Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

For this reason, we believe it would be good if a lot of people responded to this consultation process.

It doesn’t look much: a pile of lawn clippings dumped in the Castlemaine Diggings NHP at Glenluce: dumping of garden rubbish is actually worse than more unsightly junk like computers and the like, because it has the capacity to spread weeds into bushland. The answer is more active education, and better supervision. Both cost money.

You don’t have to take a lot of time about it. Click here  and tell Parks what you think: or, by clicking on the heart icon on the feedback page, you can just give a vote to one of the opinions already on there. By doing so, you’re also talking to the State Government, and this is the real nub of the matter. We are told that the State has some money from the sale of the Port of Melbourne. Let’s put some pressure on the government to spend some of this on the proper management of our most precious resource: the environment.

If you want to be more ambitious in your response, you can download and fill in the workbook supplied by the project.

Responses are due by noon on October 7.

The consultation project will culminate with the production of a final report, which will focus on:

1. A community vision for parks
2. Legislative and policy reform
3. A modern business in government.

We haven’t been able to find out what the last of these means: but we hope it doesn’t prefigure yet another effort to turn this public service enterprise into a profit making business. We know that the parks system already generates $1.5 billion a year to the Victorian economy. We can do without projects to commercialise public assets via tourism infrastructure projects inside our parks.

Some of the info revealed in the Parks Victoria discussion paper is predictable. Some is quite disturbing: for example, we learn that Parks Victoria administers 18% of Victoria—but contributes 50% of the planned burning target. This is an eloquent reminder that our parks bear the brunt of systematic burning, even though authorities repeatedly talk about how fuel reduction should be ‘tenure blind’—that is, that it should be concentrated where it is needed, whether on private or public land.

click to enlarge

Next Saturday (24th September) the new FOBIF publication, Eucalypts of the Mount Alexander Region, will be launched by Geoff Park in the Castlemaine Library foyer at 10.30. Refreshments will be provided and everyone is welcome.

The book is a community project that has been two years in the making. See our earlier post to find out more.

For a preview of the book, have a look at the double page spreads below on Grey Box Eucalyptus Microcarpa. Click on each one to enlarge.