Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

Come along (via Zoom®) to FOBIF’s AGM (7:30 p.m. on Monday the 9th of August) and hear Ian Higgins speak on:

“Everything you wanted to know about the plant world’s third most diverse family but were too afraid to ask”.

Yes, the “Fabaceae” family, aka peas and relatives has just won the bronze medal for species diversity (right after orchids and daisies)!  But was it cheating by branch stacking?  This family recently experienced a dramatic increase in the number of its species.

• What happened? 
• What is the Greek word for branch anyway?
• Why is this family the world’s most important source of plant resources that support humans (and the rest of the planet)?
• Did you realise, that before Europeanisation, our district used to be much richer in species of this family? 
• What’s gone missing and why?
• What is the role of phosphorous and why is spreading “super” such an un-Australian activity?
• What’s the connection with butterflies?
• What is plant blindness
• Why should I care about plant identification?

Ian will reveal answers to all these questions and more as part of the launch of FOBIF’s marvellous identification booklet: “Native Peas of the Mount Alexander Region“.

Members and supporters who wish to attend can register by emailing FOBIF (info@fobif.org.au). We would like people to register 48 hours before the meeting. People who have registered will be sent a login link before the meeting. 

In a recent post we reported on the Victorian Government decision to create three new national parks in central-west Victoria. Alison Pouliot comments below on proposed long delays in stopping logging in these parks. She has also produced a terrific video, ‘Listen to the Forest’, on the ecological importance of the forests (see link below).

The fight for the proposed Victorian National Parks must continue . . . .

Following years of campaigning by conservation groups, the Victorian State Government recently announced plans to enact three new National Parks in central-west Victoria (Wombat Forest, Mt Cole and Pyrenees Ranges). While this is very welcome news, extensive logging by VicForests will be allowed to continue in the latter two until 2030. Commercial quantities of firewood will be extracted in the Wombat forest for the next four years. 

The environmental values of these forests are likely to be severely compromised by the time the National Parks are legislated. These forests contain the headwaters of major river systems, threatened species habitats and are an oasis of biodiversity in an otherwise highly fragmented landscape. It is vital that the proposed new National Parks are urgently declared and legislated.  We cannot wait until 2030. 

To contribute your voice, write to the Minister for the Environment, The Hon Lily D’Ambrosio  lily.dambrosio@parliament.vic.gov.au c.c. mary-anne.thomas@parliament.vic.gov.au 

and tell them why the forest is important to you and why the parks need to be urgently legislated.

You might also like to view this short video about these forests and the proposed parks by Alison Pouliot – Listen to the Forest or read the Victorian Government’s response to VEAC’s Central West Investigation.

Kangaroo Creek catchment KAN9064 © Alison Pouliot

Last week’s floods in Europe were horrific, and we must be moved by the sight of helpless people sorting through their destroyed homes.

Victims must be helped, and lives rebuilt…and, of course, lessons should be learned. Already there’s a sense of urgency in Europe about climate change: for decades scientists have been warning of increased frequency and severity of disaster events like this. This matter has been settled in Europe, in theory at least: unlike in Australia, European leaders seem to know how to add two and two to get four.

A matter getting less publicity is urban planning. Have a look at this map of the Arh river, a tributary of the Rhine:

The Ahr river: Lit mineur is the river’s normal course. Lit majeur is the flood plain. (From France 2 Television July 17).

The area in grey is the river’s flood plain, on which numerous houses have been built.

Now have a look at this one, of the flood zone:After recent heavy rain the river naturally spilled onto its flood plain, inundating houses built there. (From France 2 television).

Of course, in time of torrential rain, rivers flood onto their flood plains. And, according to New Scientist magazine,

‘On many major European rivers – including the Danube and Rhine – more than 80 per cent of the low-lying land, where rivers naturally spread during high flows, has been barricaded by flood defences, drained and built on… In Hungary, for example, almost a fifth of the population lives on floodplains…

‘Besides being bad for natural ecosystems such as wetlands, corralling rivers within their banks increases the risk of flooding… This is because the barriers raise river levels higher during floods. Somewhere, they will inevitably burst their banks, flooding homes and streets.’

A European Environment Agency 2016 report predicted a five fold increase in flood events by 2050. It estimated that four fifths of the resultant damage would come from building over flood plains.