Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

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.

The Friends of the Earth have produced a paper discussing how climate change will affect the Loddon Mallee region of northern Victoria. The material in it mostly won’t be new to our readers, but it’s worth a look, all the same.

Among other things, the report notes that

‘According to research from the Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre (AEGIC) (2) we are already experiencing a ‘new climate’, one that has become noticeable since about 2000.

‘The AEGIC analysis, based on rain records since 2000, shows rainfall zones have moved — in some cases up to 400 kilometres. Parts of the Mallee, North Central and Riverina are now designated as being ‘uniform’ rainfall zones, where rain is equally distributed over summer and winter seasons. This has significant implications for cropping in the region, which has traditionally relied on a winter rainfall pattern.’

Rainfall is predicted to drop in our region by 2.5% by 2030, and temperatures to rise by almost a degree.

These changes have implications for agriculture, tourism [blue green algae’s not a great drawcard for visitors], water supply for communities, and our struggling bushlands.

The FOE paper is going to be used in the Bendigo electorate during the federal election campaign. It can be found here.

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.

The Department of the Environment is gearing up to conduct planned burns in the Castlemaine area in the Autumn season. The map below shows the burns planned for this and next year close to Castlemaine town. A clearer version, which can be expanded to show burns in the Maldon, Muckleford, Taradale, Newstead, Fryers forest and Tarilta areas, can be found here.

DELWP map showing proposed burn areas close to Castlemaine. The major burn planned for this season is the eastern side of Kalimna Park.

The major burn planned for this season is the eastern side of the Kalimna Park tourist road. Conservation representatives plan to meet with DELWP fire officers soon to discuss the implications of this operation. The zone shown to the north of Chewton is planned for the 2016-7 season.

FOBIF is also interested in a small proposed burn in the Chewton bushlands [you can see it at the right hand side of the map]. Our initial concerns are, first: how burning in such steep terrain will affect soil stability; and second,  to know how the burning of this block is integrated with fuel management on the surrounding private land. As we’ve reported before, DELWP fuel management is supposed to be ‘tenure blind’, and involve private as well as public land. So far, we’ve seen no evidence of this policy going into practice. It’s particularly of interest to us because of the presence of the pine plantations which, though on public land, are privately managed.

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.