Archive for the 'Environment & Sustainability' Category

Dugongs, turtles and this weeks Council meeting

September 4th, 2011

I wrote this letter to the Chronicle today…

Cliff Cobb (FCC 3/9/11) makes a compelling case for the need to fund indigenous rangers… until the very last sentence of his letter. In this one sentence he states that ‘we need voluntary measures to ensure traditional dugong and turtle take is within sustainable limits’. To my way of thinking Cliff undoes all the excellent argument that has gone before. You see I don’t believe there is any reason whatsoever, that any traditional killing of endangered dugong and turtle should be allowed in our region. Where there is access to alternative food supplies via shops and supermarkets, the taking of any endangered animal should cease. I am not talking about remote regions like most of Northern Australia where there are no corner stores!

I question the argument that our indigenous peoples have the right to ‘take’ these animals for cultural reasons.  Food throughout our region is easily sourced without killing endangered wildlife. If the animals are taken for reasons other than eating then I ask that our indigenous elders question these cultural reasons and examine them carefully.

As a culture advances it changes and evolves. We no longer find slavery acceptable, we abhor racism, we won’t tolerate whaling, we allow women to work (as a student leaving school there were still jobs I could not apply for because I was a female) and we realise that if we want to preserve our native flora and fauna we need to preserve our natural habitat. Is it time then that our indigenous community took a stand and decided to stop hunting turtles and dugongs in our waters?

I hope we can all work together to better protect these fragile creatures and ensure that our children’s children will be able to swim and snorkel and glimpse these wonderful creatures. I hope that as a community we can evolve and grow together and better protect the intrinsic values that make our patch of this country such a special place.

COUNCIL MEETING news

This week we sit in Hervey Bay on Wednesday at 9.30am for our Ordinary Meeting Number 16. Items to be decided include a response to a petition calling for a skate park in Brendon Hansen Park in Granville. We receive our quarterly activity report on compliance issues which contains statistics showing animal registrations and euthanising etc. Also parking and food services related info etc. We are required to update our delegating powers for the CEO in relation to the EPA and Building and Integrity Acts. We decide on a proposal to lease a building at the Arts and Crafts village in Bideford St to the Arts Council. We receive the WBWC Corporate Plan. We receive the draft Local Gov Area Pest Management Plan. But the two issues that interest me the most are two reports. One is the application to construct 32 Low Density houses on the Hervey Bay Golf Course and the other is in relation to opting in or out, areas of our region, for the State Government Exploration for resources. I look forward to some interesting debate on these issues.

The agenda should be available for viewing via the Council web site tomorrow afternoon. Cheers, Sue

Cat desexing. Bring it on please!

August 9th, 2011

Wonderul news to hear that our community is getting behind a petition that asks Council to introduce stricter controls on cats. Fraser Coast Pet Warriors, Maryborough Animal Refuge and Fraser Coast Wildlife are all helping collect signatures. The petition is a response to the new Local Laws process and requests Council to ensure that cats and kittens are desexed on any change of ownership. This will mean existing cat owners will not need to do anything but all cats and kittens being sold or given away will be required to be desexed unless used for breeding. Breeders will need a permit. While this seems like a fairly harsh requirement I am utterly sick and tired of the many little tiny lives that are lost because there are not enough homes for all the kittens being produced either intentionally or unintentionally. My two mature cats are a brother and sister born to my daughters cat. The mother cat was only 5 months old when she became pregnant much to our surprise and dismay. 12 years later I still have the offspring.

The petition is available at Mind Games in Pialba Place (yes this is my shop..) , the Maryborough Animal Refuge and if I hear of more places I will let you know. If you want a copy please email me or print out or copy this that follows…..

To the Chief Executive Officer and Councillors of the Fraser Coast Regional Council.

PO Box 1943 Hervey Bay, Qld, 4655

I write to you to voice my support for the introduction of compulsory cat desexing.

I/we the undersigned, request that the Fraser Coast Regional Council introduce mandatory cat desexing requirements via the new Local Laws (or by whatever other suitable means), as soon as possible.

I/we believe that the number of unwanted cats and kittens currently euthanized and/or dumped throughout our region is unacceptable. We believe that animal ownership should be a privilege not a right. I/we believe that it is socially unacceptable that cats are allowed to breed indiscriminately resulting in a surplus of kittens that cannot be homed. While education and incentives to desex cats and kittens are welcome and necessary, their impact alone is not sufficient to combat the problem of overpopulation of cats and kittens within our region. Cats that are dumped become feral and are causing ongoing harm to our unique and precious native fauna.

I/we request that Council introduce a law (or laws), that require every cat or kitten to be desexed (or booked into a vet to be desexed), on transfer of ownership via selling or giving away or any other means, unless via a registered breeder. Cat breeding must be regulated by registration of all cat breeders with suitable requirements relating to the number of cats per property and their housing requirements etc.

Thank you for your time and consideration to this matter.

Date:

Name and Address:

Signature:

Foreshore Poll ends

November 15th, 2010

Council is about to review the Foreshore Plans actions and I hope that Council does decide to better focus on weed control along the foreshore and in other ‘natural’ areas than has been our experience in the past. I also want sensible designs in relations to gardens and picnic facilities and car parking not like the problematic design we have now at  The Gables.
The Council CEP programme is the ideal tool to use and has a new and proactive and very keen Council officer, by way of Marc Russell, to oversee it. Yes there is some red tape involved but in these days of litigation this is a necessary evil. Some groups haven’t continued on with CEP in the past after initial enthusiasm and maybe this is because they believe they will be allowed to carry out clearing and other works to increase views? When they realise this cannot be achieved in many places (Dundowran/Toogoom for example)under the current Foreshore Plan, they stop participating.

The Fraser Coast foreshore is a very large piece of public land and a huge cost to Council to maintain. To spend more funds on the foreshore impacts on rates and no one wants to see rates rise. So yes if we want to better service the foreshore and better care for it lets all roll up our collective sleeves and help Council in its endeavours.
The Chronicle campaign is timely as it has focussed attention on the foreshore but lets not get too excited about a campaign that has a broad generalised question that is not well defined, relating to an area of foreshore that isn’t defined and is only representative of Chronicle readers not the wider community. Under 700 votes is less than half a percent of the regions population so I won’t be jumping up and down reacting to this result. But it would be nice to know the breakdown of numbers versus suburbs?

One could easily say that the deafening sounds of silence from the greater community means they are basically content with things the way they are! I was expecting a much bigger response seeing as global emails were flying round the electronic world faster than the speed of…!

But a survey of actual Foreshore users now that would be interesting wouldn’t it?

PS The All Abilities Playground adjacent to the Seafront Oval will open soon. Another public facility right on the foreshore. I look forward to receiving your opinions on that in the very near future.

Foreshore Front Page – and the Chronicle poll!

November 7th, 2010

The Esplanade and Foreshore made the font page yesterday with yours truly and the Chronicle Editor featured on the front page. We were both trying to keep the rain out of our eyes at the time that this photo was taken Friday morning (directly opposite Delfinos just up from Denman Camp Rd). I didn’t expect Peter to front up so that was a surprise.

The story goes on to argue that some areas of our foreshore need a good clean up and the weeds and dead branches etc need removing. I agree about the weeds but some dead wood and natural undergrowth should be left alone depending on where it is located.

Inside The Chronicle I am portrayed as wanting the Foreshore ‘left alone’. I have never said I want it totally left alone and I have worked hard to find a way to better resource our Council staff so that increased weeding regimes can occur. I recently posted a story about how the community can become involved and help Council in this regard. Also this week in Council I was informed that the highly anticipated Foreshore Plan actions review report will be ready the first week of December.

So to the poll. The Chronicle is asking us to vote and there are two questions. Either we ask for a ‘major clean up’ of the foreshore or we don’t!  The questions are designed to be either one or the other and don’t, in my mind, properly articulate what is needed.

However I will be voting no as I believe the foreshore only needs a minor clean up in specific areas and as The Chronicle hasn’t properly defined what it actually means by  ‘a major clean up’ I am not confident that the results of the poll will be worth much anyway. But there is a poll and already there have been global emails being circulated by UDIA and the Hervey Bay Chamber of Commerce asking their members to vote ‘as this is your chance to clean up The Esplanade’. So from business and the development industry we have a big clean up push. Maybe I will just cross out the word ‘major’ on the form and insert ‘just remove weeds’ instead!

So it is over to the readers of The Chronicle to have their say. To participate in the poll either use the coupon printed in The Chronicle on Saturday or email The Chronicle at

hbedit@frasercoastchronicle.com.au

You must attach your name and suburb for your vote to be recognised and it is probably best to use the words Foreshore Poll in the subject line.

I will be interested in the results. Cheers, Sue

PS Can’t finish without thanking Tess Patterson for her wonderful letter. She has a lovely way of putting into words what our foreshore means to many of us. Thanks Tess.

The Mant Street Mob

November 5th, 2010

This is the media release about our newest Council Community Environment Volunteer Program group. Isn’t it just wonderful when people roll up their sleeves and get involved instead of just simply being an armchair critic!

04 November 2010

 A new Community Environment Group joins the team

The Mant Street Mob is the latest to join the Community Environment Program set up by the Fraser Coast Regional Council.

 “There are 12 of us, all residents of Mant Street hence our name,” Point Vernon resident Stan Walker said.

 “We’ve been here nine years and if I’d known about the program earlier I would have joined earlier.”

 On the group’s first working bee in the Mant Street Nature Reserve, which includes areas of the Point Vernon foreshore, the volunteers filled three large trailers with weeds in two hours.

 Weeds included Easter Cassia, Prickly Duranta, Corky Passionfruit, Stinking Passionfruit and groundcovers Mother of Millions, Ground Asparagus and Purple Succulent (Callisia).

 Stumps were removed to reduce the risk of injury and some dead branches in visible areas have been removed. The volunteers also picked up large pieces of cement, plastic bags, cans and bottles.

 “Weeds are sensitively cleared to reduce competition and encourage natural regeneration,” Fraser Coast Regional Council Community Environment Program Officer Marc Russell said.

 Attracting birds back to the area is very important for the group.

 “Once we’ve cleared the weeds we will plant natives in some areas to attract birds,” Mr Walker said.

 “And because we lost some old trees with nesting hollows when the Gatakers boat ramp was upgraded we plan to build nesting boxes.”

 The boxes would be used by a range of wildlife including parrots, owls, gliders, possums and microbats.

 There are 17 CEP groups across the region including ones at Urangan and Toogoom which are looking for members and a new group about to start at Pialba and possibly a second group at Point Vernon.

 Council provides training in occupational health and safety, weed and native plant identification, management techniques and project prioritisation as well as seedlings.

 Anyone wishing to carry out works in foreshore areas should join a CEP group to ensure projects are approved as much of the vegetation in these sensitive areas is protected under local or state legislation, Mr Russell said.

 If you would like more information, or would like to join a CEP group contact the Council’s Community Environment Program Officer Marc Russell on 4197 4644.

ENDS

The Mant Street Mob hard at work

The Mant Street Mob hard at work

Rulers and Their Rules.

June 26th, 2010

Mr Peter Chapman, editor of our local Chronicle makes some interesting observations today. He is concerned about a possible demonstration outside the Chronicle offices. I thought a demonstration was simply one way that members of our community could express a point of view and I remember well the wonderful feeling that I experienced when joining with peaceful but caring residents on several occasions, to protest against the decision to dam our great Mary River. I hope that Mr Chapman can welcome such public demonstrations and not see them as a threat. If there are members of our community unhappy with stories, or possibly a lack of stories, within our daily paper surely they have the right to express their point of view?

 The issue that has caused the fuss is the proposed coal mine at Aldershot and Mr Chapman states very clearly that the Chronicle supports ‘any project that brings jobs and money into this economy’. He clarifies his statement by stating that ‘all businesses must follow the rules and regulations so that our precious environment is maintained along with our quality of life”. I commend Mr Chapman on stating his position so clearly but could I possibly pose some questions?

What does the community do when the rules and regulations don’t result in the protection of our precious environment and our quality of life? Could it be that the people vested with the responsibility of making the rules and regulations don’t make good ones that do protect our environment and quality of life or when they do make the rules they don’t bother to enforce them? Could these same people be the ones who most benefit financially from the resulting rules and regulations that they design?

Could it be that economic return trumps anything and everything time and time again? I’m adult enough to understand that none of us could lead the quality of life we do without a robust and healthy economy, after all I am a small business owner myself, but I’m more and more worried when I observe economic returns dominating every aspect of our lives. I believe that an economy built on perpetual growth is dooming our children’s children to a bleak future. There is only so much room for us to grow plants to feed us all, to dig big holes in the ground to feed our hunger for finite resources and to suck water from our rivers and streams. We can already see the dangers that come from plundering the deeper ocean beds in our insatiable thirst for that very valuable ‘liquid black gold’.

I believe we are facing a great challenge. Now is the time to decide how to balance economic prosperity with a true understanding and appreciation of the natural systems that produce our clean air, fresh water and healthy foods.

The dam is sunk! YIPPEE

November 11th, 2009

What wonderful news we hear today on what is a day when we remember our heroes. Peter Garrett has delivered the goods. He has used common sense and scientific evidence to reject the Traveston Crossing Dam proposal. I can’t think of a better piece of news that I have heard in ages.

Congratulations must go to you the community. To everyone that wore a No Dam shirt or stuck a sticker on their car, to those that helped gather petitions and letters in their thousands, to the volunteers who stood tirelessly at every stall raising the profile of the no dam stance I salute and thank you.

To Glenda, to Steve, to Tanzi, to Darryl, to Beryl, to Elizabeth, to Lindsay to our foam turtle wearer and to each and everyone else who I have forgotten to name but who worked tirelessly and never ever gave up my heartfelt gratitude. Without ordinary people doing extraordinary things this wonderful victory would not have come to pass.

To our absolutely fabulous media journalists and editors at Ch 7 and Ch 9 and at the local print media especially the Fraser Coast Chronicle, my thanks. Without the constant focus and never say die attitude of yourselves I don’t believe we may have achieved this result.

LET THE MARY RUN FREE FOREVER.

Now  I am going to run around and jump for joy like a happy fish….

Lifeboat earth.

October 15th, 2009

 For those of us that still question the issue of climate change and our human impact on our home planet I found this description about carrying capacity a simple but useful explanation. It is part of the Sunshine Coast Regional Councils new Climate Change Strategy and I recommend it to you.

http://www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/sitePage.cfm?code=cc-strategy#overview

I am very pleased to say that our Fraser Coast Regional Council has now appointed our Sustainability Officer and I expect that he will commence working towards a similar strategy for our region. Luckily in this day and age of easy communication we don’t need to reinvent the wheel and can share and learn from our regional neighbouring Councils.

 I still find it hard to believe that some of our most senior pollies question the need for Australia to address the issues of climate change. While I am confident that in my lifetime I won’t witness any very obvious impacts of climate change I worry that my children will. An even worse worry is what type of planet are we leaving for our grand children? When will we start to seriously examine the way in which we are greedily gulping up the worlds natural resources including coal? I hope that the community continues to ask our leaders to plan for the long term and not simply plan for continual economic growth. A sustainable world economy must be developed and the sooner we all realise this the happier I will be.

From the Sunny Coast strategy….

‘Carrying Capacity:the population that can be supported indefinitely by its supporting systems. In ecological terms, the carrying capacity of an ecosystem is the size of the population that can be supported indefinitely upon the available resources and services of that ecosystem. Living within the limits of an ecosystem depends on three factors: 

  • the amount of resources available in the ecosystem,

  • the size of the population, and

  • the amount of resources each individual is consuming.

A simple example of carrying capacity is the number of people who could survive in a lifeboat after a shipwreck. Their survival depends on how much food and water they have, how much each person eats and drinks each day, and how many days they are afloat. If the lifeboat made it to an island, how long the people survived would depend upon the food and water supply on the island and how wisely they used it. A small desert island will support far fewer people than a large continent with abundant water and good soil for growing crops.

In this example, food and water are the natural capital of the island. Living within the carrying capacity means using those supplies no faster than they are replenished by the island’s environment: using the ‘interest’ income of the natural capital. A community that is living off the interest of its community capital is living within the carrying capacity. A community that is degrading or destroying the ecosystem on which it depends is using up its community capital and is living unsustainably.

Equally important to community sustainability is living within the carrying capacity of the community’s human, social and built capital. Carrying capacity is much harder to measure for these types of capital, but the basic concept is the same — are the different types of capital being used up faster than they are being replenished? For example:

  • A community that allows its children to be poorly educated, undernourished, and poorly housed is eroding its human capital.
  • A community that allows the quality of its social interactions to decline through lack of trust, respect, and tolerance is eroding its social capital.
  • A community that allows its buildings, roads, parks, power facilities, water facilities, and waste processing capability to decay is eroding its built capital.

Additionally, a community that is creating built capital without considering the future maintenance of that capital is setting itself up for eventual decay.

So, in the context of sustainability, carrying capacity is the size of the population that can be supported indefinitely upon the available resources and services of supporting natural, social, human, and built capital’.

http://www.sustainablemeasures.com/Sustainability/KeyTermCarryingCap.html

 

And lastly look what we found on the beach yesterday……… So what does the US defense force do with its litter?

USA defending our seas?

USA defending our seas?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

p10109792

Traveston Travesty

September 23rd, 2009

Here is the media release of the FCRC released this morning. Councillors are very concerned about the planned dam and are unanimously opposed to it. We are very concerned about the impacts that any large dam on the Mary River would have on the local fisheries and RAMSAR wetland not to mention the impacts on endangered species and the loss of valuable rural producing lands.

 

22 September 2009

Fraser Coast Regional Council continues to oppose Traveston Crossing Dam

 The Fraser Coast Regional Council has re-iterated its opposition to proposals to build a dam on the Mary River at Traveston Crossing, near Gympie. 

At its meeting last week the Council moved again to state its opposition in light of reports that the Queensland Co-ordinator General had approved a list of conditions that would need to be met for the dam to be approved and state government moves to push ahead with the project.

 The Queensland Government submission is being investigated by the Federal Minister 

 

 for Environment, Heritage and the Arts , Peter Garrett.

 

 

 

“This is not the first time Fraser Coast Councils have opposed the dam,” Fraser Coast Regional Council Mayor Mick Kruger said.

 ”The former Councils helped fund a $120,000 independent study to find alternatives to the dam. The South East Queensland Water Optimisation Study was undertaken by Dr Stuart White of the University of Technology, Sydney. It was funded by the nine local governments that made up the Mary River Council of Mayors.”

 The mayors initiated the study after being told by then Premier Peter Beattie that if they wanted to look at alternative sites for a proposed Mary River dam they would have to fund the investigations.

 The study examined the social, environmental and economic impact of the proposed dam.

 In May, 2008, the Fraser Coast Regional Council endorsed the actions of the previous Councils and challenged the Environmental Impact Statement prepared for the project.

 The Council directed the following concerns to the Queensland Premier Anna Bligh and the Deputy Premier and Minister for Infrastructure Paul Lucas, the Project managers and the Federal Minister Peter Garrett and Federal Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong.

 The concerns included:

 1. Water supply security for the Fraser Coast Region is not adequately considered;

2. Justification for the dam is made on the basis of flawed and / or inadequate economic analysis;

3. The effects of downstream changes on social and economic factors have not been adequately considered;

4. Hydrological analysis probably underestimates the downstream flow impacts to a considerable degree;

5. Hydrological modelling is not linked with aquatic ecology and water quality; there is no predictive analysis of water quality or biota in the impoundment or downstream and the discussion on impacts is necessarily speculative;

6. In some cases, the evidence from research, case studies and even studies within the EIS are contrary to the conclusions in the executive summary;

7. The Mary River Water Resource Plan (WRP) is not considered to have sufficient scientific basis to provide reliable flow targets; most of the targets are expert panel derived, and there is an acknowledged lack of scientific understanding of the flow requirements of several of the iconic species;

8. Inconsistent and sometimes misleading treatment of Stage 2 and other related projects that will have cumulative impact on the Mary River (Northern Pipeline and Borumba Dam raising); these are included in the water supply benefits, but not in the costs or impacts;

9. No allowance for climate change in the modelling, which is likely to further reduce the frequency and volume of flushing flows;

10. Inconsistency about mitigation measures – many of the measures recommended in the chapters are not included in the executive summary and even fewer are included in the cost assessment; and

11. In consideration of points 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and 9 particularly, the downstream impacts on the Mary estuary and the Great Sandy Straits are inadequately predicted and the optimistic assessment has no evidentiary basis.

 When the Council re-iterates its opposition to the dam it will send another copy of its concerns to the state and federal governments and ask for the points it raised be answered and considered during any investigation into the proposed dam.

 ”The Council also will write to the Premier to ask that the Co-ordinator General’s report be released to the public,” Cr Kruger said.

 ENDS

 I attended the Greater Mary Association meeting last night and was pleased to see so many dedicated people volunteering their time to keep fighting against this dam. We all need to write to Minister Peter Garrett and to the National papers. I fear that unless we gain public support nationally we will lose our battle.

Backyard koala

August 19th, 2009

I was very pleased to receive a call yesterday from some caring and excited residents, Elaine and Gary, about their backyard visitor. A koala had decided to visit a large gum tree in their backyard. Now this backyard is not ‘out in the bush’. It is right here in Hervey Bay in Doolong South Road near the Fraser Coast Anglican College.

With regular reports about the reduction in Koala numbers throughout Australia I really do hope that this koala and all the others still found in our region survives the pressures that development brings. While we often here the saying ‘you can’t stop progress’ hopefully we can steer progress to better protect existing habitat and create new habitat where needed. The destruction of our existing local fauna and flora is not my idea of responsible ‘progress’.

So if you are travelling down Doolong South Road please don’t speed and keep a look out for our furry friends. Thanks Elaine and Gary for sharing your photos with us.

Koala in town

Koala in town

Koala with a view

Koala with a view

Next »