On 07/05/2013 18:58, Peter Waanders wrote:
Hi Ian & others,
This is very sad indeed. Cox Scrub was one of SA's last remaining
strongholds of the endangered parkeri race of Chestnut-rumped
Heathwren as well as the endangered intermedius race of Southern
Emu-wren. The conservation park covers around 700 ha, 500 ha of which
appear to have been destroyed. So it'd be fair to say there's no hope
left for these birds. Even more frustrating given that millions of $$
of funding are being poured into recovery efforts for both species on
surrounding farms, while one poorly executed Department of Environment
burn-off no doubt means that both subspecies can now be written off.
I sincerely hope you are wrong about writing them off, Peter, though
fear you are not. Having read more about it since I saw the info about
the burnoff, the figures are worse than I reported, and worse than in
Peter's msg above. As TerryG noted, the park is 544 ha, so 90% has been
burnt.
Apparently the same problem -- reignition of a "controlled burn" --
occurred in Deep Creek in 2012. Perhaps someone in DEWNR has it in for
Chestnut-rumped Heathwren and Southern Em-wren :-(.
More seriously, I find it deeply frustrating and wonder if anything can
be done about this. Is anyone accountable? The answer from DEWNR/CFS
seems to be that controlled burns are necessary to reduce fuel loads,
and that fire is unpredictable so "these things happen". There is also
an apparent attitude that as long as life and property are protected,
"it's ok". Furthermore, various comments from the public on the CFS
facebook page (and other places) fail to understand the gravity for
heath-dwelling fauna -- comments about how well the land recovers, the
value of fire and that the indiginous population conducted burning for
millenia, etc. But that was in an environment where the native flora
and fauna was not isolated in islands in a sea of agriculture. The
flora in Cox Scrub will of course recover, and the larger more mobile
fauna will also repopulate (some will even benefit in the short-term),
but it is hard to see how sedentary heath-dwelling species can
repopulate naturally when the nearest remaining suitable habitat is 30km
or more away.
That was one burn-off too many.
Agreed :-(.
Ian
Regards
Peter
*
----
Peter Waanders
Southern Birding Services
PO Box 2008, Berri SA 5343 Australia
mob.: +61 (0)409 763172
sat.: +61 (0)424 212889
Email: <>
SA Birding: www.sabirding.com <http://www.sabirding.com/>
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Southern-Birding-Services/134270499971996
*
--
Prof. Ian Reid
School of Computer Science
University of Adelaide
Adelaide, 5005
ph: +61 (08) 83132135
www: http://cs.adelaide.edu.au
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