threatened species

Controversial Tweed Shire Council has a history of making poor environmental decisions that are hugely unpopular with the largely Green-oriented residents. It is the second most complained about council in New South Wales. However in November 2010 the councillors voted for the worst possible blunder which will be recorded as a major crime against Nature.

Byrrill Creek, NSW

In October 2010 the residents in Tweed Shire did something that had never been done before in the history of World Rally Championships – they succeeded in ridding Tweed and neighbouring Kyogle Shire of the rally. There were many reason for this, not the least of which was the threat to already threatened and endangered species living en route.

One of the routes, pristine and idyllic Byrrill Creek - home to platypus, diminishing koalas and 45 threatened and endangered fauna, 26 threatened and endangered flora and adjacent to two World Heritage National Parks – had such fierce opposition from locals that the race had to be stopped after only 3 cars went through. News travelled as far as New York Times that rocks had been thrown at the cars – which was 6 months later denied by local police.

Short Lived Euphoria

The residents only had a few weeks to bask in the glory of success when a far worse environmental travesty was foisted on them by the local council – the building of a 36,000 ML dam in Byrrill Creek, against advice of their staff planners and the community working group. Such a dam would flood 400 hectares of this high conservation value, riparian area.

Sustainable water recommendations such as mandatory water tanks for new houses, dual reticulation, stormwater harvesting, grey-water recycling, wise water use were not even considered as an option.

The raising of Clarrie Hall dam nearby, recommended as the #1 option by council staff and the CWG, was rejected in favour of building a controversial dam at Byrrill Creek. The councillors voting in favour of Byrrill Creek dam must have influential friends living at Clarrie Hall dam is all I can say because that would be by far the cheaper, simpler and less controversial option.

While the shire already has almost enough water to support the existing population until 2036, the given reason for the building of a new dam is the addition of two new mega housing developments on the coast which would double the population effectively. It would seem sensible for the new housing developments to meet their own water needs with sustainable water management such as in the U.K. and Singapore.

(Cr Skinner, Cr Polglase and Cr Youngblutt)On November 1st, Mayor Kevin ‘Green’ Skinner (who declared on his election his commitment to 'preserving this lovely pristine environment'(see http://www.tweednews.com.au/story/2010/09/21/skinner-tweeds-new-mayor/ ) used his casting vote to push the motion for a dam through, contrary to convention to vote with staff recommendations. The ‘Three Stooges’ pro-development councillors who voted for the dam, also dogged a motion for an independent review of water demand management for the shire.

Councillor van Lieshout was unable to vote due to her husband's ownership of land that would be part of the area at Mebbin that would be inundated. The other three councillors Cr Milne, Cr Holdom and Cr Longland lodged a recission motion and the following week an extraordinary meeting was held which which resulted in the same outcome - 3-3 tied with the Mayor once again using his casting vote to push the dam through in spite of receiving hundreds of requests from residents not to. The council also received letters from 5 District Ratepayers Associations representing 70% of the shire's population. They all strongly condemned the dam proposal.

When these three councillors, who only received 25% of the vote at the council elections in 2008, use their power to force a decision that is unwanted by the majority of the residents and ratepayers, it makes you wonder what is their motivation.

Even the General Manager (who was on the Board of the Repco Rally) is not in favour of a dam at Byrrill Creek. Nor is Max Boyd (former Administrator) and Nationals MP for Tweed Geoff Provest. They realise that the NSW Weirs policy is opposed to new dams. The Federal EPBC Act stopped the Traveston Dam on Mary River Qld due to its nationally endangered species but there are more federally threatened and endangered species at Byrrill Creek. Forging ahead for a dam is fraught with legal difficulties and may well be rejected by the government after many years and much money wasted. Who pays for all the costs involved in planning the dam, legal costs, amounting to millions of dollars? Why ratepayers of course! Not the Three Stooges, that’s for sure.

If they were wise they would raise Clarrie Hall dam (which needs repairs anyway) to ensure the shire’s water needs are met by 2036. However, while the raising of Clarrie Hall dam is less environmentally destructive, nevertheless it will negatively impact on the threatened species there. By far the best option is sustainable water options.

Environmental Reasons to Oppose a Dam

1. It threatens two adjacent World Heritage areas. Byrrill Creek is an identified and important wildlife corridor between three National Parks, two of which are World Heritage listed (Border Ranges NP and Mount Warning NP) and the third (Mebbin NP) is currently under consideration for inclusion of World Heritage status. Since 11 hectares of Mebbin NP would be inundated, that part of Mebbin NP would not be eligible for WH status.

Byrrill Creek is geologically part of the inner ring dyke system of the extinct volcanic complex of Mt Warning. This shield volcano is one of the best preserved in the world.

2. Byrrill Creek and surrounding National Parks provides habitat for a high level of flora and fauna, threatened, vulnerable or endangered within the TSC (State) and EPBC (Federal) listings. An assessment of priority fauna species identified 42 priority flora species, 37 priority fauna species and 6 amphibians, 7 reptiles, 13 birds and 11 mammals.

According to Dr S. Phillips of Biolink Ecological Consultants, there are 45 threatened fauna species in a 5km radius of Byrrill Creek and 26 threatened flora, some of which are found nowhere else in the world, including:

Some of the species impacted by a dam at Byrrill Creek

Byrrill Creek Koala, Brush Tailed Phascogale, Eastern Pygmy Possum, Spotted Tailed Quoll, Squirrel Glider, Red Legged Pademelon, Stephens Banded Snake, Byrrill Creek Planigale, Yellow Bellied Glider, Large Footed Myotis, Giant Barred Frog, Green Thighed Frog, Pouched Frog, Loveridge’s Frog, Stuttering Frog, Barking Owl, Marbled Frogmouth, Masked Owl, Sooty Owl, Glossy Black Cockatoo, Barred Cuckoo Shrike, Powerful Owl, Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo, Square Tailed Kite, Wompoo Fruit Dove, Albert’s Lyrebird, Black Breasted Buttom Quail, Rose-Crowned Fruit Dove, Rufous Scrub Bird, Bush Hen.

The pouched frog is found only in Tweed shire. This remarkable frog leaves its eggs under leaves, not in the water. When they hatch the hatchlings crawl on the back of the male frog where it has two pouches. It is there that they live till big enough to leave.

Ironically enough, the Albert's Lyrebird is on the Tweed Shire council's crest. In NSW, this species occurs in the Northern Rivers Area only, occurring west to the Acacia Plateau in the Border Ranges and reaching its eastern and southern limits in the coastal range south-west of Ballina. It is found nowhere else in the world. Will they have to change their crest when it becomes locally extinct due to the dam going ahead?

The Giant Barred Frog (mixophyes iterates) is endangered under the EPBC Act. It is one of the largest frogs in Australia. A three month study was conducted on this frog in Mebbin National Park.

According to Dr Steve Phillips of Biolink Ecological Services there are also two endangered ecological communities that would be at risk. There are 15-17 species at risk of local extinction in the lowland rainforest if it were be inundated in the case of a dam built in Mebbin National Park.

3. Under the Border Ranges Biodiversity Management Plan, the Tweed Caldera (of which Byrrill Creek is an important part) is a recognised priority area for biodiversity management. So why is this area even being considered for a dam? It is an area of high conservation value with no less than six ecological assessments classifying Byrrill Creek catchment as a site of the highest conservation value riparian status in the Tweed Shire.

Stressed Rivers Assessment Report 1999 (NSW Land & Water Conservation)
Tweed Riparian Restoration Prioritisation Report 2003 (Ecosure, Burleigh Heads)
Tweed Shire Vegetation Management Strategy 2004
NRCMA Byrrill Creek Riparian Rehabilitation Project 2006
PAS Key Corridor Connections Project 2009 and 2010
A local Byrrill Creek Fauna & Flora Survey by J. Gardner 2009

Currently there has been no complete fauna & flora assessment of the proposed dam site. There needs to be a comprehensive new assessment of the true ecological significance of Byrrill Creek catchment.

If a dam went ahead, irreplaceable rainforest would be flooded at Mebbin NP. Lance Tarvey of NPWS, Murwillumbah, considers these the most valuable in diversity of species and irreplaceable.

4. The Stressed Rivers report DLWC 1999 classed the mid Tweed River as already stressed due to water extraction at Clarrie Hall Dam and it has been identified by NPWS for conservation. Another dam would exacerbate this problem.

Financial Reasons to Oppose a Dam

Over the last three years a total of $546,000 has been allocated in grants to the Byrrill Creek area for restoration, landcare and conservation projects. All of this would have been for nought.

The cost to build a dam at Byrrill Creek would be $67 million compared to $35 million to raise the wall at Clarrie Hall dam.

Furthermore to proceed with a dam when there is a high possibility it will be rejected is wasting millions of ratepayers' money when it didn't need to be. Traveston Dam was rejected on the grounds of endangered species and the Qld government wasted $100 million of taxpayers' money in the process - for nothing.

Dams only have an average lifespan of 50-100 years before they fail. What a waste of time, money and irreplaceable biodiversity for old-school mentality!

Sustainability Issues Ignored

Social and government trends are towards low impact water management and harvesting strategies (stormwater and rainwater harvesting, dual reticulation, greywater use and reduced demand through efficient water use. The Tweed community overwhelmingly called for the latter practices to be enforced and identified a dam at Byrrill Creek as the last of possible options.

Indigenous Sites Under Threat

Mt Warning is a sacred site to the local aboriginal population and contains numerous cultural heritage sites within the Byrrill Creek area. There was a 3-day indigenous study showing 26 registered sites confined to the original aboriginal inhabitants (camp sites etc). In 2009 4 new sites were found. A dam would cut highly significant pathways. These sites are significant and important to the indigenous people living here.

Indigenous leaders chose of the four options the following:
1. borewater
2. pipeline to SE Qld
3. Clarrie Hall dam
4. Byrrill Creek dam

Legal Reasons to Oppose a New Dam

Rainforest like this would be inundated.

A dam at Byrrill Creek is currently prohibited. Section 9, Clause 6, In-River Dams of the Tweed River area Unregulated and Alluvial Draft Water Sharing Plan states that a dam at Byrrill Creek is prohibited because of its high conservation value. Should the council plan to transfer water interstate, this same plan within Part 13, Clause 36 says ‘Interstate transference of water allocations to or from these (Tweed’s) water sources are prohibited.’
Yet Tweed Council submitted amendments to both of these clauses in October 2009 allowing a dam at Byrrill Creek and allowing the transfer of water to and from the adjoining shires of South East Queensland and Rous.

Additionally, inundating areas of Mebbin National Park which are part of the Federal and NSW government and State Forestry North East Forest Agreement (NEFA) would necessitate the same levels of legislation.

There are twelve pieces of legislation that would need to approve this dam and it is highly likely that the Threatened Species Conservation (TSC) Act and the Environmental Protection & Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999 would not approve it due to all the state and federally threatened and endangered species.

The NSW Weirs Policy is for environmentally sustainable development. It gives fifteen reasons why no new dams should be built and has as a goal to halt, reduce and remediate the environmental impacts of dams. Furthermore, it disallows the construction of dams or even augmentation of a dam for the purpose of an increase in town population. It also disallows construction of a dam if it breaks connectivity for species. Both of these apply in the case of Byrrill Creek.

Why Biodiversity Protection is Critical at this Time

* According to http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/hotspots/index.html
“Australia is one of 17 countries described as being ‘megadiverse’. This group of countries has less than 10% of the global surface, but support more than 70% of the biological diversity on earth. These countries represent more than two-thirds of all (known) life forms and the majority of tropical rainforests, coral reefs and other priority systems. The results of the assessment were published in Megadiversity: Earth's biologically wealthiest nations."

* Australia has the most (non-fish) vertebrate species of all the 17 mega-diverse countries.
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/hotspots/index.html

* We only had around 2% of Australia covered in rainforest when we first arrived we now have less than .25% left and in that resides over 60 % of our biodiversity.

* The Australian Government listed the Border Rangers, including the Tweed Caldera, as one of the 15 biodiversity hotspots around Australia. “These hotspots were identified to increase public awareness of the cost effectiveness of strategic and timely action to conserve biodiversity. In hotspot areas, timely intervention may prevent long-term and irreversible loss of their values, and provide high return on our conservation dollar”. (Aust Govt website: Biodiversity Hotspots).

* Of countries containing large endowments of biodiversity, Australia is unique in another very significant way. Of all the countries classified as megadiverse, Australia is one of only two countries in the high income category. This position carries a special responsibility and implies that a high standard of biodiversity protection can be expected in Australia. It also carries with it an opportunity too for world leadership”. (Aust Govt website: State of Environment report 2001)

* The Earth is experiencing the 6th mass extinction event – the 5th was 65 million years ago. The conservation status of Australia's biodiversity reflects the global situation. Close to 50% of all mammal extinctions that occurred globally in the last 200 years were in Australia - http://www.greateasternranges.org.au/nature/wildlife/global-extinction-crisis

* Approximately 13% of all Australia's known vertebrate species are listed in Australia's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 as either 'threatened' or 'vulnerable'. The number of terrestrial birds and mammals assessed as extinct, endangered or vulnerable on this list rose by 41% in the last decade.

* Known species extinctions Australia has experienced since non-Indigenous settlement have been primarily in arid/semi-arid climatic areas, however, significant loss of biodiversity has occurred in the forests and woodlands. The extinction of local populations and community assemblages continues with the degradation of ecosystem functionality. This local loss of biodiversity is partly recognised by the species and ecosystems formally regarded by each Australian state as threatened, as distinct from those listed nationally as threatened with global extinction.

* Tweed has the largest number of threatened flora in Australia. 80% of bush land in Tweed has high (or very high) conservation status” (State of the Environment Tweed 2009).

Clearly, this World Class environment deserves world class planning practices.

Conclusion

No wonder we have such a high percentage of biodiversity loss when we have people in power like the three Tweed Shire councillors who voted for this dam. Time for unenlightened councillors to get with the program – this is 2010, the Year of Biodiversity. Why do they think they are not responsible for intelligent governance of the environment for the people and future generations? Perhaps they should review #5 of council’s charter where it says to properly manage environment in a sustainable way?

http://www.savebyrrillcreek.com
http://candobetter.net/node/2857

Mr Kelvin Thomson (Wills) Monday, 8 February 2010

At the time of Steve Irwin's death in 2005 he was one of the most recognised and respected Australian faces here in Australia and even more so right around the world. Former Prime Minister John Howard, to his credit, arranged a $6 million federal government grant to purchase 135,000 hectares in northern Cape York, preserve it as part of the national reserve system and name it the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve as a tribute to the life and conservation work of Australia's crocodile hunter.

According to the federal Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, a stunning array of wildlife roams the property, including the endangered northern quoll and the great palm cockatoo. Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve is home to six highly vulnerable plant species. The nearby Wenlock River is the richest in freshwater fish diversity of any Australian river, including speartooth sharks, sawfish and the estuarine crocodile. Of the 32 ecosystems found on the reserve, 21 are threatened. Many of these are found nowhere in the world but in Cape York. The department of the environment says that preserving them is of global importance.

(Great Palm Cockatoo - courtesy of wikimedia commons)

You would assume, then, given this history, that nothing could possibly go wrong. Regrettable, this is not the case. A mining company named Cape Alumina has lodged a request to strip mine over 12,000 hectares in the western part of Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve for bauxite. The result, according to Steve Irwin's widow, Terry Irwin, will be a total loss of original biodiversity, including all vegetation and wildlife. She says regenerated trees will lack the hollows that are crucial for nesting birds, possums and goannas. She also says that removing the bauxite would dramatically change the natural water flows to the unique and fragile rainforest springs on the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve and damage the Wenlock River system.

I want to join with my parliamentary colleague Senator Mark Furner, I want to join with the nine scientists who have submitted a detailed report on the area and I want to join with the over 217.000 people who have signed the petition to save Steve's place in saying there should be no strip mining in Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve.

In the south we have made a lot of mistakes. We have wrecked areas in the Murray-Darling Basin like the Macquarie marshes and the Coorong. I do not think they will ever be the same again. Can't we at least learn from these sad stories and resolve to do better with Cape York Peninsula, starting with the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve? I urge the Queensland and federal governments to reject the strip mining proposal. Do it for Steve, do it for those rare fish, birds and plants, and above all do it for all those children and young people who want this area to be as beautiful in 10 years, 20 years, 100 years as it is today.

What you can do

If you are a Queensland resident, please sign the e-petition on the Parliamentary web-site (see text below), The petition is open until 17 May 2009. If you live outside of Queensland, please sign the petition on the Save Steve's Place. (www.savestevesplace.com) web site.

Queensland Parliamentary e-petition

The petition of the residents of the State of Queensland draws to the attention of the House that the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve (SIWR), a 135,000 hectare property in Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula, is being threatened by strip mining. The SIWR is a wetland conservation property and tribute to Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, and is home to a set of three important spring fed wetlands which provide a critical water source to threatened habitat, provide permanent flow of water to the Wenlock River, and is home to rare and vulnerable plants and wildlife. Cape Alumina Pty Ltd has lodged mining lease applications which include approximately 12,300 hectares of the SIWR. Cape Alumina company documents indicate an intention to mine 50 plus million tons of bauxite over a 10 year period commencing 2010. The proposed area for mining on the SIWR contains the head waters of irreplaceable waterways and unique biodiversity which will not recover after mining operations are finished.

Your petitioners therefore request the House to ask the Minister for Mines and Energy to ensure that no mining applications are granted on any part of the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve (SIWR).

State-sponsored human population growth is doing more harm to Australian wildlife and the environment than the dreaded cane toad!

(Illustration:Canetoad Anna B by Sheila N)

Anna Bligh's policies are turning the human population in Queensland into the equivalent of canetoads. Native habitat is being sacrificed to continuous development and humans are overwhelming indigenous species, just like the imported canetoad. We have far less excuse though, since we are able to control our population and we are supposed to be living in a democracy - not a developer-led dictatorship.

Canetoads

Cane toads, which produce large numbers of offspring, are colonising northern Australia at an increasingly rapid pace. Cane Toads are likely to colonise almost every habitat type before eventually moving further south.

In Australia it is officially recognised that the cane toad is a pest and an invasive species in many regions where it has been introduced. A particular concern is that its toxic skin kills many animals—native predators and otherwise—when ingested. The kinds of native animals that are most likely to be affected by toads are predators, like quolls (marsupial carnivores), large snakes, and goannas.

Humans just as out of control as toads, but with less excuse

Our iconic koalas, however, are under threat from a runaway human invasion! In fact, all native species have been impacted by the growth of human populations, and as koalas are competing with the same locations, they are losing out badly. This is not properly acknowledged officially; human development impact is being dealt with piecemeal, project by project, without reference to the total impact of total human development in the total koala habitat. This is either incompetent planning or a depraved policy to wipe out koalas by simply erasing their habitat in a patchwork approach.

(photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Southeast Queensland typically supports the highest densities of Koalas in the State, but rapid human population growth there is accompanied by loss of native vegetation and koala numbers are plummeting towards zero! A conservative estimate indicates a further loss of 23-25,000 ha of native vegetation, much of it koala habitat, in the next 20 years as human population burgeons. An upper estimate is 30-35,000 ha loss of native vegetation, further accelerating the decline of koala and other wildlife populations. Long before that, the koalas will all be gone!

The bulk of remaining koala habitat is legally unprotected

An estimated 80% of koala habitat has probably been destroyed since European settlement. Most of the habitat that is left is private land – almost none of it protected in law.

Extreme drought, ferocious bushfires and urban development could make koalas , extinct within seven years environmentalists are warning.

Erna Walraven, senior curator at Taronga Zoo, sees the koala as a flagship species , with the health of their populations serving as an indicator of the wider health of the wildlife of the bush, including bandicoots and wallabies.

Stress causes illness in koalas. Stress is another word for hardship. Stress is caused by loss of habitat and subsequent overcrowding. The majority of koalas in Queensland are believed to be infected with Koala retrovirus (or KoRV). This retrovirus can cause suppression of the immune system in koalas, leukaemia and lymphoma

The Queensland Government has announced it would protect 5.6 hectares of state-owned koala habitat at Alexandra Hills

Govt land handover for koalas a "shocking joke"

(Photo source: http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/about_the_epa/public_reporting/epa_bulletin/issue_48_june_2009/index.html)

State Climate Change Minister Kate Jones said the land, located on Windemere Road and of high commercial value, would be handed over to Redland City Council.

Honorable as this handover is considering the land’s commercial value, it is a drop in the ocean. The solution needs a more holistic approach. In fact there should be no more development in the vulnerable area at all.

We should be looking, not at what Minister Jones is 'sparing' but at what she is allowing to be taken and destroyed.

Koalas like to move about, and being surrounded by roads and developments, saving 5.6ha of key habitat will have little effect ultimately on saving the species.

The small Koala populations that remain cut off in fragmented areas of bushland are at great risk of localised extinction because a single fire may wipe out an entire habitat. Bushfires are extremely common in the summer months. Below habitat threshold points, a rapid decline in koala occupancy is likely. Fences, roads and cleared land can all create barriers to koala movement. These factors alter population dynamics, impede gene flow, and limit the ability for populations to recover from insult and depletion.

Without interlinking and continuous wildlife corridors and crossings, habitats remain fragmented.

According to Australian Koala Foundation chief executive officer Deborah Tabart, 25,000 koalas have died from dog attacks, cars and disease in the last 10 years in South East Queensland and that's because leaders have failed to plan effectively which land should be developed.

South East Queensland’s excessive population growth is no doubt stimulating economic growth - albeit debt-funded. Our leaders worship growth, but they fail to appreciate that koalas and other animals have indigenous rights and that to treat them in this way is depraved. Unless there is a stop to developments and housing and cap on human population numbers, the Bligh government’s greed will destroy Queensland’s natural wealth, including its biodiversity, and create a crowded, sterile and cruel wasteland!

Is Premier Anna Bligh happy to create, manipulate and profit from a human population explosion at the expense of wildlife habitat and to willingly make human invasions a greater threat to Queensland than those of the unwitting cane toad?

Any introduced species, with unchecked population growth, can become a “pest” species! The Economy should not over-ride our moral and ethical duty to protect the species that have a rightful existence in their land and whose survival dignifies our own.

#WhatYouCanDo" id="WhatYouCanDo">What you can do

Contact Premier Anna Bligh and let her know how you object to her Government making the plight of our endangered koala worse. Please send us any copies of correspondence to or from the Premier.

Her contact details are:

South Brisbane Electoral Office

E-mail: South.Brisbane[AT]parliament.qld.gov.au

Phone : (07) 3255 3615
Fax : (07) 3255 3627

Suite 1/90 Vulture Street
West End 4101 Qld

PO Box 5822
West End Qld 4101

Ministerial Office

E-mail : premier[AT]ministerial.qld.gov.au

Phone : (07) 3224 4500
Fax : (07) 3221 3631

Level 15 Executive Building
100 George Street
Brisbane Qld 4000

PO Box 15185
City East QLD 4002

Leadbeater’s Possum – Victoria’s endangered State Faunal Emblem.

The following article is based on an urgent communication from Friends of Leadbeater's Possum.

Leadbeater’s Possum (LBP) Quick Facts:

- Approx 43% of the Leadbeater's Possum Permanent Reserve System (30,000ha) was burnt in the 2009 fires.
- It is estimated remaining populations are around just 1,000 individuals in the wild.
- There are no Leadbeater's Possum in captivity in Australia, and there is no captive breeding program planned
to help increase their population.
- Massive scale salvage logging and new timber harvesting coupes in areas of un?burnt water catchments are compounding the effects of the bushfires by removing all LBP habitat elements for the next few hundred years!

What can you do to help LBPs this Threatened Species Day???
On September 7th please make the effort to contact Premier Brumby and let him know you are not happy with the way his government is treating our forests and that you want more to be done to protect these forests for threatened species like Leadbeater’s Possum.

- Demand a full scale review of our forest estate

- Demand a full scale review of our forest estate – before any more logging coupes or salvage logging coupes are approved.

We need to ensure our State Government is managing our forests for threatened species, biodiversity & ecological values,
carbon storage, water catchments and air quality – for all Australians, not just those benefiting from our destructive
timber harvesting industry.

- Demand an end to all logging in water catchments. Water scarcity is an increasingly alarming issue, and rather than building destructive pipelines and energy intensive desalination plants, Victoria should be protecting the water catchments
that have provided us with some of the best drinking water in the world!

- Demand more resources be spent on threatened species management, including broad scale monitoring programs, habitat enhancement measures & community engagement.

To Contact Premier John Brumby:
www.premier.vic.gov.au, Twitter: ‘vicpremier’
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JohnBrumbyMP

For more about saving the little Leadbeater's Possum contact
Friends of the Leadbeater's Possum
Email Friends of Leadbeater's Possum
PO Box 1175
Healesville VIC 3777
[email protected]
www.leadbeaters.org.au

Perhaps the most urgent near-term issue for environmentalists is one that few yet talk about. It is what I call "the human bottleneck".

Just as the genus homo itself went through a bottleneck when all but one of its species vanished, and just as even that one survivor, homo sapiens, seems to have fallen at one point to less than 10,000 breeding pairs, so all other species on Earth will soon have to pass through a bottleneck as humans pass through what we hope will be a maximum population of about 9 billion, later this century. This will leave so little land and food for other species that many, perhaps most of them, will perish.

Note that the narrowest part of the bottleneck for other species will not necessarily come when the human population peaks. At that stage many, or even most humans will still be living in poverty but aspiring to affluence. Hence the squeeze on all other species will actually continue to get worse, and perhaps very much worse, after the human population peaks.

The assumption that world population could peak at approximately 9 billion is taken from
http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/worldpopinfo.html

For the assumption that much of that population will still be pursuing increased consumption, and thus intensifying rather than relaxing the squeeze on other species, the author relies on his perception of common experience of human nature and of social inequalities.

You'll notice that the graph has such a small scale on the X axis (which covers 200,000 years) that one cannot read fine detail from it about values on the Y axis over the next 50 years (which would be speculative in any case) or the last 50. This suits, because the figures would vary according to what measures are used.

e.g. it is commonly said that humans now use some 40% of the Earth's primary production (i.e. plant food created from sunlight). But it does not follow that 60% of Earth's surface is freely available for other species, and I presume less than 20% is in virgin state. It also depends whether one includes the oceans. Virtually no part of the ocean surface is not harvested by fishermen, so this might put us as at present intensively harvesting the production of 80% of the planet rather than 40%.

Fortunately, as I say, the graph does not permit of reading its values in such fine detail over short periods --which is another way of saying that the overall shape remains the same pretty much regardless of what measure one uses for human domination.

Mark O'Connor CMC,
home page: www.australianpoet.com

Mark O'Connor is the author of This Tired Brown Land, Duffy and Snelgrove, NSW, 1994. He was Australia's Olympic poet for the year of the olympics in Sydney. He has published many books of poetry, much of it on ecological subjects.