Me too - the lessees were very explicit to me that they ‘owned’ that site. I saw the farmer doing farm things in there a few months ago.
I sincerely hope the RSPCA is not going on that block because dogs barking are disruptive to the reserve’s value (to some of us) as a haven of tranquillity. Worse, it is possible the dogs at the RSPCA will want to talk to the dogs in the dog pound on the other side of Mugga Lane. The dog pound is bad enough as it is and having mutually encouraged barking from two directions will not be an improvement.
I’m very curious to see what happens to the old zoo site. I guess grazing is as good an outcome as we could hope for even though they’ve removed all the excellent small bird habitat. This lease was for sale a year or two ago but I don’t know who bought it – maybe you know Sandra? It seems a strange place to graze because it is so small – about 8 hectares or 2-10 cattle.
Julian
www.flickr.com/photos/ozjulian/
In Oregon -- Counts of birds and measurements of vegetation were made in the summer of 1981 and 1982. Increased frequency of grazing on an annual basis corre-lated significantly with decrease in bird abundance, shrub volume, and shrub heights. The longer the time since a transect was last grazed correlated significantly with increases in bird abundance. shrub volume, and shrub heights. Bird abundance increased significantly with increased shrub volume and taller shrub heights. Bird species richness decreased with incrnsed grazing. Bird counts were 5 to 7 time! higher on an area ungrazed since 1940 than on 2 areas grazed annually until 1980, and 11 to 13 times higher than on a transect severely disturbed by extensive grazing and dredging activities. Disturbances from camper activities also appeared to reduce bird populations.
From: Geoffrey Dabb [
Sent: Monday, 19 August 2013 15:31
To: 'sandra henderson'; 'Chris Davey'
Cc: 'Cog line'
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] re Callum Brae and RSPCA
Ah, if it’s that site Sandra it’s the old pony club site. After the nature park was declared it was used by the Callum Brae lessees (at least under permissive occupancy) who were quite proprietorial in warning off anyone who treated it as part of the nature park.
From: sandra henderson [m("gmail.com","shirmax2931");">]
Sent: Monday, 19 August 2013 3:05 PM
To: Chris Davey
Cc: Cog line
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] re Callum Brae and RSPCA
The site is NOT in CB nature reserve, it's a large triangular vacant block between CB and the Therapeutic Goods Administration site. This block, about 63,000 sq m, was identified several years ago as a site for theRSPCA. It has been used for sheep grazing in the past, but haven't seen sheep in there for a couple of years.
Sandra h
On Monday, August 19, 2013, Chris Davey wrote:
Hi,
Apparently the RSPCA pound is being moved and the most likely spot is a vacant block that sits in the middle of the Callum Brae Nature Reserve. Can anyone provide me with any further information?
Chris
