Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

Representatives of several conservation groups, including FOBIF, have done a couple of reconnaissance trips along the Pyrenees Highway to look over trees marked for the chop as part of Vicroads proposed Safe Road Project.

FOBIF will be making a submission on the proposals by the due date of Friday April 8. Submissions should be sent to Vicroads at 53-61 Lansell St Bendigo or by email to nrmailbox@vicroads.vic.gov.au

FOBIF is puzzled that some trees high on embankments, like this Yellow Gum, are marked for removal. We are also interested in the fact that highway edge vibration strips are not included in the project.

Initial impressions from the group include the realisation that a tree classified ‘medium’ [that is, with a trunk diameter between 52 and 70 cm at breast height] might be medium by the standards of, say, a Gippsland forest, but in this region that could be significantly larger than average.

We are also puzzled that highway edge vibration strips are not listed as among the works; and that only limited improvements to the road shoulder are planned: the road for significant stretches has little or no shoulder and falls quickly away to eroded gutters.

It seems that the strips were considered in the early stages of this project, but left out for budgetary reasons. There is substantial evidence that they reduce runoff road accidents. One US report offers the following: ‘According to National Highway Cooperative Research Program (NCHRP) studies, milled shoulder and edge rumble strips reduce single-vehicle run-off-road injury crashes by as much as 24 percent on rural freeways and by as much as 46 percent on two-lane rural roads.’ If this research matches Australian experience, it would seem strange to leave the strips out of this project, whose main object is to reduce such crashes.

We’ll be looking to clarify these and some other questions before making our submission. We also want to clarify the matter of distances between roadside barriers and adjacent trees; and we’re curious that a number of trees high on embankments have been marked for removal.

As a footnote: in the time it spent examining the roadside, the group witnessed a couple of scary examples of driver irresponsibility: passing at excessive speeds on sections with limited visibility. It’s clear that the margin for error on a road like this, with a narrow verge and steep drop offs is small: and that traffic calming should be a priority. We don’t envy Vicroads in the challenges it faces on this one. Our society continually plays the contradictory game, where we are told that speed kills–and yet high speed, powerful vehicles are put in the hands of anyone with the money, and events like the Formula 1 Grand Prix [not to mention numerous TV programs] glamorise speed and power.

Representatives of the Friends of Kalimna Park met with DELWP and Parks Victoria fire officers last week to discuss the planned burn of a section of the Park this autumn. The exercise is set to happen in the next five weeks, conditions permitting.

The fuel reduction exercise will cover a section of the western and southern part of the park, not including Kalimna Point [which has been groomed] or the eastern side of the tourist road [the Happy Valley side]. Part of this latter area may be burned next year, and part  groomed.

FOKP representatives expressed the following concerns about the upcoming operations:

1. Mineral earth breaks [used by DELWP as borders for its fires and to protect sites deemed significant] are often intrusive and not rehabilitated properly: they can end up as permanent trail bike or mountain bike tracks. In any case, some are so crudely done as to be erosion hazards.
2. The destruction of big trees is an ongoing annoyance, especially as everyone agrees they’re not a fire hazard. DELWP has undertaken to take measures to prevent fires taking hold at the foot of such trees, and to patrol the fire in the days following its ignition to ensure these measures work.
3. Bursaria vegetation which is habitat for Eltham Copper Butterfly colonies needs to be appropriately protected. The butterfly has recently been observed in sections of the park which were mosaic burned last year. It is important that DELWP has maps of bursaria which should enable it to focus fuel reduction where it matters, not on a precious biodiversity resource.

FOKP will pay careful attention to the operation when it happens. The Department’s approach to consultation has improved markedly in recent years, now it’s time to see improvements in results on the ground.

DELWP is also in consultation with local beekeepers concerned about smoke damage. As we’ve noted, Grey Box, a very important tree for honey and pollen, is flowering prolifically at the moment, and could go on flowering beyond May.

People might remember Sarah Lloyd who gave a very popular talk on slime moulds at last year’s FOBIF AGM. She has just published a new book, The Feathered Tribes of Van Diemen’s Land. It’s full of wonderful photos and so comprehensive it could used to identify most species. However it’s main intention is to “encourage an interest in the birds that surround us and an understanding of their habits and needs so that all landowners – whether of small backyards, extensive farms or beachfront properties – can help to ensure that Tasmania’s special birds will thrive.”

More about the book and where to buy it can be found here.

Strangways resident and nature sound recordist Andrew Skeoch was recently featured on the ABC radio program Big Ideas:

Trying to record birdsong in the pre-dawn darkness, Andrew Skeoch realised how few of us get a chance to really listen to nature. Now he’s a champion of natural soundscapes, and believes they can teach us much about beauty and even the evolution of life. (from ABC website)

The episode entitled ‘Listening to Nature’, was recorded at this year’s Woodford Music Festival. Click here to listen to Andrew’s fascinating talk.

As pointed out in an earlier post, FOBIF combined with Connecting Country to organise the 20 March walk to Andrew Skeoch’s property in Sandon. Booking was necessary for this first walk and we are now booked out. Our next walk will be on 17 April,  Exploring Yapeen and the Guildford plateau. Bookings will not be required for this walk.

Click to enlarge

The Trees in the Mount Alexander Region exhibition hosted by FOBIF is now at TOGS Place Cafe, 58 Lyttleton Street, Castlemaine. The poster above shows a miniature version all the photographs and an online catalogue with commentary on each photograph is available. All photographs are for sale (framed: $95 large, $70 small) and the show runs until the end of this month. (There is wheelchair access to TOGS via a portable ramp. It is advisable to ring TOGS first if you wish to use this facility: 5470 5090.)

In mounting this exhibition we wish to pay tribute to our founding President,
Doug Ralph (1948-2015), bushman, conservationist and champion of our trees.

Doug was a keen photographer in the last decade of his life. The photo above showing the bush reflected in water trapped in leaves was a favourite subject of his.

The Victorian Environment Friends Network (VEFN) exists to help represent the common interests of all Friends groups in Victoria. They are currently undertaking a re-assessment of the the organisation and as part of this process they are inviting interested people and organisations to complete a survey. All the information including a link to the survey can be found here.

Here’s what land managers are dealing with: granite rocks put on the track near Lang’s Lookout on Mount Alexander have been graffitied with aggressive messages, ‘faggot council’ being one.

Granite blocks across the track near Lang’s Lookout. They increase the walking distance to the lookout by about 100 metres, but that’s enough to cause anger, in a culture that privileges car access.

The rocks were put on the track in Spring last year [not by Council], and are designed to keep vehicles off a flat patch of ground to the north of the TV tower. The road block means you need to walk about 100 metres more on pleasant, level ground to get to the lookout rocks.

You could read a fair bit of meaning into those pink words: but the main one seems to be that absolute car access to everything is vital, and removing it is a violation of a fundamental right. That’s part of our culture.

Vicroads engineers held a briefing session at Newstead on Thursday March 3 to consult with local people about plans for works along the Pyrenees Highway between Castlemaine and Newstead. The session was heavily attended by residents with interest in a range of matters, from a pedestrian crossing for schoolchildren to a wider shoulder for cyclists [there’s not enough money for this one], and concerns about tree removal.

FOBIF’s interest centres on the last of these: the plans involve the removal of 10 large  [larger than 70 cm in diametre at breast height], 7 medium [between 52 and 70cm dbh, and 126 small [less than 52 cm dbh] trees. The removals are to reduce the risk of ‘run off road’ accidents involving tree collisions. There have been five of these since 2009, one of them fatal.

Engineers have gone to some trouble to avoid vegetation clearance with these works, a welcome change from a few years ago, when they seemed to want to scorch the earth for three metres on both sides of the road. This time they’ve been more judicious about placement of safety barriers. And removal of a mere 10 large trees doesn’t seem much: but FOBIF is always concerned about such incremental inroads into what is a rare resource in this region: a big tree. We’ll report on this in more detail when we’ve done a detailed examination of the proposed removals. Safety is, of course, a central consideration: it would be good to achieve it without unnecessary environmental damage.

The project is still at the stage of community consultation, and will then have to go through an environmental impact assessment before implementation. A spirit of co operation seemed to be the order of the night on Thursday: but memories of such disasters as the Western Highway tree massacre justify close attention to projects like this.

In the grey/brown bleakness of our bushlands at the moment you can still find a rare green spot–like the one below. Unfortunately in this case the reason for the green isn’t a natural one: it’s an apparently long standing leak in the Poverty Gully water race, which is currently flowing.

Below the Poverty Gully water race, Fryers Forest, February 17: the healthy sedge population is fed by persistent leaks from the race.

Water is put into this race a few times a year when allocations are available, to serve a small number of customers with rights. Over the years there have been mutterings about closing it down, and saving the water for use of the wider communities of Kyneton and Castlemaine.Maybe an even better use would be to put additional environmental flows into the suffering Coliban River.

The wastage of water through the primitive channel [constructed in the mid 1870s] must be enormous, though we’ve never been able to get a figure from Coliban water as to how much is lost through leakage and evaporation between Malmsbury and Castlemaine. The case can’t have been helped by the fact that a DELWP fuel reduction operation in 2013 inadvertently burned to cinders a lot of plastic sheeting put into the race as a water proofing exercise!

Leakage from the race, February 17: the race is a rough and ready construction, built in the 1870s, and leaks an unknown quantity of water.