State News - August 2006
Back to :-
News Reports Index | Back to:Teachers for Forests Home Page | State News
Ben Doherty, The Age Port Phillip; South West; Gippsland; Victoria; South Australia; Tasmania;
29/08/06 $3.2m to save orange-bellied parrot The Age , AAP Port Phillip; South West; Gippsland; Victoria; South Australia; Tasmania;
28/08/06 Industry seeks 40-year plan for forestry, By Philip Hopkins, The Age
27/08/06 Battle for Baw Baw frog: log it and see - Peter Weekes, The Age
27/08/06 Bracks' water recycle claim a 'big swindle' - Jason Koutsoukis, The Age
24/08/06 Bendigo calls public meeting on water crisis Environment Victoria - Healthy Rivers Bulletin, - Murray Basin Aug 06
15/08/06 A dead Wimmera River won’t help water crisis Environment Victoria - Healthy Rivers Bulletin, - Murray Basin Aug 06
11/08/06 At it again - Department Caught Illegally Logging Barmah State Forest - Friends of the Earth - media release Murray Basin ; Aug 06
07/08/06 Bracks' $1m keen, green spin machine, Sarah Wotherspoon, Herald Sun
04/08/06 MEDIA ALERT 4th August 2006 OWL HANDS OVER FINAL GOOLENGOOK SUBMISSIONS.- Billy Dain East Gippsland and Goolengook
August 29, 2006 - 9:35AM, The Age , AAP -our highlighting
The investment will build on $1 million already spent to conserve the parrot and habitats vital to its successful migration and breeding.
The bird which stopped a $220 million wind farm development is now about to come into the money itself, through a $3.2 million federal government investment in its future.
One of the rarest bird species in the world, the orange-bellied parrot is barely surviving in its heartland, the margins of Bass Strait in southern Australia.
A federal government initiative will enable closer work with landholders in the parrot's Victorian and South Australian winter bases, and conserve breeding and nesting habitats in the Tasmanian world heritage area in the state's south-west.
More effort will go in to improving important migratory habitats and controlling predators in north-west Tasmania and on King Island, while conservation work will be undertaken on defence department land which forms part of the parrot's habitat in Port Phillip Bay.
"The orange-bellied parrot is considered to be one of the world's rarest and most endangered animals, with only about 50 breeding pairs known to exist," Environment Minister Ian Campbell said in a statement.
"Very substantially increased Australian government support will increase important work protecting, enhancing and expanding key habitats across the parrot's range."
Senator Campbell sparked a political controversy in May when he used his federal powers to halt a wind farm development at Bald Hills, in Victoria's Gippsland, saying the farm's rotors could kill one parrot a year, on average. He ultimately agreed to reconsider his decision.
Senator Campbell said the latest initiative would build on $1 million already spent since 1989 to conserve the parrot and habitats vital to its successful migration and breeding.
"A further $5.5 million has been spent on regional biodiversity conservation across the species range," he said.
"The orange-bellied parrot faces a number of major threats, including habitat loss and modification, predators, mortality caused by collision with structures and catastrophes such as storms."
The small parrot twice a year traverses Bass Strait between its Tasmanian breeding areas and winter habitats on the Australian mainland in coastal Victoria and South Australia.
AAP
By Philip Hopkins, The Age
August 28, 2006
The Victorian forest industry has called on the State Government to develop a 40-year plan for the industry based on native forests, plantations and farm forestry.
Tricia Caswell, chief executive of the Victorian Association of Forest Industries (VAFI), said the Government had a key role to play because it was the sole regulator of the industry.
"The Government should demonstrate leadership and champion the benefits and management of native forests in Victoria," she said, emphasising forestry's potential to create world-class industries for both regional and urban Victoria.
Ms Caswell said the Government should reaffirm its commitment to its Our Forests Our Future policy. "It needs to draw a line in the sand," she said, and guarantee the industry the 567,000 cubic metres of hardwood sawlogs set out in the policy in 2002.
According to VicForests data, Ms Caswell said, only 450,000 to 500,000 cu m of sawlogs would be available by 2015-16.
She was speaking at the launch of two documents - VAFI's vision for forestry by 2025, and a plantation policy backed by VAFI, Australian Forest Growers, peak plantation body A3P and Timber Communities Australia.
The plantations policy emphasises that plantation forestry is a long-term investment, taking from 10 to more than 30 years before substantial returns are achieved.
Its importance as a driver of investment and jobs is reflected in the $258 million upgrade of Australian Paper's Maryvale mill based on a $300 million investment in plantations, the policy says.
Ms Caswell said softwood and hardwood plantations would never replace native hardwood industry production, but they would play a significant part in the industry's future.
Under the VAFI policy, priorities for the Government include:
· Support efforts to restrict imports of illegally and unsustainably harvested timber.
· Support for sustainable red gum forestry with no resource cutbacks.
· Bolstering confidence and investment by increasing VicForests' timber release plan from five years to 10, and moving the allocation order out to 20 years.
The policy calls for continued sustainable forestry in old growth, with alternative harvesting practices positive for industry and ecology.
According to the Institute of Foresters of Australia, more than 70 per cent of Victoria's old-growth forest will never be logged.
The IFA says the area of old growth will increase substantially in the future because 3.1 million hectares of current mature forest (at least 80 years old) that will not be logged is growing towards "old growth".
However, an environmental group, Save Goolengook Inc, claims the Government has been logging old-growth forest at an alarming rate.
A spokesman, Trevor Poulton, said modelling techniques used to identify old growth were inaccurate. The total reserved area of old growth might be less than claimed under the regional forest agreements, he said.
Peter Weekes, The Age
August 27, 2006
LARGE sections of untouched forests on the Baw Baw plateau may be logged to determine if clearfelling will threaten the critically endangered Baw Baw frog.
A leaked PaperlinX memo says VicForests has recommended the logging of the 10 Baw Baw frog environmental coupes on the plateau's southern escarpment. It expects to receive the go-ahead from the State Government within weeks.
Logging of the coupes was suspended in December 2004 after federal intervention and a spokesman for Environment Minister John Thwaites denied there were plans to resume harvesting. It is believed the suspension will be reviewed next week.
The frog, found only in Victoria, has all but disappeared, with the population falling to a few hundred from up to 15,000 in 1984. The proposal to log the 200 hectares is part of the habitat experimental harvesting program to determine if clearing would harm the frog, which is on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature red list, and is protected under state and national laws.
Environmental groups want the Federal Government to use the same powers it did to protect the orange-bellied parrot.
"To log a forest to demonstrate if it is detrimental to Baw Baw frogs is like throwing a baby into a swimming pool to demonstrate it can't swim," said Professor Jean-Marc Hero, of the IUCN.
Former head of Water Recycling Victoria, Bill Forester.
Photo: Mario Borg
Jason Koutsoukis, The Age
August 27, 2006
BILLIONS of litres of water are being wastefully dumped into Port Phillip Bay each year by the Bracks Government, which has been accused of misleading Victoria about the amount of water it recycles.
After the driest winter in 20 years, the State Government will impose stricter water restrictions this summer as it urges householders to save water, yet new allegations suggest it is being dishonest about its own water-saving measures.
The claims have been made by former Melbourne Water general manager Bill Forrester in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Age. He said the State Government was indulging in a "scandalous con job".
"The public are being completely misled about how much water is being recycled," Mr Forrester said.
According to Melbourne Water's last published annual report, 11.3 per cent of Melbourne's waste water was recycled in 2004-05.
But 94.7 per cent of the water that is branded as recycled is in reality class C effluent, which has been subjected to "on site" recycling at two of Melbourne's main water-treatment plants, the Western Treatment Plant and the Eastern Treatment Plant.
The water is not pumped back into the water supply system to be re-used in agriculture or industry, but is used to wash Melbourne Water plant equipment and then allowed to flow out to sea, or is pumped out on to 6000 hectares of Melbourne Water-owned land in Werribee.
Only 0.6 per cent of Melbourne's water is actually recycled and re-used in agriculture and industry.
"I was in charge of all this when the Bracks Government pulled this target of '20 per cent recycled water by 2010' out of thin air and the decision was made to inflate the existing percentage by including this internal recycled water," Mr Forrester revealed.
"The State Government has never set up a structure that will deliver recycled water for the state, and the evidence is there for all to see," said Mr Forrester, who parted amicably from Melbourne Water less than 18 months ago.
Mr Forrester's claims have been backed up by leading environment group the Clean Ocean Foundation, which has long been campaigning for the Bracks Government to halt the 430 million litres of raw sewage dumped into the ocean every day off Gunnamatta beach.
Clean Ocean Foundation spokesman Carlo Iacovino said: "Many Melburnians assume our sewage is recycled at Werribee or Carrum. The truth is that every day, over a billion litres is dumped into Port Philip Bay and into the ocean at Gunnamatta via environmentally damaging outfalls."
While Melbourne Water management yesterday strongly rejected the claims that it was misleading Victorians, spokesman Ben Pratt was forced to concede that water recycled "on-site" was not pumped back into Melbourne's water supply system for use by agriculture or industry. "We stand by the figures as reported in our annual report," Mr Pratt said.
A spokeswoman for Victoria's Water Minister, John Thwaites, also denied that its figures were misleading. "We support Melbourne Water's targets. And Victoria is on track to meet its 2020 recycling target," she said.
But the federal parliamentary secretary for the environment, Greg Hunt, a long-time proponent of water recycling, slammed the Bracks Government over its inaction. "Their own figures have been shown to be a fraud," Mr Hunt said.
"Overnight, they increased their recycling figure to around 12 per cent, yet in reality it was nothing more than an accounting trick," he said. "The problem of pollution still exists in Port Phillip Bay and off our coast and their proudest boast on recycling has been shown to be a lie."
■The Liberals, Nationals and the Greens are calling for an increase in the rebate offered to houses installing a water tank.
Existing houses that install a tank receive $150 from the State Government and an additional $150 to have it connected to the toilet system. It costs about $2200 to buy a water tank and have it fitted to a toilet and laundry.
With JASON DOWLING
Bendigo calls public meeting on water crisis
24 August 2006: Environment Victoria - Healthy Rivers Bulletin
Located in the exact geographic centre of Victoria, Bendigo is the gateway to the Murray Darling Basin and a modern, thriving city with a bustling local economy.
Its growing population enjoys great restaurants and shopping, acclaimed wineries, exciting attractions, magnificent heritage buildings, and a great lifestyle. Employment opportunities are growing, particularly in retail and financial services, public administration, tertiary education and health and medical services.
This is the picture painted by the City of Greater Bendigo website and it’s all true. However there is another side to life in Bendigo which relates to a growing crisis in its water supplies. Consider the following:
* Bendigo is in its 9th year of below average rainfall
* Bendigo residents are on Level 4 (Critical) water restrictions. They have reduced their consumption by 35% from 1990’s levels.
* Bendigo’s main water storages on the Coliban river are 20% full
* Lake Eppalock, which is fed by the Coliban and the Campaspe and provides the rest of Bendigo’s water, is only 4.6% full
* Water allocations for irrigators in the Campaspe and Loddon catchments (on either side of Bendigo) are zero. In other words, farmers are not getting any water for irrigation at present and their prospects are remote for getting anything like their full allocation during the irrigation season
* 65% of the Loddon River is considered to be in poor to very poor condition, according to a 2004 government scientific assessment of river health; while 35% of the Campaspe river is in poor to very poor condition and the rest in marginal condition.
* Water allocations for irrigators in the neighbouring Goulburn catchment are 7% and the irrigation season has been shortened by 6 weeks
* A proposal to build a pipeline from the Goulburn River to Bendigo has been approved without a full environmental effects statement
The situation is serious and the combined impact of population growth and higher temperatures and reduced rainfall due to climate change will exacerbate it further.
As a first step to exploring community attitudes to this acute situation, Bendigo City Council is holding a public forum on water on Thursday 31 August, 10.30-12.00 at the Bendigo Town Hall.
EV Healthy Rivers team will be there and encourage you to come along to discuss the issues and begin the search for solutions that will provide a secure water future for residents, farmers and the environment.
Above: Healthy Rivers Campaign Director Dr Paul Sinclair inspects a dry Loddon River with members of the local community.
A dead Wimmera River won’t help water crisis
Tuesday, August 15: Environment Victoria has called on the Victorian Government to pick up the bill for carting water to farming families in the Wimmera region.
Environment Victoria Healthy Rivers Campaign Director Dr Paul Sinclair said the Wimmera’s water crisis had been a long-time coming, yet the Government had failed to plan ahead.
"This is the ugly face of climate change in Victoria.
"The Government needs to act now to help hurting local families by picking up the bill for water carting and increasing funding for family support services in the region," Dr Sinclair said.
Environment Victoria is calling on the Victorian Government to establish a Wimmera Community Taskforce to address the immediate and long-term social and economic impacts of the current water shortage.
"Victoria needs a prosperous Wimmera and the region needs a long-term plan that shows how that future can be delivered. A dead Wimmera River won’t help us to create a prosperous future; nor will lurching from one water crisis to the next," Dr Sinclair said.
Dr Sinclair said calls for the Wimmera River’s 3000 megalitres worth of environmental flows to be used to fill farm dams would severely impact upon the $220 million local tourism industry and the environment, and do nothing solve the water crisis.
The Wimmera River is one of Victoria’s great rivers. The river has not received any significant environmental flow for the past 18 months. Without water, vital aspects of the river will be threatened, including:
* Already stressed river red gum forests
* Endangered species of fish such as catfish and unique Blackfish populations
* Water quality - already as high as 70 000 EC - could be further degraded
Water for the Wimmera River was created from savings made by the Northern Mallee Pipeline. Up to 90% of water released into the Wimmera’s channel system is lost before it reaches farm dams.
Scientists have warned our communities will face worse droughts, more extreme storms and more bushfires because of climate change. Dr Sinclair said the State Government must take urgent action to halt the devastating impacts of climate change.
"Farmers are going to be hit hard by climate change. But we can help put the brakes on climate change and stop it affecting more and more Victorian communities by cutting our greenhouse gas pollution levels – which are some of the highest per person in the world’’, said Dr Sinclair.
"The Victorian Government must take action to cut our current greenhouse pollution levels by 20 percent by 2020. That will help secure water for the future."
At it again - Department Caught Illegally Logging Barmah State Forest
10 August 2006 - Friends of the Earth - media release
See PDF file here
Bracks' $1m keen, green spin machine
Sarah Wotherspoon, Herald sun
August 07, 2006 12:00am
THE Bracks Government's environment department has spent more than $1 million on media spin doctors in less than a year.
Taxpayers have footed the bill for 18 communications managers and advisers employed by the Department of Sustainability and Environment.
Figures seen by the Herald Sun under Freedom of Information law show the DSE spent $1,122,231.12 on salaries for the advisers from July 1, 2005 to June 14 this year.
The bill equates to more than $60,000 a year for each media manager.
The money is enough to plant 500,000 trees, restore 500ha of wildlife habitat, buy 1000 megalitre of water for the Murray River or put six new litter traps on the Yarra River.
Environment Minister John Thwaites' department employs four communications managers and a further 10 communications advisers in its Melbourne office.
Another five advisers are employed in offices in Ballarat, Benalla, Box Hill and Traralgon.
The DSE has 18.5 full-time equivalent media managers for water, fire and emergency, land stewardship and biodiversity, planning and sustainability, as well as an overall media manager and advisers.
The advisers are in addition to Mr Thwaites' own communications team. The department has the same number of advisers as the Premier's media unit, which handles all ministerial media enquiries.
Opposition environment spokesman David Davis said the DSE was absorbed with spin and should stop wasting money. "This is money being diverted from community projects that would have improved our environment," he said.
But Mr Thwaites said the advisers were necessary to inform the public about DSE projects.
"The DSE needs to communicate effectively with the media as it deals with matters of crucial public importance such as fire fighting and water conservation," he said
MEDIA ALERT 4th August 2006 OWL HANDS OVER FINAL GOOLENGOOK SUBMISSIONS.
A Sooty Owl will hand over the last of the Goolengook Submissions today to the Victorian Environment Assessment Council (VEAC). VEAC has been asked to examine the potential for all or part of the Goolengook Forest Management Block to be added to the Errinundra National Park and has been calling for submissions from the public. The last of the submissions are due in by close of business today. In October 2002 the Victorian Government announced a moratorium on logging in the Goolengook forest management block. This followed a long running blockade of the area and community campaigns. The government has indicated the moratorium will stay in place until the VEAC investigation is complete. "The Goolengook Forest has been highly publicised in the past due to ongoing conflict between conservationists and the Bracks government. Goolengook is the only place in the world where cool and warm temperate rainforest overlap," said spokesperson for the Goongerah Environment Centre, Billy Dain "Its way over due that the Bracks government acted to protect this area and all other old growth forests from the destruction of logging. This area is key habitat for many threatened and endangered species including the Sooty Owl, Spot-tailed Quoll and the Long-Footed Potoroo," he concluded. Over 500 people have been arrested for protesting in this area since 1997.
Photo opportunities: Sooty Owl handing over last submissions 3pm today Address: 1/8 Nicholson Street, East Melbourne.
Available for comment: Billy Dain or Danya Brynx 0421931065
A World Built Around Vengeance And Retribution Is A World People Will Alway Seek To Escape...... Fr Hansen