Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

The reason we started the last post by stating the obvious is that, maybe, the obvious is not so obvious.

On glancing through 1998 Roadsides Management Strategy we came across this sentence, referring to machinery working on roadsides: ‘Blades on slashers should be set no lower than 100 mm above the ground.’ How obvious is that? Scalping of roadsides is generally frowned upon: an argument we put to DELWP when they scalped the Fryers Ridge road two years ago.  They weren’t impressed.

Fryers Ranges road after scalping, 2015. Understorey was completely destroyed, to improve sightlines for fire trucks.

The roadsides in question are struggling to revive, though our impression is that the main regeneration is not of the destroyed ground covers, but of eucalypts. Given that the aim of the exercise was [we’re told] to clear sight lines for fire vehicles, replacing low plants with trees on the road edge doesn’t seem like a great idea to us…

The same stretch of road two years later: scalping has favoured regeneration of eucalypts, the very plant likely to obscure sightlines for drivers. Understorey has struggled to return.

Local cartographer Mal ‘Jase’ Haysom has just released the latest in his series of excellent maps, this one being of the Muckleford Forest.

The map can be found at the website of Cartography Community Services, along with others in the series, which includes Kalimna Park, several maps of Castlemaine Diggings NHP, Campbells Creek walking track, Rise and Shine, Post Office Hill and Mount Alexander.

Muckleford forest: it can be a bit of a maze, but help is at hand in the form of the latest CCM map.

The CCM maps can also be bought at the tourist info centre at the Castlemaine Market building. They’re ridiculously cheap.

You might also want to brood on this quote from Joseph Conrad, which heads CCM’s website: ‘It is safe to say that for the majority of mankind the superiority of geography over geometry lies in the appeal of its figures.  It may be an effect of the incorrigible frivolity inherent in human nature, but most of us will agree that a map is more fascinating to look at than a figure in a treatise on conic sections – at any rate, for the simple minds which are the equipment of the majority of the dwellers on this earth.’

Think about that.

Victoria has a new biodiversity plan. Protecting Victoria’s Environment—Biodiversity 2037 was launched last week by the State Government. It can be found here. Readers may remember that FOBIF made a brief submission to the process of developing this paper last year.

A selection from FOBIF’s library: there are stacks of strategies, but the actions are what count.

The first thing to say about it is that it’s part of a long running, perhaps never ending series of such documents, all adding up to an indictment of governments which seem to go on churning out policies never to be implemented. Remember 2005’s White Paper on biodiversity? Or the 2010 National Biodiversity Strategy? Or the dozen or so other papers by different government agencies? Of course you don’t. The current paper repeats a lot of the ideas of those two, but claims to be more strategic than its predecessors. On first reading, this is not at all clear.

For example, here are three targets:

Protecting Victoria’s environment 2016: ‘ All Victorians connecting with nature [by 2037]’.

National Biodiversity Strategy 2010: ‘Priority for action 1: engaging all Australians.’

Victorian Biodiversity White Paper 2005: ‘Goal: to encourage all Victorians to work together as effective stewards of our land, water and biodiversity.’

Worthwhile objectives, all of them. How successful have the earlier strategies been in achieving them? We don’t find out from this one. It’s pretty clear that you can’t have a healthy environment without people’s support: without that, governments will never have the nerve to act appropriately. This documents admits, remarkably,  that we actually don’t know what people think.   One of its aims is to ‘Undertake research to understand the community’s level of awareness of biodiversity and its relevance to them.’ In other words, we’re starting all over again.

Having registered this depressing fact, we need to look at the current document, and ask: what does it add up to?

It adds up to money. Here’s a key passage:

‘The degraded health of Victoria’s biodiversity is the result of many individual decisions and actions, or inactions, over two centuries. Under-investment in planning, management, protection, evaluation and reporting for biodiversity and the natural environment has been conspicuous. Even today, decision makers in government, business and land management too often fail to fully consider the impacts of their actions on biodiversity – and are not routinely required to do so.

‘There has been persistent under-investment in programs and measures to address the legacy of biodiversity loss (particularly for terrestrial biodiversity) and to counter-balance the ongoing losses that occur due to decisions and activities today…’

Unfortunately the document doesn’t follow up statements like this by guaranteeing appropriate funding for the environment. Instead, it gestures at new efficiencies, strategic approaches, and ‘Victorian Government-backed funding model that leverages government investment to create more significant investment in biodiversity conservation across Victoria.’ The 64 dollar question is, by whom? This could be a creative approach to engaging private commitment to conservation. It could also be a slide into the kind of sinister proposals we’ve been offered lately which amount to privatising parts of our National Parks [see our Parkwatch post below].

In any case, the success or otherwise of biodiversity conservation won’t depend on brilliant short term ideas. It will hang on the long term proper resourcing of those departments responsible for managing our public land: that’s the real implication of the above passages, and it’s to be hoped the treasurer, Tim Pallas, takes them seriously.

The document is full of praiseworthy but often vague aspirations, but on occasions it does get specific, as in this:

‘Estimate of relative area required to deliver statewide targets [by 2037]:

St John’s Wort infestation on Mount Alexander: successive biodiversity strategies have recommended tackling pest species, but action has been inadequate for lack of resources.

• 4 million hectares of control of pest herbivores (e.g. deer, rabbits, goats, feral horses) in priority locations.
• 1.5 million hectares of control of pest predators (e.g. foxes, feral cats) in priority locations.
• 1.5 million hectares of weed control in priority locations.
• 200,000 hectares of revegetation in priority areas for connectivity between habitats.
• 200,000 hectares of new permanently protected areas on private land.’

These figures are a standing indictment of neglect on the part of past governments, and of the failure of past Biodiversity strategies. Feral animals like horses and deer, for example, continue to wreak spectacular havoc in the Alps while governments nervously consider targets over the next 20 years; overstressed land managers confess that feral plants are more or less out of control; and the state is proposing to open logging in our vulnerable western forests. Will this document make a difference? We’ll see.

Here are some interestingly provocative quotes from Biodiversity 2037:

• ‘Native plants and animals have an intrinsic right to exist, thrive and flourish.’ But elsewhere in the document we read: ‘Human-induced changes to the environment have, in some situations, led to native species such as kangaroos, Noisy Miners, sea urchins, Sweet Pittosporum and Burgan becoming locally overabundant, often to the detriment of other native species. Coordinated planning and implementation may be needed to address over-abundance where there are significant impacts on biodiversity assets.’ This would seem to point in the direction of culling, though the document hedges its bets by considering ‘non-lethal methods of managing wildlife impacts’.
• ‘Climate change and population growth are expected to exacerbate existing threats and bring new challenges for Victoria’s biodiversity.’…But there’s no mention in the document of what, if anything,  to do about population growth.
• ‘Effective monitoring and evaluation will require increased, systematic and consistent data collection to ensure that management effectiveness and the assumptions built into the program (e.g. the impact of climate change) are clearly understood.’ It’s a pity that’s in the future tense: such monitoring should have been underpinning government actions for decades.
• ‘Continue to provide world class nature-based experiences through Zoos Victoria, Museum Victoria, Parks Victoria, the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Philip Island Nature Park and alpine resorts.’ Mmm…the alpine resorts? Downhill skiing takes place on hills with a view, but is it a ‘nature based’ experience?

The Biodiversity document, like its predecessors, contains much of value. The fact that it’s so like its predecessors, however, suggests that there’s a long way to go.

The March edition of the VNPA’s Parkwatch magazine is now out, and can be found online here. It contains, among much else, informative stuff about Crusoe Reservoir, between Castlemaine and Bendigo; plans to log the wonderful Wellsford Forest, north of Bendigo; and details on truly awful projects to introduce commercial operations into the Alpine NP, Mount Buffalo NP and Wilson’s Prom. The outcome of some of these issues will be a real indicator of how serious the State Government is about biodiversity [see above].

FOBIF thought it would be good to share the work of local group Connecting Country who continues to bring informative and inspiring events to our local community this year. In the past their education and engagement program has been a fantastic way for people from across Mount Alexander Shire to hear new ideas, share knowledge and learn how to implement change for gains in biodiversity and sustainability. This year’s events are no exception, with plenty of opportunities to be informed and meet others in the community doing similar work on their land.

FOBIF is proudly supporting the 4th Camp Out on the Mount is on the weekend of 1st –2nd April 2017 at the Leanganook Camping Ground on Mount Alexander. Connecting Country will be working with Harcourt Valley Landcare Group and Parks Victoria to host a fun weekend for families and Landcarers as campers touch base with the natural assets on the mount. With environmental and Aboriginal cultural heritage activities for children and adults and helping with managing feral pine populations in the park this weekend has traditionally been a great way to meet others, learn about the environment and be active in taking care of this beautiful place we call Mount Alexander.To find out more and book for this event please see their website:

http://connectingcountry.org.au/landcare/2017campout/

During late April and early May Connecting Country will be running three workshops about that essential element, water. Titled ‘Water in our Landscape’, this mini program of workshops will cover, habitat creation in dams, ecological thinning and decision making when considering building pool and riffle systems. More information will be available on the Connecting Country website soon about this series.

If you’re interested in birds, (who isn’t?) in late April we will be running a Buloke and Diamond Firetail workshop. Tanya will also be running her monthly birdwatching walks throughout the year, for more information about these walks, please email her at tanya@connectingcountry.org.au or by phone on 5472 1594.

June will be a busy month as they celebrate the achievements over the last five years of the Connecting Landscapes program on the 6^th of June and work with the Little Habitat Heroes Project to hold their community planting day at the old silkworm farm on Mount Alexander on June 17th.

In 2017 Connecting Country will continue to be active in the press and on-line. Their monthly ‘Nature News’ articles in the first week of each month in the Midland Express are something to look out for.   You can also always keep in touch via the Connecting Country Facebook Page  – do ‘like’ them!

The best way to stay informed about this great organisation is via the Connecting Country webpage and our regular emails and blogs, you can subscribe to their webpage here. 

Alternatively you can contact Naomi for more information about the Education and Engagement program on 5472-1594 or naomi@connectingcountry.org.au.