Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

We regret that the COVID lockdown has meant we have had to cancel Sunday’s FOBIF walk. The Beyond the Res (II) walk will now take place on August 15 and the Mount Alexander walk planned for that day will be postponed to 2022.  Contact Lionel Jenkins or Barb Guerin 5472 1994 or 0402 427 162 for more information. Please check this website prior to the walk in case of further changes. 

FOBIF’s 2021 AGM will be held in the Senior Citizens Hall, Mechanics Lane Castlemaine  (that’s right next to the library), on Monday August 9 at 7.,30 pm.

The guest speaker will be Ian Higgins, who will talk about native peas in the region–we hope it will be a kind of delayed launch for our guide, released under Covid conditions early this year (but still selling well!).

Nominations are now open for the FOBIF committee. You don’t need a special form to nominate. All that’s required is that you be a member, and that your nominator and seconder both be members. Nominations should preferably be in to the secretary before the meeting.

You wouldn’t know it from the thunderous silence in most of the media, but last Thursday the Victorian Government tabled its long delayed response to the recommendations of VEAC on the Central West forests. (see our reports on this saga here and here ).

The government has accepted the VEAC recommendation for a new Wombat-Lerderderg national park.

Here’s an abridged report from the VEFN:

‘The Government has committed to create a new Wombat-Lerderderg National Park; Mount Buangor National Park and the Pyrenees National Park and a number of other parks and reserves throughout the region.

‘The Government’s response comes just over 2 years after the VEAC Final report was released on 21 June 2019. The response was tabled in parliament without any explanation of the extensive delays.

‘Environment groups such as Wombat Forestcare and VNPA  who have long campaigned for the creation of these National Parks, welcomed the Government report, but expressed caution that the fight is not entirely over.

‘Government legislation is required to give effect to the key recommendations and this could take at least 12 to 18 months. While exploration and mining will naturally be excluded in the new National parks, this will not apply to continuing operations within existing permits and licences. A number of companies have moved to peg exploration licences across the area since the release of the VEAC recommendations in June 2019.’

Full details on this matter will emerge as the legislation is developed.

FOBIF  has made a submission to the Independent review of the 1975 Wildlife Act. The essentials of the submission are to support

–removal of the protected status of deer

–removal of native birds from the definition of ‘game’

–creation of wildlife protection zones, and

–provision of a clause in the Act obliging land managers to actively conduct public education programs on the value of wildlife habitat, and constructive attitudes to wildlife.

The full submission is set out below:

We wish to offer the following comments: Continue reading →

As we noted a couple of weeks ago, the 1975 Wildlife Act is under review, and public responses are invited. FOBIF will be making a submission this week, but if you need to be motivated to have a go, check out this list of failings in the current act, from the VNPA:

• It protects exotic invasive species like deer as protected game animals despite the significant damage they do to wildlife habitats around the state.
• It allows wildlife to be declared as unprotected which, at one stage, had the perverse outcome of wombat shooting being promoted as a tourist attraction.
• It allows the for the destruction of a plethora of native wildlife through a highly non-transparent Authority to Control Wildlife permit system…
• It provides no direct protections for wildlife habitat under the legislation.
• It has weak penalties for those who commit an offence under the Act.
• It treats some native wildlife, such as ducks and native quails, as sport for recreational shooters.
• The Act is toothless when it comes to actually prosecuting illegal acts of harm to wildlife. We’ve seen appalling incidents of the illegal poisoning of Wedge-tailed Eagles and the bulldozing of koalas met with little to no penalties.

The VNPA also has some suggestions about what you might put into a submission: you can find them here.

Due to the relaxation in government regulations there is no need to register for the Fobif walks on Sunday. Everyone is welcome. We will be meeting at the Community House at 9.30 on Sunday.

The state government has set up an enquiry into the state’s Wildlife Act. This Act was passed in 1975. Obviously plenty of things have changed since then, so the Act is probably overdue for a review. You can find its terms of reference and details about the enquiry panel here. Responses are invited to the enquiry, and an Issues Paper, with pertinent questions attached, can be found here. There’s an easy to access comment form here

Or you can email a submission directly to wildlifeact.review@delwp.vic.gov.au Submissions close on June 30.

The 40 page Issues Paper is not an easy read, but it raises some challenging questions. One of them is, What is ‘wildlife’? Under the act, for example, deer, one of our emerging monster pests, is considered as protected wildlife. The paper appears to address this problem: ‘deer proclaimed to be wildlife under the Act can destroy the habitat of indigenous wildlife and therefore undermine the Act’s goals to preserve and conserve indigenous species.’

For this reason alone it would be worth putting a submission into the enquiry: to ask that the protected status of deer be removed. 

Faraday scene: the issues paper cautiously raises the question of ‘overabundant’ indigenous species.

The paper raises other challenging questions. What should be done about ‘overabundant’ indigenous species? Community division on this seems intractable:

‘A recent study by Boulet et al.1, for example, found strongly polarised attitudes among Victorians about using lethal methods to control overabundant wildlife: there was roughly equal support for and against lethal control, and few respondents were neutral. Such strongly held views reflect stakeholders’ ‘self-identifying’ interests (both positive and negative) in, and connections to, particular wildlife species, particular geographical areas or both. This diversity means it can be difficult to reconcile competing interests or desires within the community, for example between conserving and using or managing wildlife.’

Further, the paper raises the crucial question of habitat. How can you protect wildlife while allowing the destruction of habitat?

‘Habitat health and integrity are necessary components of protecting and conserving Victoria’s wildlife. Habitat is an organism-specific term referring to the resources and conditions that allow a species to survive and reproduce, including vegetation, water bodies and the climate. It recognises the link between a species and its environment. The latest Victorian State of Environment Report identifies the clearing, fragmentation and declining quality of habitat as one of six major threats to biodiversity, with native vegetation being lost in Victoria at a rate of 4,000 habitat hectares per year. The destruction and degradation of habitat has flow-on effects on Victoria’s native wildlife, increasing the vulnerability of our ecosystems. The Act addresses conservation by regulating direct threats to wildlife, such as taking wildlife without an authorisation or licence. However, it does not account for indirect threats such as the destruction of wildlife habitat.’ There are ‘integral links’, the paper says, ‘between animal and land management.’

Unfortunately the role of DELWP is outside the terms of reference of this enquiry. All the same, it looks like it will raise all sorts of thorny cultural, social and environmental questions. Can legislation help in solving these? Well, good legislation might help.

We recommend that you put in your oar.