Dear all,
I have copies the following from a message received from my local NPA
contact. Political? Perhaps! You'll find me sheltering in my bunker.
MESSAGE FOLLOWS
ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND RED GUM AT RISK
.....and only two minutes of your time needed to help save them
Send an email using our elobby pages or see below on how to write your own
letter...
More than one hundred thousand NSW Red Gum trees along the Murray River are
at risk of being destroyed and turned into railway-line sleepers to upgrade
the Mildura railway line in Victoria. Precious, fragile River Red Gum
wetlands covering an area greater than the entire Royal National Park will
be destroyed in the process, some 20,000 hectares in total.
It is a tragic, unnecessary and ill-considered waste - evidence shows that
concrete sleepers have a much lower greenhouse impact, last three times as
long, and cost much less.
The Victorian Premier Steve Bracks' Government is set to sign contracts by
mid April 2007 for the supply of the Red Gum sleepers (some 300,000 sleepers
in total) to upgrade the Mildura railway corridor in Victoria. However,
most of the sleepers will come from irreplaceable Red Gum wetlands on both
public and private lands in NSW.
Key Points
River Red Gum wetlands are an ecosystem now threatened with total and
irreversible collapse as a result of man-made changes in river flows that
have caused widespread death and decline of trees.
Logging of River Red Gum in NSW has a massive environmental impact, with
industrial patch-clearfelling still allowed in internationally significant
Ramsar wetlands and riverine forest along the mighty Murray River.
Timber sleepers cause five times more carbon emissions then concrete
sleepers because they decompose rapidly and have to be replaced three times
as often as concrete sleepers, according to a recent report by Energy
Strategies for the Australian Rail Track Corporation.
As a result of their much longer life-span, concrete sleepers are also a far
more cost effective option than timber sleepers for rail upgrades according
to a report by the Victorian Auditor General in 2006.
TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE, SO PLEASE ACT NOW!
Write urgently to Victorian Premier Steve Bracks and NSW Premier Morris
Iemma and ask them to stop the use of any Red Gum sleepers to upgrade the
Mildura rail-line, or any future rail lines. Ask that concrete sleepers are
used instead because they have a much lesser environmental impact, lower
greenhouse emissions, longer life-span and lower cost.
Contacts:
Premier Morris Iemma -
Premier Steve Bracks -
More information:
For background information, an elobby page and examples of letters sent by
the Victorian and NSW NPAs to the relevant Premiers...
Go to www.redgum.org.au
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THIS EMAIL WIDELY TO YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES
Andrew Cox
Executive Officer
National Parks Association of NSW
PO Box A96, Sydney South NSW 1235
Tel: 02 9299 0000; Fax: 02 9290 2525
Email:
Website: www.npansw.org.au
'working together to protect natural areas'
Shirley Cook
Secretary/Treasurer
Birds Australia - Northern NSW Group
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www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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