas were. It had been integral in mapping the habitats, but was ignoring the results and approving their destruction.
The NSW Private Native Forestry code of practice prohibits forestry operations in core koala habitats.
Mr Grosskopf said that despite the logging approvals around Coffs Harbour, the department protected koalas.
The department could not say when the koala management plan would be officially gazetted.
Saffron Howden
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/coffs-harbour-koalas-lose-habitat-to-red-tape-20110103-19dwt.html
Coffs Harbour koalas lose habitat to red tape
THE state Environment Department has approved logging of almost 2000 hectares of significant koala habitat contrary to its own guidelines, conservationists say.
Since 2007, at least 60 separate logging applications on private land have been approved in areas containing ''core koala habitat'' around Coffs Harbour, according to an analysis by the North Coast Environment Council.
The department does not dispute the council's figures, but said the Coffs Harbour koala plan of management, which identifies the vulnerable species' local habitats, is not officially gazetted.
Advertisement: Story continues below Because of this, the prohibition on logging that normally applies to important koala habitats under state environmental planning policies could not be enforced in that council area, the department's director of landscapes and ecosystems conservation, Tom Grosskopf, said.
''We're helping them to get their plan updated and get it going,'' he said.
But local environmentalists are appalled and have accused the department of playing word games. The environment council's vice-president, Susie Russell, said the department knew full well where the region's key koala areas were. It had been integral in mapping the habitats, but was ignoring the results and approving their destruction.
The NSW Private Native Forestry code of practice prohibits forestry operations in core koala habitats.
Mr Grosskopf said that despite the logging approvals around Coffs Harbour, the department protected koalas.
The department could not say when the koala management plan would be officially gazetted.
Saffron Howden
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/coffs-harbour-koalas-lose-habitat-to-red-tape-20110103-19dwt.html
Since 2007, at least 60 separate logging applications on private land have been approved in areas containing ''core koala habitat'' around Coffs Harbour, according to an analysis by the North Coast Environment Council.
The department does not dispute the council's figures, but said the Coffs Harbour koala plan of management, which identifies the vulnerable species' local habitats, is not officially gazetted.
Advertisement: Story continues below Because of this, the prohibition on logging that normally applies to important koala habitats under state environmental planning policies could not be enforced in that council area, the department's director of landscapes and ecosystems conservation, Tom Grosskopf, said.
''We're helping them to get their plan updated and get it going,'' he said.
But local environmentalists are appalled and have accused the department of playing word games. The environment council's vice-president, Susie Russell, said the department knew full well where the region's key koala areas were. It had been integral in mapping the habitats, but was ignoring the results and approving their destruction.
The NSW Private Native Forestry code of practice prohibits forestry operations in core koala habitats.
Mr Grosskopf said that despite the logging approvals around Coffs Harbour, the department protected koalas.
The department could not say when the koala management plan would be officially gazetted.
Saffron Howden
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/coffs-harbour-koalas-lose-habitat-to-red-tape-20110103-19dwt.html
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Wetland wonderland breeds birds' paradise
A once-parched flood plain has become a bustling ''mini Kakadu'' after farmers used irrigation infrastructure to mimic Murrumbidgee flows, writes Debra Jopson.
In a remote reach of NSW, a city of birds has suddenly appeared, building prime waterfront residences in which to pamper their young and feasting on a smorgasbord that floods and rain have brought to the Murrumbidgee.
A wildlife boom inspired by an abundance of water has turned the Lowbidgee flood plain into a noisy, bustling ''mini Kakadu'' as about 20,000 ibises and thousands of other waterbirds including spoonbills and musk ducks make their nests on wetlands which until recently were parched by drought and dams.
''If you had been here 12 months ago you would have seen it at its absolute worst. It was a moonscape,'' said Michael Spinks, a member of a group of landholders on this flood plain between Hay and Balranald.
They use irrigation infrastructure to channel environmental flows to keep the birds happy, mimicking the flows of the mighty Murrumbidgee before it was dammed.
At the Telephone Bank rookery on Torry Plains Station, not far from the grain farm of Steve Blore, the air is rich with the honking and gamey smell of about 5000 straw-necked ibis that have built nests with glossy and white ibises.
Scientists call it a ''major breeding event'' but up close it is a dazzling assembly of lignum-twig nests like woven baskets holding blue or white eggs or wide-mouthed chicks, above which adults perch in trees carrying branches in their beaks for home improvements.
''The Lowbidgee is the most important wetland by far on the Murrumbidgee. There are very few places where you get these mega breeding events occurring,'' says Richard Kingsford, known as ''Professor Duck'', who heads the Australian wetlands and river centre at the University of NSW.
The centre manager, Sharon Ryall, who spent last week wading around the nests checking how many eggs had hatched successfully, says: ''This is a very rare thing. You don't get it very often because of the boom and bust nature of Australia.''
Ryall and research fellow Kate Brandis use a small motorboat to navigate watery roads in the bird city, with tags and waterproof notebooks to document how many young survive.
It is easy to peer right into a nest and to catch a black glossy ibis chick pecking its way out of a bright blue egg, or to see a cluster of week-old crying spoonbill chicks dusted in what looks like white snow - their parents' excrement.
Ryall can answer the question: what's to love about the white ibis?
''The white ibis you see in the parks in Sydney are a beautiful bird in their native habitat. They are not the trash birds you see in Hyde Park,'' she says.
Spinks is hoping that all three ibis species will help defend them from locust attack as authorities warn of the possibility of the worst plague in 30 years.
''We have [1620 hectares] of wheat crop and Steve and I have a rookery at each end. Ibis are known throughout the world as the farmers' friend. They will eat half a kilo in one day - and more when they have fledglings. That's a lot of grasshoppers,'' he says.
It is a mystery where the birds come from, how they know water will be there and where they go afterward.
Blore says: ''How they know has got me beat. I have been out in the swamp when it is dead dry and a duck comes out of a hollow. By the time the chicks are born, the water is there. How do they know that? You see them in the thermals. We say they are sending text messages to their mates - they've got to get up there to get coverage.''
Kingsford says research indicates they make incredible reconnaissance journeys in which they detect the approach of low-pressure weather systems signalling water in their breeding grounds.
''They just belt up and go on a sort of round trip,'' he says.
When a Deakin University scientist, David Roshier, put transmitter devices on grey teal, one from northern NSW flew 1268 kilometres over 10 days, heading west and returning via southern Queensland.
The birds are at the top of the food chain, which begins with vital eggs and seeds set down in soils during one boom event, only to flourish in the next, says Kingsford.
''As soon as that water arrives, the seeds will germinate and the invertebrates will hatch out. There are thousands of species. A sort of invertebrate soup is created,'' he says.
''Waterbirds are generally the first to breed. They arrive, there is a smorgasbord, they build up fat very quickly and as soon as they build up fat, they have the urge to breed.
''That smorgasbord also brings in fish and reptiles.
''You've got this incredibly vibrant community and everything's eating everything else.''
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/conservation/wetland-wonderland-breeds-birds-paradise-20101105-17hl6.html
In a remote reach of NSW, a city of birds has suddenly appeared, building prime waterfront residences in which to pamper their young and feasting on a smorgasbord that floods and rain have brought to the Murrumbidgee.
A wildlife boom inspired by an abundance of water has turned the Lowbidgee flood plain into a noisy, bustling ''mini Kakadu'' as about 20,000 ibises and thousands of other waterbirds including spoonbills and musk ducks make their nests on wetlands which until recently were parched by drought and dams.
''If you had been here 12 months ago you would have seen it at its absolute worst. It was a moonscape,'' said Michael Spinks, a member of a group of landholders on this flood plain between Hay and Balranald.
They use irrigation infrastructure to channel environmental flows to keep the birds happy, mimicking the flows of the mighty Murrumbidgee before it was dammed.
At the Telephone Bank rookery on Torry Plains Station, not far from the grain farm of Steve Blore, the air is rich with the honking and gamey smell of about 5000 straw-necked ibis that have built nests with glossy and white ibises.
Scientists call it a ''major breeding event'' but up close it is a dazzling assembly of lignum-twig nests like woven baskets holding blue or white eggs or wide-mouthed chicks, above which adults perch in trees carrying branches in their beaks for home improvements.
''The Lowbidgee is the most important wetland by far on the Murrumbidgee. There are very few places where you get these mega breeding events occurring,'' says Richard Kingsford, known as ''Professor Duck'', who heads the Australian wetlands and river centre at the University of NSW.
The centre manager, Sharon Ryall, who spent last week wading around the nests checking how many eggs had hatched successfully, says: ''This is a very rare thing. You don't get it very often because of the boom and bust nature of Australia.''
Ryall and research fellow Kate Brandis use a small motorboat to navigate watery roads in the bird city, with tags and waterproof notebooks to document how many young survive.
It is easy to peer right into a nest and to catch a black glossy ibis chick pecking its way out of a bright blue egg, or to see a cluster of week-old crying spoonbill chicks dusted in what looks like white snow - their parents' excrement.
Ryall can answer the question: what's to love about the white ibis?
''The white ibis you see in the parks in Sydney are a beautiful bird in their native habitat. They are not the trash birds you see in Hyde Park,'' she says.
Spinks is hoping that all three ibis species will help defend them from locust attack as authorities warn of the possibility of the worst plague in 30 years.
''We have [1620 hectares] of wheat crop and Steve and I have a rookery at each end. Ibis are known throughout the world as the farmers' friend. They will eat half a kilo in one day - and more when they have fledglings. That's a lot of grasshoppers,'' he says.
It is a mystery where the birds come from, how they know water will be there and where they go afterward.
Blore says: ''How they know has got me beat. I have been out in the swamp when it is dead dry and a duck comes out of a hollow. By the time the chicks are born, the water is there. How do they know that? You see them in the thermals. We say they are sending text messages to their mates - they've got to get up there to get coverage.''
Kingsford says research indicates they make incredible reconnaissance journeys in which they detect the approach of low-pressure weather systems signalling water in their breeding grounds.
''They just belt up and go on a sort of round trip,'' he says.
When a Deakin University scientist, David Roshier, put transmitter devices on grey teal, one from northern NSW flew 1268 kilometres over 10 days, heading west and returning via southern Queensland.
The birds are at the top of the food chain, which begins with vital eggs and seeds set down in soils during one boom event, only to flourish in the next, says Kingsford.
''As soon as that water arrives, the seeds will germinate and the invertebrates will hatch out. There are thousands of species. A sort of invertebrate soup is created,'' he says.
''Waterbirds are generally the first to breed. They arrive, there is a smorgasbord, they build up fat very quickly and as soon as they build up fat, they have the urge to breed.
''That smorgasbord also brings in fish and reptiles.
''You've got this incredibly vibrant community and everything's eating everything else.''
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/conservation/wetland-wonderland-breeds-birds-paradise-20101105-17hl6.html
Wetland wonderland breeds birds' paradise
A once-parched flood plain has become a bustling ''mini Kakadu'' after farmers used irrigation infrastructure to mimic Murrumbidgee flows, writes Debra Jopson.
In a remote reach of NSW, a city of birds has suddenly appeared, building prime waterfront residences in which to pamper their young and feasting on a smorgasbord that floods and rain have brought to the Murrumbidgee.
A wildlife boom inspired by an abundance of water has turned the Lowbidgee flood plain into a noisy, bustling ''mini Kakadu'' as about 20,000 ibises and thousands of other waterbirds including spoonbills and musk ducks make their nests on wetlands which until recently were parched by drought and dams.
''If you had been here 12 months ago you would have seen it at its absolute worst. It was a moonscape,'' said Michael Spinks, a member of a group of landholders on this flood plain between Hay and Balranald.
They use irrigation infrastructure to channel environmental flows to keep the birds happy, mimicking the flows of the mighty Murrumbidgee before it was dammed.
At the Telephone Bank rookery on Torry Plains Station, not far from the grain farm of Steve Blore, the air is rich with the honking and gamey smell of about 5000 straw-necked ibis that have built nests with glossy and white ibises.
Scientists call it a ''major breeding event'' but up close it is a dazzling assembly of lignum-twig nests like woven baskets holding blue or white eggs or wide-mouthed chicks, above which adults perch in trees carrying branches in their beaks for home improvements.
''The Lowbidgee is the most important wetland by far on the Murrumbidgee. There are very few places where you get these mega breeding events occurring,'' says Richard Kingsford, known as ''Professor Duck'', who heads the Australian wetlands and river centre at the University of NSW.
The centre manager, Sharon Ryall, who spent last week wading around the nests checking how many eggs had hatched successfully, says: ''This is a very rare thing. You don't get it very often because of the boom and bust nature of Australia.''
Ryall and research fellow Kate Brandis use a small motorboat to navigate watery roads in the bird city, with tags and waterproof notebooks to document how many young survive.
It is easy to peer right into a nest and to catch a black glossy ibis chick pecking its way out of a bright blue egg, or to see a cluster of week-old crying spoonbill chicks dusted in what looks like white snow - their parents' excrement.
Ryall can answer the question: what's to love about the white ibis?
''The white ibis you see in the parks in Sydney are a beautiful bird in their native habitat. They are not the trash birds you see in Hyde Park,'' she says.
Spinks is hoping that all three ibis species will help defend them from locust attack as authorities warn of the possibility of the worst plague in 30 years.
''We have [1620 hectares] of wheat crop and Steve and I have a rookery at each end. Ibis are known throughout the world as the farmers' friend. They will eat half a kilo in one day - and more when they have fledglings. That's a lot of grasshoppers,'' he says.
It is a mystery where the birds come from, how they know water will be there and where they go afterward.
Blore says: ''How they know has got me beat. I have been out in the swamp when it is dead dry and a duck comes out of a hollow. By the time the chicks are born, the water is there. How do they know that? You see them in the thermals. We say they are sending text messages to their mates - they've got to get up there to get coverage.''
Kingsford says research indicates they make incredible reconnaissance journeys in which they detect the approach of low-pressure weather systems signalling water in their breeding grounds.
''They just belt up and go on a sort of round trip,'' he says.
When a Deakin University scientist, David Roshier, put transmitter devices on grey teal, one from northern NSW flew 1268 kilometres over 10 days, heading west and returning via southern Queensland.
The birds are at the top of the food chain, which begins with vital eggs and seeds set down in soils during one boom event, only to flourish in the next, says Kingsford.
''As soon as that water arrives, the seeds will germinate and the invertebrates will hatch out. There are thousands of species. A sort of invertebrate soup is created,'' he says.
''Waterbirds are generally the first to breed. They arrive, there is a smorgasbord, they build up fat very quickly and as soon as they build up fat, they have the urge to breed.
''That smorgasbord also brings in fish and reptiles.
''You've got this incredibly vibrant community and everything's eating everything else.''
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/conservation/wetland-wonderland-breeds-birds-paradise-20101105-17hl6.html
In a remote reach of NSW, a city of birds has suddenly appeared, building prime waterfront residences in which to pamper their young and feasting on a smorgasbord that floods and rain have brought to the Murrumbidgee.
A wildlife boom inspired by an abundance of water has turned the Lowbidgee flood plain into a noisy, bustling ''mini Kakadu'' as about 20,000 ibises and thousands of other waterbirds including spoonbills and musk ducks make their nests on wetlands which until recently were parched by drought and dams.
''If you had been here 12 months ago you would have seen it at its absolute worst. It was a moonscape,'' said Michael Spinks, a member of a group of landholders on this flood plain between Hay and Balranald.
They use irrigation infrastructure to channel environmental flows to keep the birds happy, mimicking the flows of the mighty Murrumbidgee before it was dammed.
At the Telephone Bank rookery on Torry Plains Station, not far from the grain farm of Steve Blore, the air is rich with the honking and gamey smell of about 5000 straw-necked ibis that have built nests with glossy and white ibises.
Scientists call it a ''major breeding event'' but up close it is a dazzling assembly of lignum-twig nests like woven baskets holding blue or white eggs or wide-mouthed chicks, above which adults perch in trees carrying branches in their beaks for home improvements.
''The Lowbidgee is the most important wetland by far on the Murrumbidgee. There are very few places where you get these mega breeding events occurring,'' says Richard Kingsford, known as ''Professor Duck'', who heads the Australian wetlands and river centre at the University of NSW.
The centre manager, Sharon Ryall, who spent last week wading around the nests checking how many eggs had hatched successfully, says: ''This is a very rare thing. You don't get it very often because of the boom and bust nature of Australia.''
Ryall and research fellow Kate Brandis use a small motorboat to navigate watery roads in the bird city, with tags and waterproof notebooks to document how many young survive.
It is easy to peer right into a nest and to catch a black glossy ibis chick pecking its way out of a bright blue egg, or to see a cluster of week-old crying spoonbill chicks dusted in what looks like white snow - their parents' excrement.
Ryall can answer the question: what's to love about the white ibis?
''The white ibis you see in the parks in Sydney are a beautiful bird in their native habitat. They are not the trash birds you see in Hyde Park,'' she says.
Spinks is hoping that all three ibis species will help defend them from locust attack as authorities warn of the possibility of the worst plague in 30 years.
''We have [1620 hectares] of wheat crop and Steve and I have a rookery at each end. Ibis are known throughout the world as the farmers' friend. They will eat half a kilo in one day - and more when they have fledglings. That's a lot of grasshoppers,'' he says.
It is a mystery where the birds come from, how they know water will be there and where they go afterward.
Blore says: ''How they know has got me beat. I have been out in the swamp when it is dead dry and a duck comes out of a hollow. By the time the chicks are born, the water is there. How do they know that? You see them in the thermals. We say they are sending text messages to their mates - they've got to get up there to get coverage.''
Kingsford says research indicates they make incredible reconnaissance journeys in which they detect the approach of low-pressure weather systems signalling water in their breeding grounds.
''They just belt up and go on a sort of round trip,'' he says.
When a Deakin University scientist, David Roshier, put transmitter devices on grey teal, one from northern NSW flew 1268 kilometres over 10 days, heading west and returning via southern Queensland.
The birds are at the top of the food chain, which begins with vital eggs and seeds set down in soils during one boom event, only to flourish in the next, says Kingsford.
''As soon as that water arrives, the seeds will germinate and the invertebrates will hatch out. There are thousands of species. A sort of invertebrate soup is created,'' he says.
''Waterbirds are generally the first to breed. They arrive, there is a smorgasbord, they build up fat very quickly and as soon as they build up fat, they have the urge to breed.
''That smorgasbord also brings in fish and reptiles.
''You've got this incredibly vibrant community and everything's eating everything else.''
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/conservation/wetland-wonderland-breeds-birds-paradise-20101105-17hl6.html
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