Somewhat inspired by Jill Denning’s recent posting on Birding Aus on the
value of all stakeholders taking responsibility for issues that impact
on wildlife and working together to address I recently prepared to meet
on-site with an Energex (the main supplier of energy in SEQ)
representative who had offered to meet with me and discuss concerns I’d
raised in correspondence to our State Minister.
Energex have decided they have had their fill of complaints from local
businesses and the community about the frequency of power outages in the
rural Samford/Dayboro area to the north west of Brisbane and decided
this was best and most economically addressed by clearing beneath the
powerlines to 7 metres either side of the poles and lines. This clearing
has been distressing to witness as this lovely rural area in a bush
setting is being degraded by the backhoe operations that have left ugly,
scarred and degraded tracts of land tree-less and wide open for exotic
grasses to invade and become invasive throughout the area.
An on-site meeting with the contractors who were doing the clearing
wasn’t very heartening as they acknowledged weeds and grasses from
adjoining areas would invade but this was acceptable as maintenance
would include keeping the exotic grasses levelled (like paddocks) which
would totally alter the feel of the bush landscape that we value.
Anyhow, to cut a long story short I took the Energex representative
along with me on a one hour stroll along our road, pointing out to him
all the native understorey plants that exist here (grass trees,
lomandras, ground orchids and vines like false sarsparilla – most are
local butterfly food plants and support still more wildlife I would
imagine) and queried why that level of clearing must occur. Where
clearing of gums was deemed necessary why then couldn’t Energex organise
understorey planting of small trees like Black She Oak (Allocasuarina
littoralis) a local species, the loss of which has helped contribute to
the decline in Glossy Black Cockatoos in this area (Queensland
conservation Status – Vulnerable).
The walk was leasurely, gave us time to enjoy the natural environment,
listen to the birds and philosophically talk about challenges we face
and how we all need to work together.
The result is that I received a call today to confirm that Energex will
place star pickets and barriers around an area where there is a power
pole at the bottom of our drive that I’ve nurtured for this past year or
so, hand removing exotic grasses and other weeds and just encouraging
natural seed base to regenerate while limiting it to understorey level
of native grasses and wildflowersl. Energex has agreed to protect this
patch when contractors come through. Also the level of clearing along
our stretch of road with native habitat is to be limited to only pruning
trees and where trees have to be removed, a thin layer of mulch will be
left to encourage natural seed regeneration beneath it and discourage
weeds. Also Energex have arranged with ‘Greening Australia’ for local
seeds for grasses and Allocasuarina to be sown throughout a 300 metre
tract that will be monitored to see whether regrowth is succesful over
next 18 months.
Thanks Jill, your words encouraged me to address this in a constructive
way and the results speak for themselves.
Marie Tarrant
--
Tom & Marie Tarrant
Lot 10 (137) Watson Rd
Samsonvale, Queensland 4520
Australia
Tel: (07) 3425 1780 (H)
Mob: 0409 264 725
Email:
URL: http://www.aviceda.org/
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
