Category Archives: Environment

Reintroduction of Western Quolls in Flinders Ranges- Reclaiming the land

The Idnya (or Western Quoll) is a small reddish‐grey coloured carnivorous marsupial with white spots on its body and legs. The male has an average weight of 1300 grams and the female weighs around 900 grams.

The marsupial carnivore once covered 70 per cent of Australia, but declining land condition and feral cat and fox attacks have seen the western quoll confined to Western Australia – until now.

SMH:Endangered western quolls return to Flinders Ranges, South Australia

FAME is working with the South Australian Department of Environment to reintroduce the endangered Western Quoll and Brush-tailed Possum to arid and semi-arid Australia, starting in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges. The return of the Western Quoll, a predator at the top of the food chain, will help restore the balance of species in these regions.

Both the Western Quoll (Idnya) and Brush-tailed Possum (Virlda) are totems of the local Adnyamathanha people, and part of their dreaming. Recent international studies show that restoring a dominant predator to its original range results in more healthy, balanced natural systems.

The vulnerable western quoll, also known as the chuditch, is one of Australia’s native predators, about the size of a small domestic cat. It once occurred in every state and territory but is now restricted to south-west Western Australia.

The $55,000 funding will be used to control feral cats and foxes before the western quolls are released, and monitor the success of the reintroduced quolls afterwards. It builds on the successful trial release of 38 western quolls in the Flinders Ranges in 2014.

The news of the 60 baby Idnya (Western Quolls) to the Flinders Ranges– the first in the Flinders Ranges for more than 150 years – is a terrific milestone in this ambitious trial reintroduction, which saw 41 Idnya released in their former homeland in April‐May. FAME and DEWNR are hopeful that the population will grow faster than the number which are lost through predation and accidents.

While the Brush-tailed Possum is common in urban areas, it has been declining in regional areas and has not been seen in Northern and Central Flinders Ranges since the 1930s. Restoring the Brush-tailed Possum to its natural place in the local environment will improve the quality of native vegetation and restore the chain of regeneration.

The experience in Yellowstone of the reintroduction of wolves has begun not only improvements in their own habitat, but in other habitats across the world, including the Flinders Ranges. The principle of the importance of reintroduction of a top order predator to degraded ecosystems underpins the quoll project in the Flinders Ranges: for ‘wolves’ read ‘quolls’; for ‘deer’ read ‘rabbits’.

While we do not anticipate such a dramatic impact in arid Australia we already know that our quolls are killing rabbits, and there will no doubt be observable benefits for native vegetation in the next few years.

YouTube: How wolves changed rivers

Want to be a part of bringing back the western quoll? Ongoing funding is still urgently needed to support our Idnya! Please consider donating. http://fame.org.au/donate/quoll

(featured image: A western quoll (chuditch) in enclosure at Caversham Wildlife Park, Western Australia. Date 25 April 2010)

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Ringtail Possum and tree decline Western Port News, December 1

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Eucalyptus trees (in particular Eucalyptus radiata & Eucalytus ovata) across the Mornington Peninsula and beyond are undergoing decline, and Ringtail possums are to blame, according to Dr Jeff Yugovic.  The “overbrowsing” of the possums is being declared the reason for the trees’ demise, with little scientific data and other alternative causes have barely considered.

Our indigenous native herbivores are easy prey when it comes to being accused of causing environmental flora destruction, and as “pests”.  Kangaroos are blamed for “over-grazing”, koalas are accused of over-populating, and possums are accused of any demise of native trees – because they eat them!

Yugovic says that, “Without predators, entire tree canopies can be lost to folivores such as monkeys and possums and whole areas can be denuded by grazers such as goats or rabbits. Also, without top predators the mid-size mesopredators such as raccoons or foxes are more abundant and take more small fauna than before”. 1

Wonder what evidence there is of these mid-sized mesopredators  in the Mornington Peninsula?  There is evidence of a sustainable number of Powerful Owls and a full compliment of avian predators, snakes, roads and introduced species such as cats (domestic, feral & stray) and dogs.

Other forms of tree mortalities are considered, and dismissed, as being “minor”.  Dense scrubby undergrowth is allowing possums to hide from their predators, foxes.  Yugovic says that major predators of the Ringtail possum are locally extinct, so there is an “overpopulation” of the former.

Mornington_Peninsula_Map

(image: Mornington Peninsula showing heavy urbanisation.  Nick Carson)

Environmental Care, Mt Eliza, agrees that the Ringtail possum is the problem. However, wildlife experts such as Mal Legg, Hans Brunner and Craig Thomson disagree.  Their concerns are dismissed as they “don’t live in the area”!  However all three live, work and volunteer on the Mornington Peninsula. Besides ecologists and naturalist don’t have to live in the areas they study.

Ecologist Hans Brunner has already written a response in Candobetter.net.  He says that “the expectation that an increase of predators may reduce a few possums would surely be badly out-weighed by the risk of losing proportionally even more of our rare, native wildlife species”.

While researchers found few brushtail possums in bushland reserves, Dr Yugovic said brushtails browse significantly on trees in gardens where they are near buildings with shelter.

“Brushtails eat adult leaves which thins the foliage throughout trees, while ringtails are more damaging by being smaller and able to reach their preferred shoots and young leaves at the end of branches,” Dr Yugovic said.2

The simple answer, according to Yugovic, is to thin the understorey, and the trees will recover!  Possum numbers will thus decline, as the possums will need to come to ground, where the foxes will predate on them. Possums might be at the scene of the crime, but not necessarily the criminals.

Foxes are everywhere and partly replace the dingo as predator? What evidence is there that dingoes and foxes provide the same ecological function on the Peninsula? It would be a fair comment to say dingoes are an apex predator, while foxes are a more opportunistic predator.

There are other possible and likely alternative reasons for the dying of the trees.

  • -spraying herbicides, such as metsulfuron, that is a broad leaf herbicide that adds salt to soils. This can persist in the soil for up to 18 months
  • -soil pathogens like cinnamon fungus that have previously tested positive on sites in question
  • -overload of weeds that poison the soil and reduce natural regeneration
  • -highly urbanised environment, Removal of vegetation for sub-divisions and house extensions. Impacting on the hydrology and fragmentation of vegetation.  This means roads, power-lines, cars, emissions and the edge-effect
  • -climate change and drought, with heat stress predicted to be a major cause of native species’ deaths.

The study, written in 2014 by Ecology Australia, commissioned by the Mornington Peninsula Shire, was meant to rectify the problem.  There seems to be little examination of other alternative causes, or refined research, to reach the conclusion to the guilty verdict for Ringtail possums.

Ecology Australia provides services for environmental management, ecological services, and planning and approvals!  They sound ominously like their focus is on corporate services, management of native vegetation and species to fit human activities, rather than conservation, wildlife rescue or holistic, custodianship of our unique natural heritage – and concern for the welfare of native animals.

1 http://www.berg.org.au/wp-content/uploads/alien_vs_predator_native_predator-prey_imbalances_in_south-east_australia_october_2015.pdf

2.Fox seen as answer to possum problem

Australian Wildlife Protection Council, committee

Ross house, level 3

247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne 3000

(featured image: Common Ringtail possum, Brisbane 2007, by Glen Fergus)

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Save Endangered Black Cockatoos from Extinction

Target: Greg Hunt, Australian Minister for the Environment

Goal: Stop the destruction of endangered black cockatoos’ habitat

The lives of thousands of endangered Carnaby’s black cockatoos are being threatened in Western Australia due to ongoing habitat destruction by the Australian government. If this unnecessary destruction continues, the entire species could quickly become extinct.

At least 4,000 endangered Carnaby’s black cockatoos currently live in pine plantations near Perth in Western Australia. They rely on plantation trees for food and nesting, but government officials have begun clearing a 56,000 acre Gnangara pine plantation. Government officials stated the trees require too much water and are threatening Perth’s water “catchment” area, but their efforts to conserve water are at the expense of this rare species of bird.

Carnaby’s black cockatoos can live up to 50 years and form strong bonds with their mates for the entirety of their lives. They originally migrated to the Perth pine plantations in the 1950s due to habitat loss, and their population has been rapidly declining ever since. Forcing these poor creatures from their habitat yet again will inflict unnecessary trauma on the already fragile species. Because the Australian government has no plans to replace the destroyed trees with trees that require less water, the cockatoos will have nowhere left to go. Urge government officials to immediately reconsider their decision to clear the Gnangara pine plantation and take the necessary steps to protect the cockatoos from extinction.

 

BlackCockatoo

PETITION LETTER:

Dear Minister Hunt,

As you may know, rare Carnaby’s black cockatoos living in the Gnangara pine plantation near Perth are at risk of extinction due to loss of habitat.

Over 4,000 cockatoos currently rely on plantation trees for food and nesting, but the trees in this plantation are being cleared due to their high water requirements. While I understand the Australian government’s goal of reducing water use in the plantations, I am shocked officials are working toward that goal at the expense of these endangered birds.

Cockatoos can live up to 50 years and stay with their mates for life. Many cockatoos will not survive the trauma of being ripped from their mates and forced from their habitat, contributing to the rapid decline of this already fragile species. I urge you to immediately reconsider the clearing of the Gnangara pine plantation and search for alternatives that would protect these poor creatures from extinction.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

 

Sign the Petition:

Save endangered Black Cockatoos from extinction

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Save, Protect and Rezone Tootgarook Swamp on the Mornington Peninsula

As the world prepares to celebrate World Wetland Day 2015 in February, the Tootgarook Swamp is facing a very uncertain future  – as a housing development!  It this how our State government’s version of wetland “conservation”?   Housing will see it gone forever!

AWPC wishes to object to the Planning Applications P14/1202 and P14/1901 at 92 Elizabeth Avenue on the following grounds,

In our opinion the Planning application does not meet the requirements of Section 12, of the Mornington Peninsula Planning Scheme which states,

ENVIRONMENTAL AND LANDSCAPE VALUES
Tootgarook swamp is the home of a vast number of animals including 129 bird species, 13 reptillian species, 12 mammals and 9 amphibious frog species (recorded to date).  Due to the lack of proper studies, this number would no doubt increase.

Tootgarook Swamp was once the largest landmark on the southern end of the peninsula stretching almost the whole length between the bay and the ocean. The wetland is made of a special peat soil and used to be home to hundreds of species of native fauna, many now extinct in the area.

It is home to over 120 different bird species, some of which are endangered or threatened. Many are migratory and travel thousands of kilometres to the area to use breeding site and produce new generations of birds.

The Swamp contains many indigenous flora species which no longer readily occur on the peninsula.

A lot of the Tootgarook swamp is zoned as residential and industrial and even worse is the fact that there are development proposals for approximately 80 hectares of it. This makes up almost a quarter of the swamp!

Currently approximately 77 hectares is marked for future development proposals totalling almost a quarter of the entire swamp. After another almost 3 hectares was lost to a housing subdivision infill recently.

Rezoning parts of Tootgarook Swamp for housing development should be rejected.

-Planning should help to protect the health of ecological systems and the biodiversity they support (including ecosystems, habitats, species and genetic diversity) and conserve areas with identified environmental and landscape values.

-Planning must implement environmental principles for ecologically sustainable development that have been established by international and national agreements.  The word “sustainable” far too generic and over-used, and should be replace by the word “stewardship” of ecological and environmental systems, and this “development” is nothing short of a mockery of it!

-Planning should protect sites and features of nature conservation, biodiversity, geological or landscape value.  How can digging up Tootgaroot Swamp protect any ecological features?  Housing is NOT endangered in Victoria, and our real estate Ponzi pyramid is camouflaging our economy’s weaknesses.  We should be promoting real economic prowess, productivity and innovation, not dead-end and destructive housing growth!  The more houses that are built, the more our population will increase – not the converse!

-The application not only fail to address these sections of the State Planning Policy Framework, but completely contradict it.

-It seems that extremely minimal regard has been applied to the sites ecosystem, habitat, species, biodiversity and environmental values. The fact that it makes up an important part of environmental habitat and connectivity of the Tootgarook Swamp which it is part of, landscape value and ecosystem in terms of hunting grounds, breeding grounds, food sources and wildlife refugia during and outside inundation events has not been addressed, nor does the planning application try to conserve any part of these values.  It seems that any wildlife, or habitat, or biodiversity loss is no more than collateral damage, and a mere obstruction to housing profits.

-The Tootgarook Swamp is a key natural feature of the Nepean Peninsula being only one of two natural depressions where fresh groundwater is at the surface, the other being Portsea lagoon.

-The proposed A 99 Planning development site was home to what was classified as state significant vegetation, before being modified and sown with rye grass in 2008.

-Mapping surveys carried out in 2003 by DEPI’s Arthur Rylah Institute in conjunction with the shire council and in 2006 by Practical Ecology have record of the default values of the site and should set the bench mark for appropriate offsets being made. Considering the applicants disregard for the site from 2008, the Council should not be undertaking the method of rewarding developers with permits for land that have been destroyed, or degraded by the developers.

A firm stance should be taken by this shire in order to prevent landholders and developers benefiting from illegal clearing no matter the reason or excuse, as ultimately this reduces the required number of offsets for a site, thus increasing their profitability and can be viewed as a form of fraud.

Significant fauna species that have been recorded within the site and surrounding reserves include:

Australasian Bittern,
120px-Latham's_Snipe

 

 

 

 

Latham’s Snipe, (above)

Common_Greenshank

 

 

 

Common Greenshank, (above)
Marsh_Sandpiper

 

 

 

Marsh Sandpiper,(above)

EasternGreatEgret

 

 

 

 

Eastern Great Egret (above)

Little Egret,
Intermediate Egret,
White footed dunnart,

Swamp_Skink

 

 

 

Swamp Skink (above)
Lewin’s Rail,
Glossy Grass Skink,
Australian Shoveler,
FreckledDuck

 

 

 

Freckled Duck, (above)
Nankeen Night Heron,
Royal_Spoonbill

 

 

 

Royal Spoonbill, (above)
Pacific_Gull

 

 

 

Pacific Gull (above).
The Australasian Bittern an EPBC listed and had been frequently observed and photographed on the applicant’s site this year. With the EPBC migratory (CAMBA, JAMBA, ROKAMBA and Bonn) species Latham’s Snipe, Sharp Tailed Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, and Marsh Sandpiper have been seen utilising the very front of the site.

This also does not include a large list of fauna that is of regional and local significance or uncommon.

As the proposals are situated within an area of high biodiversity value the proposals infill, design, and sitting of buildings fails to minimise the removal and fragmentation of native vegetation.

The greater Tootgarook swamp has been mapped by DEPI (Department of Environment and Primary Industries) as possibly containing Acid Sulphate Soils which could pose a serious problem if disturbed, both to the development and to the adjacent Sanctuary Park Bushland Reserve and Chinamans Creek Reserve as well culvert infrastructure. The boundary soils will be disturbed by any possible retaining wall construction or by heavy machinery used to batter and fill under this proposal.

Please send objection to:
A 99 LOT SUBDIVISION APPLICATION ON TOP OF A LARGE PORTION OF THE TOOTGAROOK SWAMP.

planning.submission@mornpen.vic.gov.au
Mornington Peninsula Shire,

Statutory Planning Department

Private Bag 1000

Rosebud, 3939.

This is not a “development” proposal, but is asking for a permit to vandalize an ecological feature, and biological reserve with destruction.

CommunityRun Petition:Save, Protect and Rezone Tootgarook Swamp on the Mornington Peninsula 

Visit the website SaveTootgarookSwamp

(featured image: Marsh Sandpiper)

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Save, Protect and Rezone Tootgarook Swamp on the Mornington Peninsula

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Petition: We call on levels of government Local, State and Federal and their departments as well as Melbourne Water.

The Tootgarook Swamp is the largest example left of an Shallow freshwater marsh in the Port Philip bay region, at 381 hectares it is worthy of international Ramsar protection.

Much of the Tootgarook swamp is inappropriately zoned as residential, and industrial with only half of it inside the green wedge.  Currently approximately 80 hectares is marked with present development proposals totalling almost a quarter of the entire swamp.

There are only 4% of total wetlands left in Victoria that are greater than 100 hectares.  Of the original wetlands in the state we have already lost over 37% in the last 200 years.

TootgarookLogo

Of the 100% of shallow fresh water marshes in Victoria, 60% has been destroyed.  It has high cultural significance for the Bunurong / Boonerwrung people of the Kulin nation, as well as high scientific value as pointed out by Sir Frederick Chapman in 1919, Australia’s first nationally appointed palaeontologist and world authority in the field of ostracods (a type of small crustacean), and close companion and co-worker with Sir Douglas Mawson.

Sir Chapman personally visited and studied within Tootgarook Swamp where he catalogued numerous fossils and ostropod species not seen anywhere else but in Tasmania showing a link of a land bridge between the two states.

Tootgarook Swamp has so far recorded 145 bird species, 13 reptilian species, 9 amphibious frog species and 12 mammals, including 5 bats, no full survey of the entire swamp has ever been done to show its true value, and much of the current data has been collected during drought time.

The swamp contains fifteen state, federal, and international protected species of fauna, along with another seven species listed as vulnerable. The majority of species threatened with extinction in Victoria are wetland dependent.

The swamp is also home to at least nine bioregional endangered plant communities. A local ecologist believes up to 24 bioregional endangered plant communities exist within the swamp and updated on ground flora surveys need to be commenced.

The Mornington Peninsula Shire is considering a proposal by Lifestyle Communities Ltd to build a 99-lot residential development for people aged over 55 on part of the wetlands.

The Mornington Peninsula Shire has released an information sheet (Tootgarook Wetland Information Sheet #TWMP15.pdf) about planning together, for the future of the Tootgarook Wetland in developing a Wetland Management Plan.

It assumed that with “management” the biodiversity and fragility of species and ecology can co-exist with housing growth!

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Save Tootgarook Swamp webpage

Petition: Save and Protect and rezone Tootgarook Swamp on the Mornington Peninsula

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Seabird numbers plummeting

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A recent study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, shows that marine systems are apparently becoming gradually less able to support seabirds. The study focused on populations that scientists had monitored at least five times between 1950 and 2010, which accounted for 19 percent of the world’s seabird population, encompassing 162 species.

They found the monitored (19%) portion of the global seabird population to have declined overall by 69.7% between 1950 and 2010. The researchers found that during that period the monitored seabird populations declined by 69.7 percent.

Human activities such as fisheries and pollution are threatening the world’s marine ecosystems, causing changes to species abundance and distribution that alter ecosystem structure, function and resilience. In response, increasing numbers of marine biologists and managers seek to achieve management measures allowing the persistence of healthy, productive and resilient ecosystems.

Seabird population changes are good indicators of long-term and large-scale change in marine ecosystems because seabird populations are relatively well-monitored, their ecology allows them to integrate long-term and large-scale signals. So, the implication is that our oceans are not supporting seabirds, and they are sick! Threats include entanglement in fishing gear, overfishing of food sources, climate change, pollution, disturbance, direct exploitation, development, energy production, and introduced species (predators such as rats and cats introduced to breeding islands that were historically free of land-based predators). These are all related to lethal “human activities”.

Seabird_poster
(image: http://www.scscb.org/working_groups/resources/seabird-resources.htm)

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species indicates that one third of seabird species are threatened with extinction, one half are known or suspected to be in decline, and at least four species are extinct.

One big game-changer for seabirds over the last century has been the industrialization of fishing, which has depleted seabirds’ food sources. Other threats include entanglement in fishing gear and oceanic pollution.

Because of the El Nino weather phenomenom that is happening across the Pacific, scientists say the ocean is just too warm right now. “It really limits the productivity of the ocean from the base level so in the case of the common murre which feeds on small fish, these are not as plentiful as they normally are during a normal ocean condition year,” explained Herman Biederbeck, ODFW biologist for the north coast.

Our oceans are dying. Time is rapidly running out for the world’s oceans and the creatures that live in them as the Earth’s climate continues to warm, say scientists. Their analysis showed that ‘business-as-usual’ would have an enormous and ‘effectively irreversible’ impact on ocean ecosystems and the services they provide, such as fisheries, by 2100.

Mankind has probably done more damage to the Earth in the 20th century than in all of previous human history.
Jacques Yves Cousteau

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