Saturday morning from Woodstock NR Mary Gorman and I saw a
Peregrine Falcon perched for around 1/2 hour on a dead tree (cyprus?) not
far from Shepherd's lookout on the other side of the Murrumidgee. We also
saw flocks of Red-browed and Double-barred Finches.
At about 11.30 we saw perhaps 20 White-fronted Chats at Stomlo Park, near
the road. There were also many Richards Pipits.
Rick Kuhn
At 6/06/2008 10:47 AM, you wrote:
Hi all,
I have watched with interest the debate over the clearing of the willow
species along the Molonglo River. Generally I am quite happy for this to
happen but will be interested to see what species are used to replant the
cleared areas. However there two far more serious issues going on in at
least some parts of Canberra that no-one seems to be concerned about;
firstly the almost complete removal of all large Acacia species and the
pruning of Eucalypts and other ?native? species to within an inch of
their life along the road verges. This I assume is a so-called response
to the potential for a future bushfire wiping out Canberra after the 2003
fires. Over the last six months or so I have watched as trees along
Ginninderra Drive have either been totally removed or severely pruned. In
Kaleen and Giralang along Baldwin Drive ALL Acacias
have been removed and all the lower branches and most double trunks on
the Eucalypts and Casuarinas have been cut off to at least about 2 metres
from the ground. Certainly there was a need to clear some of the larger
dead Acacias. Many of these Acacias provided food for Superb Parrots
(especially A. baileyana which is classed as an invasive species) and
many smaller species such as the thornbills, particularly species like
the Yellow Thornbill. All the material pruned from these trees is mulched
and all over the parts of northern Canberra that I regularly travel
through are dotted piles of this mulch ? some of these piles have been
in situ for more than two years. If the government is serious
about fire control measures then we may as well totally clear Mounts
Ainslie and Majura, Black Mountain, Red Hill and all the other hills with
any sort of vegetation on them. This current exercise is a total knee
jerk reaction from someone who has no idea what they are doing.
The second issue is the total destruction of plants in many areas so that
we can build ever more housing locally ? what I assume is called the
?in-fill policy?. Some of the latest examples is the block of units being
built along (I think) Totterdell Street near the Belconnen Mall. This
whole area several years ago was a well wooded park and Regent
Honeyeaters have been recorded in the general vicinity. There is also the
expansion of Radford College into the natural bush in Bruce as well as
the hospice opposite Calvary Hospital along Hayden Drive. Every time I
drive around the city I see more and more destruction of small patches of
bush. I am sure most long-term Canberra residents remember the small
weather station surrounded by trees that was opposite the ANU between
Barry Drive and Boulderwood Street in Turner. It now has town houses
planted on it. I have often wondered if I would be allowed to tender for
the wood-chipping rights to all these area as I would by now be a very
wealthy person!!!
It is all well and good to say Canberra has a good network of reserves
(it doesn?t!!!) but if birds can?t move between these reserves we will
soon loose our biodiversity. I think everyone is aware that the ACT
Government recently announced a moratorium on developing parts of the
central Molonglo Valley and that a study was being undertaken on the
Brown Treecreeper population in the ?Kama? block at West Belconnen. I am
assisting Chris Davey with this study but personally believe that this
population will disappear sooner rather than later. Look at what has
happened to the Brown Treecreeper in both Mulligan?s Flat NR and the
lower slopes of the Mount Ainslie/Campbell park areas ? they have gone
and both these areas have access to huge areas of potentially suitable
habitat for the species to move through. I have lived in Canberra for
over 50 years, arriving here as a small child in the early 1950s, and
have watched as the city grows and we loose more and more bird species
and general natural history. Brown Treecreepers, Southern Whitefaces,
Hooded Robins, Jacky Winters, Varied Sittellas etc, etc were common
breeding species where we now have Fern Hill ?Technology? Park when I
lived in O?Connor ? I doubt if any of these species are still present
along O?Connor Ridge.
Canberra is very rapidly in danger of loosing its title of the Bush
Capital. I don?t think this current ACT Government has the faintest idea
about the local environment, despite the best efforts of COG. Are we as a
group going to sit back and watch all this happen before our eyes or is
there more that COG can do?
I look forward to people?s comments and opinions.
Mark
_____________________________________________________
School of Social
Sciences/Arts
phone +61 (2) 612-53851
Building
24
fax +61 (2) 612-52222
ANU ACT
0200;
Australia
www.anu.edu.au/polsci/rick
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