Snow Petrel  (Pagodroma nivea) over Antarctic Ice

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‘An alliance of 30 global environment organisations today launched a report calling for greater protection for the East Antarctic marine environment, on the eve of an international meeting where the future conservation of this region will be decided.

The Antarctic Ocean Alliance (AOA) report “Antarctic Ocean Legacy: Protection for the East Antarctic Coastal Region”, supports a proposal from Australia, France and the EU for East Antarctic marine protection but also calls for additional important areas to be included such as the Prydz Gyre, the Cosmonaut Polynya, and the East India seamounts.

In just four days, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), will begin meetings in Hobart, Tasmania to debate several proposals for marine protection, including the East Antarctic coastal region and the Ross Sea. The Ross Sea was the subject of an AOA report in February this year.

“The AOA is calling on CCAMLR Members to support the current East Antarctic coastal region proposal put forward by Australia, France and the EU, but to also consider additional areas in subsequent years that our report shows are critical to ensuring the wildlife in the region gets the protection it needs,” said AOA Director Steve Campbell.

“We are calling on CCAMLR Members to support the establishment of the world’s largest network of marine reserves and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in Southern Ocean as a legacy for future generations,” Mr. Campbell said. “Decisive protection for the East Antarctic coastal region and Ross Sea would be a great start to that process.”

The remote East Antarctic coastal region is home to a significant number of the Southern Ocean’s penguins, seals and whales. It also contains rare and unusual seafloor and oceanographic features, which support high biodiversity.

Adelie Penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) in Antarctica

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“While the AOA supports the conservation gains included in the proposal from Australia, France and the EU, we hope that CCAMLR delegates will consider expanding on the area to be protected to include additional areas that are critical habitats for Adélie penguins, Antarctic toothfish, minke whales and Antarctic krill in the future,” said Mr. Campbell.

Antarctic marine ecosystems are under increasing pressure. Growing demand for seafood means greater interest in the Southern Ocean’s resources, while climate change is affecting the abundance of important food sources for penguins, whales, seals and birds.

In October 2011, the Antarctic Ocean Alliance proposed the creation of a network of marine protected areas (MPAs) and marine reserves in 19 specific areas in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica.

This report, ‘Antarctic Ocean Legacy: Protection for the East Antarctic Coastal Region‘, outlines a vision for marine protection in the East Antarctic, one of the key regions previously identified by the AOA.

Currently, only approximately 1% of the world’s oceans are protected from human interference, yet international agreements on marine protection suggest that this number should be far higher.

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), the body that manages the marine living resources of the Southern Ocean (with the exception of whales and seals), has set a target date of 2012 for establishing the initial areas in a network of Antarctic MPAs.

One of the key places for which the AOA seeks protection is the East Antarctic coastal region. This remote area, while vastly understudied, is home to a significant proportion of the Southern Ocean’s penguins, seals and whales. The East Antarctic coastal region also contains large seafloor and oceanographic features found nowhere else on the planet.  The AOA offers this report to assist in designating marine reserves and MPAs in the East Antarctic coastal region. This is the third in a series of “Antarctic Ocean Legacy” proposals from the AOA.

This report describes the geography, oceanography and ecology of this area. The AOA acknowledges the scientists and governments that have studied the region and welcomes and gives support to the proposal that has been submitted for marine protection in the East Antarctic by Australia, France and the EU, but is cautious that constant vigilance and additional marine reserves will be required to ensure that the conservation values of the proposal are not compromised in the future.

Killer Whales breaching in Antarctic waters

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The AOA proposes that in addition to the seven areas referenced by Australia, France and the EU, four additional areas also be considered for protection in the coming years. A network MPAs and marine reserves encompassing these additional areas and those proposed by Australia, France and the EU would span approximately 2,550,000 square kilometres.
Because the East Antarctic coastal region is “data‐poor”, the AOA plan is based on the application of the precautionary approach, one of the core concepts at the centre of CCAMLR’s mandate.

This proposal includes:

1. A representative sample of biological features at the species, habitat and ecosystem scale to ensure broad scale protection.
2. Areas of protection large enough to encompass broad foraging areas for whales, seals, penguins and other seabirds.
3. Protection of many of the region’s polynyas, which are sources of food for many species.
4. Protection of unique geomorphic features, including the Gunnerus Ridge, Bruce Rise, a trough mouth fan off Prydz Bay, various seamounts and representative areas of shelf, slope and abyssal ecoregions.
5. Full protection of Prydz Bay, an area that supports large numbers of seabirds and mammals as well as likely nursery grounds for krill and toothfish.
6. Protecting areas of scientific importance that may serve as climate reference areas.

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Weddell seal  (Leptonychotes weddellii) in Antarctic waters

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Currently only 1% of the world’s oceans are protected from human interference, yet international agreements on marine protection suggest that this number should be far higher.

The designation of a network of large‐scale MPAs and marine reserves in the East Antarctic coastal region would be an important and inspirational step for marine protection in the Southern Ocean. CCAMLR Members have an unprecedented opportunity to establish a network of marine reserves and MPAs an order of magnitude greater than anything accomplished before. With such a network in place, key Southern Ocean habitats and wildlife, including those unique to the East Antarctic coastal region, would be protected from the impacts of human activities.

The AOA submits that with visionary political leadership, CCAMLR can grasp this opportunity and take meaningful steps to protect critical elements of the world’s oceans that are essential for the lasting health of the planet.

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Notes:

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1. The AOA’s research has identified over 40% of the Southern Ocean that warrants protection in a network of large-scale marine reserves and MPAs, based on the combination of existing marine protected areas, areas identified within previous conservation and planning analyses and including additional key environmental habitats described in the AOA’s report.
2. The AOA is campaigning for CCAMLR to adopt its ‘Vision for Circumpolar Protection’ while this unique marine environment is still largely intact. CCAMLR has agreed to create a network of marine protected areas in some of the ocean around Antarctica this year but the size and scale is still under debate.
3. CCAMLR is a consensus body that meets with limited public participation and does not provide media access. The AOA believes that, without public attention during the process, only minimal protection will be achieved. It has launched the ‘Join the Watch’ campaign focused on CCAMLR, which now has more than 100,000 participants from around the world.
4. Antarctic waters make up almost 10% of the world’s seas and are some of the most intact environments left on earth. They are home to almost 10,000 unique and diverse species such as penguins, seals and whales.’

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Further Reading:

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[1]    East Antarctica targeted by dodgy fishing

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Read Report:  >’Antarctic Ocean Legacy: Protection for the East Antarctic Coastal Region.pdf  (1.6MB), 2012, by the Antarctic Ocean Alliance (AOA), ^http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/11352_aoa_east_antarctic_report_web__2_.pdf]

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[2]     Antarctic Toothfish?

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Antarctic Toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni) the Ross Sea, Antarctica

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‘Antarctic Toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni) are by far the dominant fish predator in the Ross Sea. Whereas most Antarctic fish species rarely get larger than 60 cm, Ross Sea toothfish can grow in excess of two metres in length and more than 150 kg in mass.

Being top predators, they feed on a variety of fish and squid, but they are also important prey for Weddell seals, sperm whales, colossal squid, and a specific type of killer whale that feeds almost exclusively on toothfish.

While these fish have long been studied for their ability to produce anti-freeze proteins that keep their blood from crystallizing, very little is known about their life cycle and distribution. We do know they live to almost 50 years of age and grow relatively slowly. They likely mature between 13 and 17 years of age (120-133 cm in length).

In the Ross Sea, toothfish are caught throughout the water column from about 300 metres to more than 2,200 metres deep. While most fish control their buoyancy with a swim bladder, toothfish actually use lipids or fats (lending to their popularity as a food fish).

Recent research suggests that toothfish have a complex life cycle which includes a remarkable spawning migration. In the Ross Sea region, adults feed over the continental shelf and slope, and then migrate from the Ross Sea continental shelf to northern seamounts, banks and ridges around the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge system. Here in the northern offshore waters, fish release their eggs, which are then picked up by the Ross Gyre and brought back to the shelf. This hypothesis is likely, but not yet proven because Antarctic toothfish eggs or larvae have never been found. Small juveniles have been found in other regions, but never in the Ross Sea, lending even more mystery to the life cycle of this fish.’

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[3]     Antarctica’s  ‘Ross Sea’?

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The Ross Sea ecosystem is the last intact marine ecosystem left on Earth. Unlike many other areas of the world’s oceans, the Ross Sea’s top predators are still abundant. Here they drive the system, shaping the food web below in a way that’s totally unique.

While comprising just two percent of the Southern Ocean, the Ross Sea is the most productive stretch of Antarctic waters. It has the richest diversity of Southern Ocean fishes, an incredible array of benthic invertebrates and massive populations of mammals and seabirds.

More than a third of all Adélie penguins make their home here, as well as almost a third of the world’s Antarctic petrels and Emperor penguins. Also found here are Antarctic Minke whales, Weddell and Leopard seals, and Orcas, including a population specially adapted to feed on Antarctic toothfish, the top fish predator of the Ross Sea.

The Ross Sea Map

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The Ross Sea’s rich biodiversity and productivity puts it on a par with many World Heritage sites, like the Galapagos Islands, African Rift lakes and Russia’s Lake Baikal.’

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[4]     Ross Sea dodgy fishing escapades

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Dec 2011:  Dodgy Russian-flagged fishing rust-bucket ‘Sparta’

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Jan 2012:  Dodgy Korean-flagged rust bucket fishing vessel ‘Jeong Woo 2’

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[5]     Mar 2012:   ‘US retailer says no to ‘Ross Sea’ seafood’   

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‘A third US retailer has announced it will not stock seafood from Antartica’s Ross Sea for environmental reasons, reports Greenpeace.

Harris Teeter joins US supermarket chains Safeway and Wegmans by taking the ‘Ross Sea Pledge’ which means it will not buy or sell seafood from that area. It is also calling for the entire Ross Sea to be protected.

“We have pledged not to buy or sell any seafood harvested from the Ross Sea,” the company states on its website.  “By taking the “Ross Sea Pledge,” we encourage the nations who are members of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources to designate the entire Ross Sea as an MPA [Marine Protected Area],” it continues.

The Ross Sea has been identified as the least human affected large oceanic ecosystem remaining on Earth.  Many Scientists are advocating for it to be designated as a fully protected marine reserve. However, a longline fishery for Antarctic toothfish, started by New Zealand vessels in the late 1990s, is operating in the Ross Sea and supplying the luxury market.

“The delicate balance of the fragile Ross Sea is under threat from commercial fishing,” says Greenpeace New Zealand Oceans Campaigner Karli Thomas.

“Although technology has made it possible, it is simply not sustainable to be fishing every last corner of our ocean. The Ross Sea is a special place that we should be protecting as the home to diverse and unique wildlife, and a refuge in the face of climate change – not exploiting to feed the wealthy.”

In 2010, Greenpeace published a report outlining the role that seafood traders, retailers and chefs can play in protecting the Ross Sea.  “The announcement by Harris Teeter shows there is a growing awareness by retailers that the Ross Sea should be protected as no-go area,” says Thomas.

The recently formed Antarctic Ocean Alliance, a group of environmental organisations, last week launched a report calling for a large-scale marine reserve to be established in the Ross Sea.’

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[6]   Carting Away the Oceans…

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Read Report:   >’Carting Away the Oceans V.pdf‘, by Casson Trenor, Greanpeace USA 2011,  ^http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/Global/usa/planet3/publications/oceans/CATO_V_FINAL.pdf, 2MB]

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[7]   Indiscriminate illegal gillnetting

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Illustration of a bottom gill net
(Michigan Sea Grant)

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Significant progress has been made in reducing the level of IUU catch through the cooperation of CCAMLR, its Member nations and legal fishers.  However, a number of IUU fishers still operate primarily in the South Indian Ocean and directly off the East Antarctic coastal region.

The conservative catch limits remain in place today, as IUU fishing remains a problem and is unlikely to further decline. In recent years, IUU fishers have increasingly used deepwater gillnets in the area, making IUU estimates nearly impossible to calculate.

Gillnets are banned by CCAMLR because they pose a significant environmental threat due to their high levels of bycatch and the risk of “ghost fishing,” which refers to nets that have been cut loose or lost in the ocean and continue catching marine life for years.

The amount of toothfish caught in IUU gillnets remains unknown, but is likely substantial. For example, gillnets found by Australian officials in 2009 spanned 130 km and had ensnared 29 tonnes of Antarctic toothfish.

IUU fishing and the uncertainty associated with toothfish populations severely compromise fisheries management and has led to the rapid decline of some toothfish stocks.

Moreover, like many deep dwelling fish, toothfish live a long time, grow slowly as adults and mature late in life, all characteristics that make them vulnerable to overfishing.

Local depletions of toothfish may easily occur, as has happened over BANZARE Bank. Scientists have yet to understand the Antarctic toothfish’s life history in the East Antarctic, which further compromises management.’

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[8]   Illegal Unreported Unregulated (IUU) Fishing’

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[9]    Antarctic Ocean Alliance

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^http://www.antarcticocean.org

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[10]    The Last Ocean:  Ross Sea

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‘The Last Ocean was started in 2004 to promote the establishment of a marine protected area (MPA) in order to conserve the pristine qualities of the Ross Sea, Antarctica.

In August 2009, the Last Ocean Charitable Trust was created as an extension of this project, specifically to raise awareness of the Ross Sea within New Zealand. The Trust is based in Christchurch, New Zealand’s gateway to Antarctica.’    Visit website:  ^http://www.lastocean.org/

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[11]   Ross Sea Dependency

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^http://www.rosssea.info/

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>Listening Post:  ‘Antarctica’

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Tasman Flax-lily (Dianella tasmanica) (blue berry) in a Blue Mountains Swamp

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Q:  When is a protected swamp not deemed a swamp and so not worthy of protection?

Closed sedgeland dominated by Soft Twig Rush (Baumea rubiginosa)

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A:  When unqualified local Council development planning staff are selectively blind to allow for housing development. 

Colorbond fence encroaching into the above Blue Mountains Swamp 

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Q:  When is a protected swamp deemed a swamp worthy of protection?

A:  When quasi-qualified local Council environmental staff are selectively seeking public relations kudos and grant funding.  

The Save Our Swamps (SOS) Project

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The Save Our Swamps (SOS) Project is a recent joint project between Blue Mountains City Council, Gosford City Council, Lithgow City Council and Wingecarribee Shire Council to protect and restore the federally listed Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone endangered ecological community.  

It is funded through a 12 month $400,000 federal Caring for Country grant operating across all four LGAs as well as a 3 year $250,000 NSW Environmental Trust grant focused on the Blue Mountains City Council and Lithgow City Council Local Government Areas.     [Source:  Blue Mountains Council, ^http://saveourswamps.com.au/index.php]

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Blue Mountains Swamp

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The Blue Mountains National Park is one of seven national parks which collectively comprise a million hectares of the Greater Blue Mountains Area, which since 2000 has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.   This area is protected internationally for (1) its outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals and (2) contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.      [Read More about ^The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage values]

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Since 12th May 2005,  ‘Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone‘ have been recognised as an important and rare ecological community listed as Endangered under the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, as well as within New South Wales under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (NSW) (TSC Act).

So naturally, one would expect such swamps to be identified, mapped and ecologically protected – one would expect.  .

These swamps occur naturally in very few places on the planet, as shown (in red) in the following distribution map within south eastern Australia:

.Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone – Global Distribution Map

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Blue Mountains Swamps are included as part of the Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone.   These are the top two red areas in the above map.

The Blue Mountains west of Sydney are Triassic sandstone plateaux.  Blue Mountain Swamps occur in shallow, low-sloping, often narrow headwater valleys (Keith and Benson 1988; Benson and Keith 1990), on long gentle open drainage lines in the lowest foot slopes, low-lying broad valley floors and alluvial flats (Department of Environment and Conservation 2006), and in gully heads, open depressions on ridgetops and steep valley sides associated with semi-permanent water seepage (Holland et al. 1992; Blue Mountains City Council 2005; Department of Environment and Conservation 2006).

Farmers Creek Swamp

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Most of these swamps are situated within the Greater Blue Mountains Area and so are ecologically protected, but many are not.  Many Blue Mountains Swamps are situated just outside on the fringe lands.  Those fringe lands lie on the bush interface with human residential settlement and despite their environmental protection on paper are at risk of being bulldozed for housing development.   Such threats from development are referred to as ‘edge effects‘.   These swamps are on the edge of housing development, or put the more chronological way, housing development is being allowed to encroach upon the edge of these swamps that were there first.      Other Blue Mountains Swamps such as those up on Newnes Plateau are at risk of being bulldozed and drained for mining.

According to the Blue Mountains Council, there are less than 3,000 hectares of Blue Mountains Swamp in existence. As they predominantly comprise many small areas, they are very susceptible to edge effects.    As the urban footprint expands to the edges of the plateau, the swamps are coming under ever increasing pressure.

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• Clearing for urban development
• Urban runoff – sediment deposition, tunnelling and channelisation from stormwater discharges
• Bushfire (both ‘wild’ and ‘hazard’ reduction)
• Weed invasion
• Nutrient enrichment (urban runoff)
• Mowing
• Grazing
• Water extraction (bores, tapping natural springs and building dams)

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Blue Mountains Swamp

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Blue Mountains Swamps – substrate characteristics

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Blue Mountains Swamps are characterised by the constant presence of groundwater seeping along the top of impermeable claystone layers in the sandstone and reaches the surface where the claystone protrudes (Keith and Benson 1988; Holland et al. 1992; Blue Mountains City Council 2005).

The substrate tends to be a shallow black to grey coloured acid, peaty, loamy sandy soil with organic matter and are poorly drained and so tend to be either constantly or intermittently water logged (Hope and Southern 1983; Keith and Benson 1988; Benson and Keith 1990; Stricker and Brown 1994; Stricker and Wall 1994; Winning and Brown 1994; Stricker and Stroinovsky 1995; Benson and McDougall 1997; Whinam and Chilcott 2002; Department of Environment and Conservation 2006).

Blue Mountains Swamp on Newnes Plateau

The swamps naturally trap sediment and disperse rain water over a wide area and protect floors of headwater valleys from erosion.  They vary in structure and species composition according to geology, topographic location, depth of the water table, extent and duration of water logging and bushfire frequency.

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Blue Mountains Swamps – vegetation variation

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The structure of Blue Mountains Swamp vegetation varies from open shrubland to closed heath or open heath (dominated by shrub species but with a sedge and graminoid understorey and occasionally with scattered low trees) to sedgeland and closed sedgeland.   The Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area ids listed for its outstanding natural values, a major component of which is the high number of eucalypt species and eucalypt-dominated communities.  These can be found in a great variety of plant communities including within and upslope of Blue Mountains Swamps.

Topographic location, hydrology and soils significantly influence the dominant species composition.   Structure of the vegetation varies from closed heath or scrub to open heath to closed sedgeland or fernland.   The common cross-feature with all types is the presence of frequently waterlogged soil.

The Gully Swamp

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Blue Mountains Swamps – Known Tree Species

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• Eucalyptus mannifera subsp. gullickii
• Mountain Swamp Gum (Eucalyptus aquatica)
• Eucalyptus copulans
• Ed:  Blue Mountains Ash (Eucalyptus oreades), only at creek headwaters around Katoomba

 Eucalyptus mannifera (subspecies ‘gullickii’)

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Blue Mountains Swamps – Known Shrub Species

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• Flax-leaf Heath Myrtle  (Baeckea linifolia)
• Leptospermum juniperinum
• Hakea teretifolia
• Leptospermum grandifolium
• Grevillea acanthifolia (subspecies ‘acanthifolia’)
• Leptospermum polygalifolium
• Banksia spinulosa
• Almaleea incurvata
• Epacris obtusifolia
• Epacris hamiltonii
• Sprengelia incarnata
• Deane’s Boronia   (Boronia deanei)
• Persoonia hindii
• Swamp Bush-pea   (Pultenaea glabra)
• Bantam Bush-pea   (Pultenaea parrisiae)
• Dwarf Kerrawang   (Rulingia prostrata)

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Flax-leaf Heath Myrtle  (Baeckea linifolia)

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Blue Mountains Swamps – Known Fern Species

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• Water ferns  (Blechnum nudum)
• Pouched Coral ferns Gleichenia spp  (G. dicarpa and G. microphylla)
• Umbrella ferns Sticherus spp
• King Fern   (Todea barbara)
• Drosera binata

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Blue Mountains Swamp – is this one protected?

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Blue Mountains Swamps – Known Sedge Species

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• Large tussock sedge, Gymnoschoenus sphaerocephalus

• Rhizomatous sedges and cord rushes:

• Soft Twig Rush (Baumea rubiginosa)
• Lepidosperma limicola
• Ptilothrix deusta
• Lepyrodia scariosa
• Leptocarpus tenax
• Cord-rush    (Baloskion longipes)

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‘Edge Effects’ – when housing development is allowed to encroach upon Blue Mountains Swamps

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Blue Mountains Swamps – Known Grasses and Herbs Species

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• Deyeuxia spp  (D. gunniana, D. quadriseta),
• Swamp Millet   (sachne globosa )
• Lachnogrostis filiformis
• Poa spp  (P. labillardierei var. labillardierei, P. sieberiana)
• Tetrarrhena turfosa
• Entolasia stricta
• Dampiera stricta
• Mirbelia rubiifolia
• Gonocarpus teucrioides
• Carex klaphakei
• Derwentia blakelyi
• Wingecarribee Gentian    ( Gentiana wingecarribiensis)
• Lepidosperma evansianum
• Yellow Loose Strife   (Lysimachia vulgaris var. davurica)
• Tawny Leek-orchid  (Prasophyllum fuscum)
• Dark Leek-orchid   (Prasophyllum uroglossum)
• Large Tongue Orchid   (Cryptostylis subulata)

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Large Tongue Orchid (Cryptostylis subulata)

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For further Reading visit: ^Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone ,   ^Blue Mountains Swamps in the Sydney Basin Bioregion – profile

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So what differentiates a Blue Mountains Swamp?

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What is common across the above varying substrate and vegetation characteristics, that differentiates a Blue Mountains Swamp from other vegetation communities are the following attributes:

1. Situated on the Narrabeen Sandstone plateaux across the Blue Mountains region
2. Underlying sandstone, ironstone and claystone bedrock forming a horizontal impermeable layer
3. Ancient peaty sandy soil with organic matter that is poorly drained
4. Presence of groundwater
5. Constantly or intermediately waterlogged soil
6. Locally native vegetation that thrives in such waterlogged soils

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Q:  But where do the spatial limits of a Blue Mountains Swamp begin and end?  Are Blue Mountains Swamps dependent upon the health of adjoining vegetation communities, particularly of those upstream.

A:  Probably, but who knows and who is researching Blue Mountains Swamps?

Q:  Is it the physical characteristics that differentiate a Blue Mountains Swamp from other less significant vegetation communities or is it our selective attitudes that decide whether to protect it or condemn it?

God Government Death Lever

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A Save or Bulldoze Case Study:  

‘Katoomba Creek Swamp at Twynam Street’

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Katoomba Creek Swamp

Katoomba Creek in the Upper Central Blue Mountains flows northward from a central plateau into the Grose Valley within the Blue Mountains National Park.

Katoomba Creek Swamp

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The headwaters of Katoomba Creek are forked from four upland gullies, one which has been dammed for water reservoir (Cascade Reservoir), and another starts near Twynam Street which forms the outer settlement area of Katoomba.  It is just three kilometres upstream from the World Heritage Area – the boundary of which is rather arbitrary and should be here at the precious headwaters.

Yet despite the substrate and vegetation characteristics of the creek headwaters suiting those of a Blue Mountains Swamp, Blue Mountains Council’s chief housing development manager, Paul Weston, Executive Principal, Building & Construction Services on 13th February 2012 deemed that “the vegetation community across the site is consistent with the Eucalyptus oreades Open Forest community, and known variations of that community, and is not a hanging swamp.”

“The inspections confirmed that some basic features common to hanging swamps are present on the land, such as steep slopes and groundwater seepage which supports the occurrence of the fern species Pouched Coral Fern (Gleichenia dicarpa), which is also found in swamps.  However, the absence of many typical Blue Mountains Swamp species, the presence of a prominent tree canopy, the absence of peat formation and the co-existence of the ferns with established and emerging sclerophyll shrub species, make this community inconsistent with that of the Blue Mountains Swamp Community.”

Furthermore, while the sheltered south easterly aspect, steep slope, the underlying geology and locally moist conditions provide a niche within the forested E. oreades- E. radiata – E. piperita community for ferns and other species to flourish in the wet conditions, the area does not support the usual suite of Blue Mountains swamp sedges, ground layer and shrub vegetation, nor the development of peat, nor is it wet enough to prevent the co-existence of other drier sclerophyll forest understory and canopy species in this vicinity.

The Proposed Housing Development Site at 121 Twynam Street Katoomba

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Blue Mountains Council’s Environmental Scientist and Environmental/Landscape Assessment Officer have inspected and assessed this swamp and deemed it not a swamp but a ‘wet forest‘.

Ed:  What puritanical pretense!

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This pristine vegetation community lies wholly within the riparian zone of the headwaters of Katoomba Creek (just metres away from the above photo).  The underlying substrate is sandstone, ironstone and claystone bedrock forming a horizontal impermeable layer.  The soil is ancient peaty sandy soil with organic matter that is poorly drained.  It has constant groundwater causing waterlogged soil.  The vegetation is a carpet of Pouched Coral Ferns, with a large cluster of King Ferns.  It has Soft Twig Rush (Baumea rubiginosa), its Lepidosperma limicola (sedge grass in foreground).    The tree canopy is Eucalyptus oreades which is common across Blue Mountains Swamps found at creek headwaters, but endemic only around Katoomba.

Is this more Swamp Selective Bias?

Indeed, the Blue Mountains Council ecological mapping assigned this site as a dry sclerophyll  Eucalyptus piperita/ Eucalyptus sieberi forest.  Woops.

The Council judgment letter stated that this site is zoned under Local Environmental Plan (LEP) 1991 as Residential Bushland Conservation.  But in fact, 80% of the site is zoned as a ‘Protected Area – Environmental Constraint‘  (see below extract).  Woops.

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LEP 1991 Protected Areas Objectives:   Clause 7.2 Environmental Constraint Area

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(a) To protect environmentally sensitive land and areas of high scenic value in the City  (Ed: not that any reasonable person could possibly deem the Blue Mountains to be a ‘city’).
(b) To provide a buffer around areas of ecological significance.  (Ed: Such as a pristine Blue Mountains Swamp)
(c) To restrict development on land that is inappropriate by reason of its physical characteristics or bushfire risk.  (Ed: the site is Bushfire Risk Category 1)

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121 Twynam Street is zoned a Category 1 Bushfire Risk

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The Slope of the site exceeds 33% grade, which exceeds the limits for the Council’s development criteria

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LEP 1991 Clause 11.3  ‘Environmental Constraint Area’

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“The Council shall not consent to development in a Protected Area – Environmental Constraint Area, unless it is satisfied, by means of a detailed environmental assessment, that the development complies with the objectives of the Protected Area that are relevant to the development and will comply with the Development Criteria in clause 10 that are relevant to the development.”

Council Judgment:

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 “In conclusion it is considered that the proposed dwelling and driveway have been designed and located to ensure that the development will not have a significant adverse environmental impact and is suitable for the site.”

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Ed:  So is this judgment and the process one of selective blindness, ignoring rules, hypocrisy, incompetence, or worse?   In the case of Katoomba Creek Swamp, the decision is not to save this particular Blue Mountains Swamp, but to bulldoze it.

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Crimson Rosella in snow, a native to The Gully

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It rarely snows in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains these days.  In the old days it used to snow every winter, but these days we are lucky to get a brief flurry in August that doesn’t even settle.

So this morning was exceptional.   The forecast today (Friday) was for a storm further south, but at 6am in Katoomba it started snowing.  And in the middle of October (spring)!

Today’s weather, 20121012

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Then it kept snowing and kept snowing ‘ till after 1pm.  A few big tree branches crashed under the weight of snow.  The streets and roads steadily became blanketed in snow, making them slippery and  dangerous to most vehicles.  The Great Western Highway remains closed. The trains are snowbound up at Mount Vic.  It’s like we’re in the Alps where snow there is normal, but here no-one was ready for it.  Snow has regrettably become a freak event in the Blue Mountains.

We must have received about half a foot of snow by lunchtime.  Everything became soft white in a black and white landscape.

So it became quite a special morning and well worth a walk around The Gully in the snow.

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The Gully in Snow

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(Click play, then click full screen icon at bottom right of video)

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Streets around The Gully in Snow

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Tyre tracks through the snow in Katoomba

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Panamanian Golden Frog

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The Panamanian Golden Frog (Atelopus zeteki) is considered ‘Critically Endangered‘ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Only three animals of this species have been seen in the wild since late 2007 and it is now quite possibly ‘Extinct in the Wild‘.

Fortunately for the species though, approximately 1,500 animals still exist aboard the AArk, thanks to the work of Project Golden Frog (www.ProjectGoldenFrog.org) and the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center (EVACC) (www.houstonzoo.org/amphibians/) in central Panama.

The Amphibian Ark is currently trying to help create a dedicated facility in Panama, at the EVACC, to house an expanding population of golden frogs that will hopefully someday be used for reintroduction back into the wild.

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(Click image to enlarge)

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Chytridiomycosis Disease

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‘Chytridiomycosis‘, a devastating amphibian disease, has spread to Panama’s Darien region, the last protected area in Central America.    ‘Chytridiomycosis‘ is highly contagious across amphibians like frogs and is caused by a ‘chytrid fungus‘ (pronounced ‘kit-rid‘).  The fungus is implicated in the decline or rapid extinction of at least 200 species of frogs and other amphibians worldwide, including twenty critically endangered frog species throughout Central America such as the Panamanian Golden Frog.

Smithsonian researchers found the disease in 2% of the 93 frogs tested.   Yet the highly contagious disease has decimated numerous frog species worldwide, although some populations in Australia and the US appear to be making a comeback by evolving greater resistance. Within a span of five months, the fungus eradicated half of the frog species and 80% of individuals at the El Cope Nature Reserve in western Panama.

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Nearly one-third of the world’s amphibians face extinction due to habitat loss, pollution and climate change with chytridiomycosis contributing to the extinction of 94 frog species since 1980.

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The Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project has established captive colonies of two harlequin frog species endemic to Darien should they vanish from the wild.

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‘The Hidden Plague’

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‘This is a crime scene in a remote corner of California, high in the Sixty Lakes Basin area of the Sierra Nevada: mountain yellow-legged frog corpses lie belly-up.  The ‘chytridiomycosis‘ was first detected in dying frogs in the Sierra Nevada in 2004.  It has since reduced the population of the Mountain Yellow-legged Frogs from tens of thousands to under a hundred.

The death of the frogs is emblematic of a global amphibian decline. It’s believed that the fungus is being spread in part by the international trade in amphibians for display, food and laboratory use, its effects enhanced by global warming.

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Its impact on frogs has resulted in the biggest loss of vertebrate life due to disease ever recorded.

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Green Tree Frog

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2003:  Chytridiomycosis listed as a Key Threatening Process across Australia

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In Australia, in 2003 Chytridiomycosis was acknowledged as a global epidemic impacting Australian frogs and amphibians and listed as a Key Threatening Process infecting and wiping out native frogs on Schedule 3 of the New South Wales (NSW) Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (22 August 2003).

The Chytridiomycosis disease is caused by the chytrid (fungus) ‘Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis‘ (Longcore et al. 1999), potentially fatal to all native species of amphibian.

As such, all frog species that are listed under the schedules of the Act may be affected by the disease. Fifty species of Australian frogs have been found infected with the chytrid fungus.

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In NSW, 22 species, more than one quarter of the total NSW amphibian fauna, have been diagnosed with the disease.

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High altitude (>400m) populations are more severely affected by Chytridiomycosis. Such population declines have been reported from the NSW uplands (Gillespie and Hines 1999, Hines et al. 1999). Stream-associated frog species are more likely to be infected because the pathogen is waterborne. The following are stream-breeding species of the NSW coast and ranges and may be threatened by chytridiomycosis (Gillespie and Hines 1999).

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Southern Corroboree Frog

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Chytridiomycosis has been reported from the following frog species and populations:

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Endangered Frogs:

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• Green and Golden Bell Frog
• Spotted Frog
• Fleay’s Barred Frog
• Giant Barred Frog
• Stuttering Barred Frog
• Booroolong Frog
• Southern Corroboree Frog
• Tusked Frog Population (Nandewar and New England Tablelands Bioregions)

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Green and Golden Bell Frog

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Vulnerable Frogs:

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• Northern Corroboree Frog
• Giant Burrowing Frog
• Peppered Frog
• Glandular Frog

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Glandular Frog    (New England Tree Frog)

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All amphibians are facing global extinction.   It is that serious!

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It is not just the world’s frogs that are at risk of extinction.  All amphibian species are facing a current global extinction crisis of unprecedented magnitude.

The major factors causing their decline are the emerging disease Chytridiomycosis and Habitat Destruction.

Chytridiomycosis is caused by the aquatic fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis and has been linked to species extinctions and population declines in montane regions including Australia, Panama, North America, and Spain. Currently, it is debated whether the recent emergence of the pathogen is largely the result of environmental factors triggering an outbreak of an endemic pathogen or if the epidemic has been caused by widespread introduction of the pathogen into naïve host populations (‘pathogen pollution‘).

We studied the population genetics of chytridiomycosis using DNA sequences from a global panel of strains. These data showed evidence of a strong genetic bottleneck in the history of the pathogen, and the epidemic appears traceable to the widespread dispersal of a single genotype. Populations were not structured by host-origin, and the same lineage was detected in populations of both resistant and highly sensitive species. The data suggest that the chytridiomycosis epidemic is caused by the emergence of a novel pathogen but that disease outcome is contingent on host resistance and environmental factors.

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Academic References:  

1. Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America
2. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
3. Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America
4. Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries, Animal Research Institute, Yeerongpilly, Queensland, Australia
5. Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States of America
6. Imperial College Faculty of Medicine, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, St. Mary’s Campus, London, United Kingdom
7. School of Public Health, Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitation Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
8. School of Environmental Sciences and Development, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
9. School of Biology & Ecology, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, United States of America]

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The Global Amphibian Crisis

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Frog Decline not just due to Disease

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Upwards of 40% of amphibian species are in decline worldwide, owing to several factors:

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1. Habitat Loss
2. Environmental Degradation
3. Pollutants
4. Disease
5. Trade in Amphibians

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The fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis has emerged as a major threat to amphibians, which leads to the fatal chytridiomycosis in susceptible species.

The first documented outbreaks of chytrid fungus occurred in the late 1990s simultaneously in Australia and Central America. Since then the pathogen has been detected in over 100 amphibian species and has been associated with severe population declines or extinctions in several regions throughout the world. A great deal is still unknown about the biology of this pathogen, therefore it remains an active area of research for disease ecologists and conservation biologists.

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(Click image to enlarge)

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Chytrid Fungus on Frogs:

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B. dendrobatidis is an external pathogen that attaches to keratinized portions of amphibians, including the mouthparts of tadpoles and the skin of adults. The fungus reproduces via sporangia, and may be spread by movement of flagellated zoospores, direct contact between hosts, or between host stages. Growth of the fungus leads to degradation of the keratin layer, which eventually causes sloughing of skin, lethargy, weight loss, and potentially death. The physiological mechanism for chytrid-induced mortality is not known, but it appears to stem from disruption of skin function – such as fluid transport or gas exchange.

The chytrid fungus is known to infect over 100 species, but susceptibility to disease is highly life stage and species specific. For example, in mountain yellow legged frog (Rana muscosa) tadpoles suffer generally mild sublethal effects, with most mortality occurring at metamorphosis when there is a rapid production of newly keratinized skin tissue. Conversely, several other amphibian species appear to be relatively tolerant to B. dendrobatidis – including some widespread exotic or invasive species, such as the Marine Toad (Bufo marinus), American Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana), and African Clawed Frog (Xenopus laevis).

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Chytridiomycosis infection cycle

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At the population level, chytrid fungus outbreaks have been associated with local and possible species extinctions in Australia, Central America, and the United States.

For example, in 2004 chytrid fungus prevalence in parts of Panama increased from zero to nearly 60% over approximately 4 months, with concomitant declines in amphibian density and diversity of over 80% and 60%, respectively. B. dendrobatidis is thought to thrive in cool, moist habitats. This has been used to argue that cooling trends observed in parts of Central America are driving chytrid-induced amphibian extinctions in these regions.

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Distribution:

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One explanation for the recent emergence of chytridiomycosis in amphibians, the “novel pathogen hypothesis”, is that B. dendrobatidis existed historically as a locally distributed pathogen that only recently was spread to new regions. Alternatively, the “endemic pathogen hypothesis” posits that the chytrid fungus was historically widespread but that recent environmental change (e.g., climate change, pollutants, habitat degradation) altered its pathogenicity. The relative importance of these two mechanisms is currently a source of  debate. Low genetic diversity among geographically distant B. dendrobatidis strains is consistent with the first hypothesis, but synchronicity of chytrid fungus outbreaks in disparate, intact habitats supports the latter hypothesis.

The first described outbreaks of chytrid fungus occurred in 1998 in both Australia and Central America. Since then B. dendrobatidis infections have been documented throughout the Americas, including Mexico and the U.S., Europe, and most recently in Southeast Asia.

The oldest known chytrid fungus infections are from museum specimens of African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis) collected in 1938. These specimens have been used to argue for an African origin for B. dendrobatidis.

African Clawed Frog

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It is believed that the chytrid was then spread to other continents in the 1960s and 70s through commercial trade of these African frogs.    (Ed: i.e. poaching)

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Research:

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The link between chytridiomycosis and amphibian decline is an active area of research worldwide. The genome of B. dendrobatidis has been sequenced, which should prove useful for identifying the origin, mechanisms of virulence, and potential control methods for this pathogen. University of California researchers have been studying this pathogen for several years, especially the impacts of chytrid fungus on populations of the mountain yellow legged frog (Rana muscosa) in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California.

This once abundant alpine frog has undergone severe declines in recent years, with numerous local die-offs. Research is being conducted on the spatial epidemiology of disease in R. muscosa, to understand why some local populations persist whereas others go extinct. Projects include identifying the modes of pathogen spread, impacts of outbreaks on alpine food webs, and the population genetic consequences of outbreaks for frogs.

With regard to frog population and disease management, experiments include evaluating the efficacy of anti-fungal treatments and the feasibility of reintroducing frogs into previous outbreak areas.

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(Click image to enlarge)

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Chytrid fungus killing off Tasmanian Frogs

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Healthy Tasmanian Tree Frog

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What is chytrid fungus?

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‘Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis‘ causes the disease known as chytridiomycosis or chytrid infection which currently threatens Tasmania’s native amphibians.

The fungus infects the skin of frogs destroying its structure and function, and can ultimately cause death. Sporadic deaths occur in some frog populations, and 100 per cent mortality occurs in other populations.

Chytrid infection has been devastating to frog species causing extinctions worldwide. The international trade of frogs probably brought the fungus to Australia from Africa. The disease has now been recorded in four regions in Australia – the east coast, southwest Western Australia, Adelaide, and more recently Tasmania. In mainland Australia chytrid has caused the extinction of one frog species, and has been associated with the extinction of three other species. In addition, the threatened species status of others frogs has worsened through severe declines in numbers.

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What is the threat to Tasmanian frogs?

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Tasmania supports 11 frog species with three of these species, the Tasmanian Tree Frog, the Tasmanian Froglet and the Moss Froglet, found nowhere else in the world. These precious species are at risk from the disease. In addition, two other frog species, the Green and Golden Frog and the Striped Marsh Frog, are already threatened in Tasmania. Chytrid infection has the potential to devastate these, and other frog populations.

Chytrid-infected Queensland Great Barred Frog

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What does an infected frog look like?

•     Abnormal posture and behaviour. Frogs may sit with their hind legs out, wobble or show difficulty moving or fleeing, or may even have a seizure.
•     Skin changes. The skin may be discoloured, peel, or possibly ulcerated. The body may swell.
•     Sudden death.
•     Tadpoles may demonstrate abnormal mouthparts. These abnormalities are difficult to detect and require expertise.

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How is it spread?

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The movement of infected frogs, tadpoles and water are the known key agents of spread. The fungus (or infected frogs or tadpoles) can be spread by people in water and mud on boots, camping equipment and vehicle tyres, and in water used for drinking, or spraying on gravel roads or fighting fires.

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Where is chytrid in Tasmania?

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In Tasmania, chytrid infection has spread widely in habitats associated with human disturbance and will continue to spread unless we act quickly. Once established, it is extremely difficult to eradicate chytrid fungus from the natural environment.

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Remote areas in Tasmania, particularly the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, are still largely free of disease and it is our challenge to keep it out.

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What is being done?

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The distribution of chytrid fungus in Tasmania has been mapped by DPIPWE and the Central North Field Naturalists. Ongoing monitoring of important areas is being conducted by DPIPWE. Our increasing knowledge of this important disease is crucial if we are to effectively reduce fungal spread to uninfected frog habitat.

The National Chytrid Threat Abatement PlanYou are now leaving our site. DPIPWE is not responsible for the content of the web site to which you are going. The link does not constitute any form of endorsement aims to prevent further spread of chytrid fungus in Australia, and to decrease the impact of the fungus on currently infected populations.

DPIPWE supports the national threat abatement plan in the recently produced strategy for managing wildlife disease in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Chytrid fungal disease is the top priority in the Strategy and a number of management actions are being undertaken. In addition, the Wildlife Health in Tasmania Manual describes chytrid infection in more detail.

Land management agencies are reviewing their practices to determine activities that have potential to spread chytrid fungus and ways to minimise the spread.

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Is there any effective treatment?

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To date there is no effective way to effectively treat wild infected frog populations. The main aim of management is to prevent further spread of chytrid fungus from infected to uninfected sites.   Chytrid fungus is killed by effective cleaning and drying. In addition, a number of disinfectants are effective.

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What to consider when collecting and reporting tadpoles and frogs?

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• If it is necessary to collect tadpoles or frogs, always return them to the collection site. Contact DPIPWE for information relating to frog collection and permits. Never move frogs or tadpoles to new locations.
• Remember it is an offence to take or disturb frogs and tadpoles in Tasmania’s national parks and other reserves without a permit. It is also an offence to bring frogs or tadpoles into reserves.
• Never release frogs found in imported fresh produce (usually banana boxes) and nursery products. Report non-Tasmanian frogs for collection to Wildlife Enquiries, DPIPWE.
• Report sightings of sick or dead frogs to Wildlife Enquiries, DPIPWE.

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What you can do to stop the spread of chytrid?

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• Keep your gear clean – clean boots and camping equipment of soil and allow to dry completely before visiting remote areas.
• Plan to wash and dry vehicles (including tyres) and equipment before entering dirt roads within areas that are reserved or largely free of human disturbance.
• Think about water disposal – when disposing of small or large volumes of water within a natural environment, ensure you are as far as possible from creeks, rivers, ponds and lakes. A dry stony disposal site is far preferable to a moist muddy one.
• Avoid transferring aquatic plants, water, soils and animals between frog habitats (for example, nursery plants, wet land fill and fish).
• Hygiene protocols for biologists and field workers visiting freshwater environments are outlined at the James Cook University web site on amphibian diseasesYou are now leaving our site. DPIPWE is not responsible for the content of the web site to which you are going. The link does not constitute any form of endorsement.
• Education in relation to disease management is critical if we are to stop the spread of this important disease.  Spread the word!’

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[Ed: This is why we wrote this article, but also, when we attended a photographic exhibition of  The Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year (2010)  and saw Joel Sartore’s photo ‘The Hidden Plague’, it disturbed us]

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2012:   Disease is getting worse – it’s now killing off previously tolerant species

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‘There is no point sending healthy animals out into the world if they’re just going to catch a deadly disease.

Pacific tree frogs that can survive a normally lethal fungus infection are spreading it to species that cannot. Such “reservoir” species could threaten frogs released from captive breeding programmes.

Between 2003 and 2010, the deadly chytrid fungus slashed the populations of two frog species in the Sierra Nevada, while populations of a third species – the Pacific tree frog (Pseudacris regilla) – held steady.   That isn’t because the Pacific tree frogs avoided infection: two-thirds of the Sierra Nevada population carry the fungus, Vance Vredenburg of San Francisco State University has now found. That suggests they can tolerate infection and so could spread the pathogen to new areas.

Conservationists are breeding threatened amphibians in captivity in the hope of eventually re-establishing them in the wild. But reintroductions will fail if there is a reservoir species nearby, Vredenburg warns.

The solution may be to breed from frog populations already decimated by the chytrid fungus, says Matthew Fisher of Imperial College London. There is evidence that some frogs are evolving tolerance, and survivors from an affected population are more likely to have the vital genes. These frogs could be cross-bred with susceptible individuals, accelerating the spread of tolerance – although Fisher admits the approach will be expensive.’

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.(Click image to enlarge)

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Further Reading:

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Limosa Harlequin Frog

B-Double truck plying the Great Western Highway

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It’s all about trucks, bigger trucks, more trucks.

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An Innocuous Announcement

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The government of the State of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia late last month announced its plans to rename New South Wales’ major roads, highways, freeways and tollways under an alpha-numeric rebranding, akin to the British road numbering system.

Its  ‘Alpha Numeric Route Marker Project‘ will affect more than 60 routes across NSW identified for the upgrade at a forecast cost of around $20 million.  The delegated agency, the NSW Roads and Maritime Services (the rebranded ‘Roads and Traffic Authority’), is to roll out this new system of highway route numbering between March and December 2013.

[Source:  ‘Have Your Say’,  Bang the Table Pty Ltd  (ACN 127 001 236)

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The new system will include a combination of letters and numbers between 1 and 99.

• M = ‘Motorway’
• A = ‘Route of National significance’
• B = ‘Route of State significance’

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Read:  >‘RMS-RTA NSW New Road Number System 2013.pdf’ (1.3MB)

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Renaming roads, so what?.. one may ask.

Well, in the case of the Great Western Highway through the Blue Mountains (formerly called the Western Road) it will lose its historically familiar name and be rebranded the rather clinical and characterless ‘A32‘.

Instead of people travelling along the famous Great Western Highway over the Blue Mountains, they will simply follow the rather nondescript ‘A32‘, which will sound no different to the ‘A31‘ or the ‘A33‘, wherever they are?

Clinical and characterless trunk routing in the UK

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Removing the ‘Great Western Highway‘ name will erase its historical meaning to travellers – the oldest highway into inland Australia.   The highway journey itself will supplanted by getting from A to B, as fast as possible.    The Blue Mountains used to be a destination, but is steadily being transformed into a route from Sydney on the A32 to other destinations further west.  So much for the tourism upon which so many Blue Mountains folk so vitally depend.

Grose Valley, Blue Mountains

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..What Blue Mountains?   Where?    Oh!  Was that them?  

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As the highway is widened and transformed into a trucking expressway, the Blue Mountains from the highway is looking urban just like Sydney.   The Blue Mountains as a destination is steadly fading into another fast transit route into and out of Sydney, like the F3.

It is quite contradictory for the NSW Roads Minister, Duncan Gay, to promise that the road routes will retain their regular name, along with their new alpha-numeric designation.    Why spend $20 million to rebrand the regular road naming with alpha-numeric road naming, only to retain the regular naming?  The current road naming already displays the route number, as evidenced by the Route ‘32‘ symbol on the current Great Western Highway sign below.  So why change it?

Great Western Highway across the Blue Mountains

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But the alpha numeric road renaming is clearly more than just renaming.  It is ‘road rebranding‘ as a first phase of the government’s ‘road reclassification‘ strategy.  It is one thing to upgrade a regional highway like the Great Western Highway; it is quite blue sky to reclassify it into a ‘Route of National Significance‘.

The alpha numeric road renaming is a precursor to reclassifying the Great Western Highway as an ‘A’ grade route of national significance, which is what the Hume Freeway is.   Reclassification sets the precedent for the highway over the Mountains to bve upgraded to the likes of the Hume, if goivernmenyt so wishes.  Both will be deemed A’ grade routes of national significance.  It is a one size fits all approach from the urbane big brother in Macquarie Street.

This announced road renaming will follow a policy trend interstate in Queensland, Victoria and South Australia and so will be consistent with these adjoining states.  NSW will mirror the road numbering system in Britain which has established ‘trunk roads‘ as designated long distance trucking routes interconnecting cities, ports and airports.

This road rebranding is about facilitating national trucking linehaul across state borders.  It is all about encouraging more road freight across the country.   For line-haul trucking, the aim is getting from A to B, as fast as possible.    The slower the road journey, the higher the freight cost.

British Motorways:  conceived, designed and built principly for road freight

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But the NSW Government’s official selling point is that its alpha numeric road rebranding is all so that motorists have “a better way to navigate NSW roads”.  “It will be a more intuitive way for road users to navigate around NSW.  These changes will help simplify journeys, making them safe, efficient and enjoyable.”

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The Spin

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According to the RTA-RMS, the upgrade of the Great Western Highway is to ‘improve road safety’, ‘improve road freight efficiency’, ‘cater for the mix of through, local and tourist traffic and ‘be sensitive to the area’s natural environment, heritage and local communities.’    [Source: ^http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/roadprojects/projects/great_western_hway/index.html]

However, one suspects given the RTA-RMS’s arrogant track record of its expressway bulldozing through roadside vegetation and local communities, that the primary mission is one-eyed to ‘improve road freight efficiency’. The other aims are merely for RTA-RMS public relations tricky appeasement, freeing up the expressway engineers to proceed business-as-usual.

Great Western Highway bulldozed out to four lanes at Katoomba

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The NSW Government persuasive language is that the alpha numeric rebranding is to ‘standardise the system’, to end the confusion between states, to identify road corridors ‘in order of their importance‘ and so ‘make it easier for motorists to know if they are travelling on a motorway or a route of national or state significance as they plan their trip.’  In any case the Government’s additional quip is that well road signs in NSW have not been reviewed for 30 years, so that is a valid reason to do so.

Trunk Route 32 starts from industrial areas and is designed purely to route trucking

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But why do ordinary motorists need to know whether a road has national or state significance?  The route numbers are already there on the current road signs across the State.

The NSW Opposition has dismissed this project as a ‘colossal waste of money that won’t save motorists a single minute in travel time or improve road conditions and safety.’  At the same time the NSW Opposition claims ‘motorists of this State want new roads, less congestion and better road conditions..‘     [Source: ‘New road names a colossal waste of money’, 20120927, by John Robertson, Robert Furolo, ^http://www.nswalp.com/media/news/new-road-names-a-colossal-waste-of-money/]

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Alpha-Numeric Renaming – a precursor to more Trucking Expressways

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Could there indeed be another reason for embarking on a $20 million road rebranding project?  Is the rebranding in fact a precursor to legislating for B-double trucks to ply regional roads where they are currently prohibited?

It is one thing to upgrade a regional highway like the Great Western Highway; it is quite ‘blue sky’ to reclassifying a regional highway like the Great Western Highway into a ‘Route of National Significance‘.

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Ed: 

This road re-branding is a ‘one-size-fits-all’ edict for uniformity. It serves to abet trucking lobbyists, to befit centralist bureaucrats, while de-personalising local communities in the process.   It is a strategic precursor to rolling out more Trucking Expressways.  It reeks of rancid Babyboomerism –  the self-entitlement, the moral relativism, the utilitarianism, oil-dependent industries…all cultural throwbacks to the exploitative 20th Century.   Die off, history beckons!

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Such reclassification facilitates central government roughshodding of legitimate local community concerns about the adverse and permanent impacts.  When the RTA-RMS wants to bulldoze its trucking expressways through local communities, the legal reclassification overrides concerns about the impacts on environment, amenity, land values, equity and access.  It is a prejudiced arrogant policy undermining local democratic rights.

The scheme is inherited from the recent NSW Government centralist planning policy that designated projects of State Significance and Projects of National Signifiance.  In 2005, the NSW Government conceived its autocratic State Environmental Planning Policy (Major Projects) then in March 2006 imposed its ‘NSW Major Projects Assessment System‘ upon the people of NSW.  It was all to ‘remove unnecessary red tape’, ‘clarify the assessment of major projects’, and ‘help NSW remain Australia’s economic powerhouse.’   [Ed: Sometimes spin can be so poetic]

It became known as Part 3A – a new part of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act) that simply overruled all other parts. Easy!

Under this planning policy and amended planning legislation, if the NSW Government deemed an infrastructure project to be of ‘State Significance’, then local council objections would be automatically overruled and community protests discarded.   The State’s Planning Minister would have ultimate say supposedly in the State’s interest to allow the project to proceed and to roughshod all social impacts and all environmental impacts.  It was a return to autocracy, just like in the days of kings and queens ruling over serfs and peasants.

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But now for a road to be deemed a ‘Route of National Significance’ (i.e. get the ‘A’ branding), well, local communities will have even less of a voice.

The policy is absolute Putinesk (neo-‘Stalinist’).

Goodbye Bullaburra – set to be the next victim of the Trucking Expressway

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This alpha numeric road renaming is ‘road rebranding‘ and the first phase of the government’s ‘road reclassification‘ strategy.  It is part of a broader road centric freight agenda that ignores the demonstrable long-term and future-resilient benefits of rail freight nationally.

Reclassifying the Great Western Highway into the A32 Road of National Significance achieves more than upgrading the regional highway to a four-lane trucking expressway, all so that thousands of B-doubles can nudge 90kph on cruise control.    The Road of National Significance is national trucking route policy.  It will see the 1950’s conceived National Route 32 from Sydney 1154km to Cockburn on the South Australian Border and extend well beyond to Adelaide, Perth and Darwin.

It is 1950s mindset applied in 2013.  It is all about facilitating interstate freight by 25 metre long B-Double trucks.

Trunk Route 32, somewhat further west

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Meanwhile, hectare after hectare of Blue Mountains native vegetation is bulldozed to make way for the ‘Trucking Expressway‘.

Wentworth Falls bushland amenity disappearing for the Trucking Expressway

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Meanwhile, Australian wildlife slaughtered as roadkill is perpetuated and ignored by the RTA-RMS to make way for the ‘Trucking Expressway‘.

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Meanwhile, just because the road is wider and faster, humans are not exempt from becoming ‘roadkill’ either.

All we need do is look at Britain, its road-freight centric policy and its consequential trucking carnage legacy.

Britain’s M5 truck crash near Taunton, Somerset, November 2011

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Trucking Expressways kill local communities in more ways than one

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Meanwhile, the ongoing trucking carnage legacy continues along already upgraded sections of the Great Western Highway:

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[Source: ‘Gone too soon’, by journalist Damien Madigan, 20110914, Blue Mountains Gazette (newspaper), p.1]

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[Source: ‘Highway mayhem’, by journalist Shane Desiatnik, 20110803, Blue Mountains Gazette (newspaper), p.1]

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Linehaul Trucking and pedestrians don’t mix

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Speeding B-Double overturned at Lapstone on an already widened 4-laned section of the converted Trucking Expressway

What is preventing B-Triples bidding for access to Roads of National Significance?

They already allow them interstate.

They used to be called ‘Road Trains‘

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The ‘Trucking Expressway‘ vision for the Great Western Highway ‘A32’:

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>More articles on  ‘Threats from Roadmaking’.

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Antarctica

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With the announcement of an increased US military presence in Australia, our strategic planners are focused on the rising importance of the Indo-Pacific. But we have taken our eye off our southern flank.

Like other rising nations, China and India want a higher profile in Antarctic affairs. But, unlike other countries, they’re chasing that profile with much more vigour and with determined independence.  They have active Antarctic programs and are increasing the number of their polar bases. Two of China’s bases are in the Australian Antarctic Territory. Its latest is at Dome A, one of the highest and coldest points on the Antarctic continent.

China is extremely interested in the prospects of future Antarctic resource development.

One of India’s bases has a monitoring role associated with its planned hi-tech monitoring station in northern Madagascar. That station is part of India’s aim to have a presence throughout the Indian Ocean, partly to balance growing Chinese influence there. Satellite technology and research are central to Antarctic operations. Most low-earth orbiting satellites cross the Antarctic continent every 90-100 minutes. If they do so on descending orbits, they can download their data into ground stations in Antarctica.

Countries could make use of their Antarctic bases and the full range of signals and electronic intelligence that require the use of satellites and ground stations for direction-finding and monitoring.

New Delhi, for example, is setting up a remote sensing ground station in eastern Antarctica to boost the remote-sensing data transmitted by Indian satellites. Occupying Dome A is full of political symbolism, but it is no coincidence that the Chinese have established their third station there. At one of the highest points on the continent it’s ideal for sending, receiving or intercepting signals from satellites.

It offers China unprecedented visibility for astronomical research. The main advantage of ground stations in Antarctica is that they can retask satellites in a timely fashion.  Advanced defence forces are heavily reliant on space-based infrastructure, communications and navigation systems. China and India could use their Antarctic bases for these purposes.

But how would we know?

To do so would be at odds with the Antarctic Treaty, but the sparse use of the treaty’s inspection mechanisms means that such activity could go undetected.
The US, Russia and China have demonstrated the capability to destroy space vehicles using anti-satellite missiles. India and Pakistan may be prompted to initiate their own space warfare programs. If Antarctic sites take on military significance, we could see a move towards destabilisation of Antarctica as a zone of peace.

For Australia these potential developments are worrying. We’re the largest claimant in Antarctica. Our territorial claim in Antarctica can’t be defended in military terms and doesn’t need to be if Antarctica remains demilitarised.

There’s now a defence posture review under way to examine whether our military is appropriately positioned to respond in a timely way to Australia’s defence and security demands.
Today there is almost no Defence engagement on Antarctic issues. Defence could use one of its four C-17 Globemasters for Antarctic logistics. New Zealand uses its air force to fly personnel to and from Antarctica. Our air force should work with New Zealand into and out of Antarctica to gain polar logistics experience. Defence should be represented on high-level inter-departmental forums on Antarctica.

Military personnel could be included in Antarctic missions for operational support. Short-term secondments by Defence to the Australian Antarctic Division in Tasmania would give our armed forces a greater feel for what might be required if circumstances were to change. None of the new vessels to be acquired by the navy will be ice-capable and Defence has passed responsibility for Southern Ocean patrols to Customs.

Antarctica matters. It’s time our strategic planners looked south.’
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NOTE:  Sam Bateman and Anthony Bergin are co-authors of an Australian Strategic Policy Institute paper, ‘Sea Change: Advancing Australia’s Ocean Interests’.

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Further Reading

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Road dozing into the spectacular forests of the Esperance, Southern Tasmania

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First, a Gunns postmortem:

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To all but the exploitation deniers, the demise of industrial logger Gunns this week was a fait accompli about a case of insular management obstinately pursuing an unsustainable business model.

Gunns plans for industrial deforestation have deservedly been condemned to civilised obsolescence like the Atlantic Slave Trade and the Fur Trade before it.

The industrial culture of taming Nature as if Man needed to compete

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Gunns employees, contractors, suppliers, investors and lenders have all been in denial – ‘market denial‘ – a story of  “corporate arrogance, complacency, denial and hubris“.

And the Tasmanian and Australian parliaments have been equally negligent in delaying the implementation of their 2011 ^Tasmanian Forests Intergovernmental Agreement to transition Tasmanians out of this dying native timber industry, as well as shunning their broader social responsibilities to dependent communities.

Gunns Pulp Mill Site

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They have allowed the problem to fester and to escalate.  So now the inevitable crash has been all the more severe for all involved.   This is a classic failure of leadership and of a parochial culture locked in 20th Century exploitism and despondently lost trying to find sustainable profit in a more complex and very different 21st Century.

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A puppet passing the buck

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‘The story of Gunns is a parable of corporate hubris. You can, as they did, corrupt the polity, cow the media, poison public life and seek to persecute those who disagree with you. You can rape the land, exterminate protected species, exploit your workers and you can even poison your neighbours. But the naked pursuit of greed at all costs will in the end destroy your public legitimacy and thus ensure your doom. Gunns was a rogue corporation and its death was a chronicle long ago foretold. The sadness is in the legacy they leave to Tasmania—the immense damage to its people, its wildlands, and its economy.’

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Denial Domino Effect…Ta Ann

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Ta Ann Tasmania now remains the major driver of logging operations that continue to destroy large areas of old growth and high conservation value forests in Tasmania.  Ta Ann Holdings is a Malaysian-based multinational logging and timber products company.

The Ta Ann Group has a track record of rainforest destruction and human rights violations in the Malaysian state of Sarawak.

The Ta Ann Group’s operations began in 1985 when a subsidiary was granted a 257,604 acre concession to extract timber in the Kapit District, in the Malaysian state of Sarawak.  In recent years the conglomerate has grown substantially to be among the top five timber groups in Sarawak. The Ta Ann Group includes many subsidiaries and is worth around $US1.6billion.

The principal activities of the Ta Ann Group are in oil palm, timber concession licenses, trading logs, and manufacturing as well as the sale of sawn timber and plywood products. Japan and Europe are the main markets for structural plywood and floor base boards produced by the company.

In January 2006, Ta Ann was welcomed to Australia’s island state of Tasmania with a golden political handshake and they have since established forestry operations to sell Tasmanian wood products to customers in Japan, China and Europe.

Ta Ann’s decision to commence operations in Tasmania was likely driven by two core objectives: they were offered hardwood by the state-owned forestry company, Forestry Tasmania, at lower rates than they could access in Malaysia or Indonesia and they needed Tasmania’s ‘clean, green’ brand to access an increasingly environmentally concerned and lucrative international market.

Ta Ann received timber from Old Growth Coupe HA045E

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Ta Ann Tasmania has rejected timber from plantations, staked its future on continued access to timber from native forests and has actively lobbied to stall an industry-wide transition to plantation harvesting. Ta Ann has received timber from the destruction of Tasmania’s world class forests, including timber from old growth forests, forests with recognised World Heritage values, threatened species habitat and other forests that are of high conservation value.

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Jenny Weber

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Malaysian-owned Ta Ann does not process old growth but accepts wood from forest coupes where some old growth, or forest regarded by green groups as of high conservation value, may be harvested.  This has led conservation groups to attack Ta Ann’s two Tasmanian mills as the main “driver” of the destruction of many of Tasmania’s oldest and most environmentally significant forests.

Huon Valley Environment Centre (HVEC) and Markets for Change have pursued their advocacy campaign for the protection of high conservation value forests and a rapid transition out of native forests in Tasmania.   This has included actually travelling to Japan to Ta Ann’s Japanese markets.  They have exposed Ta Ann’s false claims of using only plantation timber.   They have exposed Ta Ann’s sourcing of timber from high conservation value forests, accused Ta Ann of lying to their Japanese markets about timber certification, and directly lobbied Ta Ann’s Japanese customers to tear up their contracts with Ta Ann and instead seek timber supply that meets high environmental standards, that which the current industry in Tasmania does not meet.

‘Ta Ann’s veneer of truth‘

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So when it was discovered this week that The Wilderness Society (TWS) and Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) on 20th August 2012 had unilaterally written a letter to the Japanese customers to ask these customers to continue to purchase timber from Ta Ann Tasmania, naturally HVEC and Markets for Change were appalled.  The letter by ACF’s Don Henry and TWS Inc.’s Lyndon Schneiders requests the Japanese customers to continue to purchase the contentious wood supply that Ta Ann Tasmania is supplying.

TWS and ACF are accused of selling out Tasmania’s native forests by secretly undermining the market campaigns of fellow conservationists in Japan and Australia.  TWS and ACF are accused of “treachery” and “betrayal”.

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Markets for Change and the Huon Valley Environment Centre yesterday expressed shock and dismay at the letter, accusing ACF and TWS of secretly undermining their campaigns, which had been blamed for some cancelled contracts.

“This is an act of treachery to the forests,” Markets for Change campaigner and former Tasmanian Greens leader Peg Putt told The Australian.  “TWS and ACF never had the decency to inform us that they had done this.”

Huon Valley Environment Centre campaigner Jenny Weber said the letter, sent to Ta Ann customers on August 20, seriously undermined campaigning in Japan against the veneer maker.

“It’s unprecedented that TWS and ACF are prepared to support the forest industry and undermine not only our own campaign but that of Japanese campaigners,” Ms Weber said.

“We have felt that these organisations have worked against us in the Japanese markets, and worse still they have supported a forestry industry that is not yet sustainable, committed to a transition out of native forests, and continues to log world heritage value and high conservation value forests. A forestry industry where the biggest timber company is a Malaysian  logging company with a record of displacing indigenous people and environmental desecration in their home state of Sarawak.

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TWS/ACF’s appeasement tactic.

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The letter states; “As a buyer of Tasmania forests products we continue to respectfully request that you not make any decisions that could adversely affect Tasmanian suppliers during the current negotiations that are now closer to achieving a sustainable future for the forest industries in Tasmania. Far from giving peace a chance, the letters have reduced pressure for the forestry industry to come to an agreement. There is still no final forest agreement in Tasmania and the outlook is bleak as forestry industry representatives have now suspended their participation in the talks,” Ms Weber continued.

“At best the ACF TWS letters are grossly misguided, at worst they are a capitulation to industry. In either case these peak bodies have shown they are willing to support the forestry industry and deliberately undermine our campaign in secret. They have endorsed the ongoing logging of high conservation value forests for Ta Ann and their Japanese customers by  making this communication with the markets.”

“This is not a time for these environment groups to lose their way and become the green tick for an unsustainable native forest logging industry in Tasmania. This is one step too far for these groups who have been waylaid by a long drawn out process that has not delivered any conservation gains and these conservation groups are endorsing the very company that  contributes to the devastation of the forests for which they are trying to secure protection,” Ms Weber concluded.

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>Read TWS/ACF letter of appeasement

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“This act is undermining the chances of achieving protection of magnificent forests in Tasmania, and also the campaigns of Tasmanian, Australian and Japanese groups who have been participating in a successful markets campaign for the past twelve months”, said Peg Putt of Markets for Change.

Markets for Change spokeswoman Peg Putt

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“We have consistently asked companies receiving Ta Ann product to call for an immediate stop to logging the conservation claim in Tasmania whilst negotiations over the future protection of these forests take place, and to refuse to take wood product coming from inside this area.

“The ACF and TWS letters are clearly designed to counteract this campaign and to appease the forest industry. They repeatedly express concern for “a sustainable future for the forest industries in Tasmania”, but not for the fate of the magnificent forests under the chainsaw. We do not believe that their members and supporters are aware of or would condone their actions” Ms Putt said.

“The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and The Wilderness Society Inc. (TWS Inc) have sent false confidence to the Japanese customers of Ta Ann. This miscommunication in the markets will increase uncertainty. The fact remains that Ta Ann is shipping high conservation value forests to Japan, and these environment groups have endorsed this controversial product in the international market,” said Jenny Weber of the Huon Valley Environment Centre.

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Read:   ^Markets for Change and HVEC protest letter of 20120925.pdf

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Lessons from Planet Ark’s appeasement tactic

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No organisation is so big that it cannot fail.  It is recent logging industry appeasement that since last month has seen Planet Ark lose its environmental credibility with many.

Planet Ark was formed in 1992 and is well known for having established ‘National Tree Day’ across Australia – ‘Australia’s largest community nature event’.  Planet Ark claims to be “an environmental organisation committed to encouraging positive behaviour change… We guard our independence and reputation fiercely.” ~ Planet Ark.

Yet just last month (August 2012) Sydney-based environmental not-for-profit organisation, Planet Ark, has been found out allowing its Planet Ark logo to be used on advertisements for timber, paid for by Forest and Wood Products Australia (FWPA). It is part of a sponsorship deal in which Planet Ark gets $700,000 from the timber industry.  The deal involves Planet Ark’s public endorsement in the ‘Make It Wood’ advertising campaign which promotes the increased use of certified, responsibly sourced wood as a building material, along with the organisation’s decision to join the timber industry’s certification system for wood products, called the Australian Forestry Standard (AFS).

Yet the AFS Scheme has been found to have allowed timber to be sourced from high conservation value native forests. A timber company ticked off by the AFS was last year fined for illegal logging.  AFS board member, the Victorian Government’s industrial logger, VicForests, was fined more than $200,000 by the Victorian Government’s Department of Sustainability and Environment for logging over allocation.  ViCforests has also lost a Supreme Court case for planning to log threatened species habitat in East Gippsland and is being taken to court this year over alleged rainforest logging.

Australian environmental groups claim that the AFS Scheme is dodgy and approves “the most appalling logging practices like we see in Indonesia and Malaysia. AFS is endorsed by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), which has also been condemned globally for endorsing the certification of forest operations that destroy biodiversity, revoke human and community rights, and fail to undertake adequate engagement with key stakeholders.”

Reflex (copy paper) lost its Forestry Standard Certification by using native forest timber supplied by VicForests, yet retains AFS certification.  The Tasmanian Government’s industroial logger, Forestry Tasmania, had its AFS certification renewed in July 2012, despite its ongoing clearfelling of high conservation forests and scorched earth practices that permanently destroy forest ecology and replace it with plantation timber, which it then calls ‘sustainable timber’.

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So Planet Ark is not in good company.  Planet Ark’s endorsement of AFS would seem to be contrary to Planet Ark’s key objective – ‘to protect and enhance the natural environment‘.  It would be interesting to learn how FWPA answered Pkanet Ark’s Prospective Partners Questionnaire question #6:

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‘What is the environmental advantage and rationale/justification for this partnership?‘

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Conservationists have accused Planet Ark of having gone over to the ‘darkside’.

Sarah Rees from My Environment has said, “What in effect Planet Ark is doing today is endorsing logging in the Styx Valley (South West Tasmania). This is a very confusing message for consumers, given Planet Ark has such an important role to play in advising people on best brands and good wood.”

Greens Leader Christine Milne agrees.  “What Planet Ark has done is they have undermined the rest of the environment movement by effectively trying to give some green wash to the native forest logging industry,” she said.  “The AFS has no credibility at all. It was only dreamt up in response to the FSC standard and Australia couldn’t meet that standard. Next thing we knew we had this dodgy standard which no-one has any respect for.”

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon says Planet Ark’s deal with the timber industry is a conflict of interest. “There could be a perception that who pays the piper calls the tune. And when you’re getting $700,000 in donations from the industry and part of the review of the forest standard, then it raises some serious questions of a potential conflict of interest,” he said.

“The AFS scheme concerns many environmentalists.  Clear felling, environmental destruction, death of native forests,”  said environmentalist Jon Dee who helped found Planet Ark twenty years ago.  “We believe this campaign, tied up with the forest industry, is one step too far.”

Joint founding member, Australia’s tennis great, Pat Cash, issued a statement to ABC TV’s 7.30 programme stated:

“The deal with the forest industry and the controversy around the Peter Maddison TV advert has eroded Planet Ark’s credibility as an environmental organisation.  The Planet Ark board and management team should be held accountable for this decision to work with the forest industry…Planet Ark needs to return to the values that once made it such a great organisation and withdraw from their association with the AFS and the FWPA.”

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The Director of environment group My Environment, Sarah Rees, says these are confronting issues for big NGOs who traditionally don’t come out against each other.  “Discussions with Planet Ark with organisations including the Wilderness Society and Greenpeace over 14 months have failed to get Planet Ark to amend its attitude to the issues of clear-fell logging.

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“Planet Ark has dug its heels in with its message that all wood is good wood and this is just not right. The role of the environmental organisations is to ethically educate the public on forestry issues but Planet Ark has muddied that message.”

~ Sarah Rees (August 2012)

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The Australian Forestry Standard provides certification for logging in extensive areas of native forests across Australia, and for wood products arising from such logging.

Watch the new promotional video ‘The Facts’ right now to see what sort of assurance the standard provides to retail customers and the Australian consumer about the forest and wood products they are purchasing.

[Source:  ^http://australianforestrystandard.com/]

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Tasmanian Police inspect arson at Camp Flozza

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Still Wild Still Threatened’s Camp Florentine (Camp Flozza) has been subject to an arson attack the weekend before last.  It is estimated that it was torched on Sunday night 9th September 2012. But since the camp had been unattended by environmentalists, the destruction was not discovered until some days later, by which time it had burnt itself out, perhaps with the help of rain.

Personal and campaign property has been damaged and destroyed, a car has been stolen from the site, and the information tent and camp structures were torn down and burnt. Police have inspected the site and the fire is being treated and investigated as arson.

It is believed that the arson was a misguided revenge attack by disgruntled loggers in response to an arson incident three nights prior at Les Walkden Enterprises at the nearby town of New Norfolk and connected vandalism the Saturday night prior of machinery owned by the same company at a logging coupe 12km south of Butlers Gorge in the Central Highlands.

Yet, Detective Constable Craig Fry, investigating the two attacks on the Walkden business has said that “they do not appear to be linked to any kind of protest activity.”   So the subsequent arson attack on Camp Flozza was a case of mistaken identity – frustrated loggers happy to kneejerk blame conservationists (Greenies) for everything and anything.  Being night time, the arsonists were probably on the turps.  Perhaps the two attacks on Les Walkden Enterprises, which have caused over $800,000 damage, were intended to have the Greenies take the wrap.

Detectives are investigating all three crimes.

“This violent attack on the camp is an assault on the forest campaign. The camp is a peaceful protest movement and this incident is an act of intimidation towards protesters and the community involved in the camp” said Still Wild Still Threatened spokesperson Miranda Gibson.

Arson Attack on Camp Flozza Sunday night 9th September 2012

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Miranda Gibson: 

‘It’s first thing in the morning when I get the call.  “Camp has been attacked“, the voice on the end of the line is telling me. “What do you mean… attacked?“, I asked.

“Someone’s gone there and trashed it, burnt it down.”

She is talking about Camp Florentine, Tasmania’s longest running forest blockade.  The camp is run by the group I’m part of:  Still Wild Still Threatened.  And it is a place that is very close to my heart, having spent many years spending so much of my time out there in the past.’

 Camp Flozza front as it was before the arson attack

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Miranda Gibson:

 ‘Camp Floz, as it is known, is in the Upper Florentine Valley, the next valley to the west of where I am located in the Observer Tree (in the Tyenna).’    [Check out  ^The Observer Tree]

The Upper Florentine Valley is a large tract of ancient wilderness, that is surrounding on three sides by the World Heritage Area.’   [Check out Tasmania’s majestic ^Upper Florentine Valley]

‘Despite the protection for the surrounding mountain ranges, this valley remained unprotected because it contains such significant tracts of tall trees that the logging industry were hungry to get their hands on.’

‘Over six years ago now members of the local community became aware of Forestry’s plans to fell 15 logging coupes in the valley within three years and in response the camp was established to stop this from happening. Over those years, the constant presence of the camp has meant that the majority of those logging coupes have never been touched by a chainsaw and the forest remains standing. Hopefully it will continue to remain standing until it can take it’s rightful place as part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.’

‘As well as literally stopping the logging, the camp has a range of other important functions in the campaign. Being on a main tourist road, it acts an information centre with people stopping in every day to find out about what is going on in the forest and having the opportunity to go on short guided walks. It has become a significant icon of the forest movement in Tasmania and is known to people all around the world who have stopped in on their travels.’

Camp Flozza Information Centre, as it was before the arson attack

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Miranda Gibson:

‘When I saw the photos I realised it was even worse than I thought.  The entire camp had been torched.  The main house, kitchen area and information hut were nothing but ashes.

And the camp car had been stolen.’

Camp Flozza arson attack on the Kitchen

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‘Luckily no one was at the camp when the attack occurred.  The next person who was rostered on to be at the camp turned up to a horrifying scene of the camp reduced to ashes. However, one has to wonder whether the attackers would have known there was no one there, as the camp is the usually always attendance and people could have been the forest nearby.’

Camp Flozza Kitchen as it was before the arson attack

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Camp Flozza’s front line legacy

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Up here in the ^Observer Tree, Miranda Gibson tree-sits some ways far removed from what was happening at the camp. Yet, it had a big impact.

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Miranda Gibson:

‘There was the practical side of things of course, as the Still Wild Still Threatened spokesperson I spent the day talking to media, police and community members.  But it also was a sad day for me.  Although I am not able to be there at Camp Floz, obviously, I still care deeply about the place.’

The Upper Florentine Valley

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Ed:  When viewing each video below and wishing to stop it, just click the pause button on the bottom left of the respective video view.

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The Battle of Coupe FO044A

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Like a poacher sees an elephant only with selfish cash-eyes through crosshairs, loggers only see native forests with selfish cash-eyes with chainsaw in hand.    In Tasmania, the babyboomer government mindset cannot discern forest value from timber.  The environment is still seen as a resource for industrial exploitation, just like it was in the 19th and 20th centuries.  Forests are arbitrarily carved up on a logger’s map into harvestable ‘coupes’.    The Upper Florentine Valley where Camp Flozza is situated is innocuously described by the Tasmanian Government as ‘Coupe FO044A‘ – sounds like a factory production batch stamped on a pallet.

It’s like how numbering of black slaves occurred through the 16th and 19th centuries’ Atlantic Slave Trade.  To backward rednecks, Tasmania outside the bitumen has all been about how many ways to skin it, shoot it, trap it, log it, woodchip it, burn it, plough it, dam it, pollute it.  The 19th Century Taswegian redneck element persists in logging despite there no longer being a market for the timber.  But the loggers know no different.  They only know how to log.

Camp Flozza is a blockade set up to try to stop them logging what’s left of Tasmania’s magnificent ancient forest ecosystems.  It includes some of the largest trees left on the planet.

But to Forestry Tasmania, the Tasmanian Government logging corporation driving the deforestation, Camp Flozza is nothing more than “a slum in the forest, full of extremists“.   Emotive words, but then one would expect as such demonising by vested interests.

In early 2006, well over six years ago now, Forestry Tasmania decided to target the Upper Florentine Valley for its massive hardwood timber.  It rolled in the dozers and started pushing an ugly scar of a road into the pristine valley, within ‘coo-ee’ of Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage.

Community response was immediate.  Local and independent activists and The Wilderness Society went out along the Gordon River Road to make peaceful protests.  Over the comng months, the protest presence grew and became more established and other groups joined in – The Derwent Forest Alliance, and Friends of the Florentine.

By October 2006, a protest camp had been established situated strategically blocking logging access to an area of the forest containing Mountain Ash Trees over 200 feet tall.  Camp Florentine (Flozza) was established.

It was not supposed to be flash

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February  2007 – Government Bully Bust #1

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On 21st February 2007, The blockade was raided by over 40 police and Forestry Tasmania workers and 16 arrests were made over the following 3 days. However, a complex system of structures was built and Camp Florentine continued.    In October 2008, logging commenced in coupe FO042E in the Upper Florentine valley and was met with two actions, one resulting with physical assault on protesters by contractors. Footage taken at the action went national in the media and highlighted the ongoing violence that protesters face in the forest.

Not long after his media attention two cars and the info hut were torched one night resulting in even more media coverage.

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January  2009 – Government Bully Bust #2

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In mid January 2009, the blockade was busted for the second time by 65 police and Forestry Tasmania workers. Again there were 16 arrests in the first 3 days and after the tunnel and dragons and winter shack were removed the machines came in and carved a massive scar a further 3km into the pristine valley, to be a logging road. After 11 days of continuous actions  to try and slow down further road construction and logging the machines weretaken away and we started rebuilding on the road again.

‘…In the Upper Florentine Valley today, the Battle of Coupe FO044A entered a second day (13th January) with six activists up trees — and one down a hole — holding out against arrest amid the ruins of  their two-year-old protest camp.

Forestry Tasmania has requested police remove the camp which is hindering plans to build road and to harvest trees from a 25ha coupe in the area.    (Ed:  didims!)

Derwent District Forest Manager Steve Whitely (Ed: a hardcore logger) said Forestry Tasmania respected people’s right to protest peacefully and legally, but Camp Flozza was neither.

“The camp has been there for some time but it has degenerated into a slum and as shown late last year it has the potential to become a real flashpoint of conflict over this summer,” he said.  “We ended up with a couple of conflict situations last year that were really quite serious and we really took stock that this camp wasn’t just a slum in the forest as some people saw it but in fact a place where extremists launched raids on various other places and actually generated conflict.

That’s when it was realised it wasn’t just an eyesore but something more serious than that.”

He said the logging in the valley will be small in scale and sensitive to the area’s conservation values but admitted up to 90 per cent of the old growth forest harvested will end up as woodchips.

“The Upper Florentine is an important place for both conservation and wood production,” he said. “In fact up to 90 per cent of the Upper Florentine is protected or not available for wood production.

“We recognise the values of the area and with that in mind we’re operating at a small scale, there’s no clearfelling in the area at all, there is to be no plantations established all of the forest that is harvested will be resown with natural seed and there will be no chemicals used in the area or fertilisers.

“It’s high-quality timber, it’s been grown over a number of years, it’s some of the higher value timbers that will be supplied to the local mills.

“On average I think we find that between 10 and 20 per cent, depending on the quality of the forest, is taken off as sawing-grade products and there’s some other milling grade products which can be recovered and then the rest of it is sold to make paper.”

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Police move in on protesters at Camp Flozza in the Florentine Valley

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“..Push came to shove in the Upper Florentine Valley yesterday.   Scuffles broke out as about 200 protesters confronted a line of police blocking access to a contested logging road.

Police arrested 15 people during yesterday’s Community Walk-In For the Florentine march.

In a short but heated exchange, several protesters broke through the the frontline of about 30 officers but were quickly tackled and arrested.  No injuries were reported.

Over the course of the day about two dozen forest activists managed to infiltrate the logging site.  One halted forestry operations for several hours after locking himself to logging equipment before police cut him free.

Tasmania Police act as cheap bouncers for the loggers

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Some of the others were escorted from the area by officers, while others were arrested for refusing to leave an exclusion zone around forestry operations near Timbs Track, off Gordon River Rd, west of Maydena.

Those arrested yesterday were charged with a range of offences including assaulting police, trespass, obstructing police, disobeying the lawful direction of a police officer and breaching bail conditions.   They were taken by bus to the Hobart police station.  Thirteen were granted bail and two others appeared in court last night.  Simon Christopher Browning, of Huonville, and Lauren Athalie Campbell, of Adelaide, were remanded in custody for breach of bail and will appear in the Hobart Magistrates Court this morning.

After the initial confrontation about 11am, the remainder of yesterday’s protest was peaceful.  There have been 20 arrests during the police operation in the area.  Forestry Tasmania ‘asked‘ police to clear the area surrounding the so-called Camp Flozza of protesters on Monday.

Camp Flozza – Government Bust in January 2009

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Most of the old-growth forest to be cut in the area will become woodchips.  The two-year-old protest camp was destroyed on Tuesday although four protesters continued a vigil on two treetop platforms. They could be heard shouting their defiance throughout yesterday’s protest.  Police inspector Glen Woolley (Ed: hardcore logger sympathiser) said the outbreak of violence was regrettable.

“It’s very disappointing. Up until this stage the protest has always been peaceful,” he said.  “The police presence is here to ensure that business operations were able to continue, however the activists have decided they would use some force to force their way through the blockade.  “When they did force their way through the blockade, we were prepared for them and they were arrested very quickly.”

Police called for re-inforcements after the initial scuffles, boosting their numbers to nearly 60.  Protester Bronwyn Smith said she attended yesterday’s protest because she believed the old forests were part of the state’s heritage. She said: “It’s much older than Port Arthur, they’ve never seen a chainsaw, there’s been very little disturbance.

“Can you imagine what it would be like today if they were at Port Arthur pulling down the ruins?

“We live in a dying world. We live in a world that’s becoming less and less tenable and less and less viable. And that’s in part because of the clearing of forest like what’s happening here.”

Fellow campaigner Patsy Harmsen said the logging had to be stopped.  “It shouldn’t be happening, it mustn’t go on. It’s just the most shocking worldwide shame,” she said.

Ula Majewski, of the group Still Wild Still Threatened, said the largeHeadline:  face-off turns nasty turnout for a weekday protest organised at short notice showed the strong support of the old-growth anti-logging cause.

“Once again, we are seeing a massive swell of community support for Tasmania’s carbon-dense old-growth forests and outrage at the destructive roading, logging, woodchipping and burning of these precious ecosystems by local climate criminals Forestry Tasmania and Gunns Limited,” she said.

“Our community will continue to stand up and speak out against these environmentally criminal acts. In this era of dangerous climate change, the destruction of Tasmania’s ancient forests is a global issue.”

She said there would be further protests.

Wilderness Society spokesman Vica Bayley said the forestry operations in the area showed Premier David Bartlett was no different to his predecessor on forestry issues.

“The Bartlett Tasmania is in the grip of the same greed-driven woodchip frenzy that ex-premier [Paul] Lennon promoted with such blinkered commitment,” he said.

“It makes a mockery of the clever and kind Bartlett rhetoric when carbon-rich old-growth forests in an intact valley of World Heritage value are being opened up with a brand new logging road for clearfelling.”

Late yesterday, Derwent district forest manager Steve Whiteley said contractors had resumed work.

“Our staff and contractors are cleaning up the site of Camp Florentine and undertaking road repair and construction,” he said.  “We have had plans in place for several years to harvest a 50ha coupe and to build four kilometres of road.  “This year, we plan to harvest 25ha of this area, using a variable retention technique we have developed as an alternative to clearfelling. “The timber is being harvested to meet market conditions. All harvested areas will be regrown as native forest.”

Mr Whiteley said the wood was essential for Forestry Tasmania to meet its legislated requirement to supply 300,000 cubic metres of sawlogs and veneer logs annually. However, most of the old-growth forest to be cut is destined to be come woodchips.  Police are expected to scale down their presence today.

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May  2009 – Government Bully Bust #3

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‘In early May 2009, Forestry Tasmania came back into the area to log the coupe.  It was Mother’s Day.

A huge police operation that lasted a whole month accompanied Forestry Tasmania’s bulldozers chain saws and log trucks. Almost every log truck that left the area got a police escort of a dozen cops jogging alongside!

The Cops had a mobile cop shop bus parked in the clearfell so they could process arrestees on site. The operation sucked most of the states police resources for the month of May as they maintained a constant 24 hour presence in the logging area for the entire month. Of course when the police association complained about the drain on resources, the government blamed us.’

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Logger Ecoterrorism Culture

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Miranda Gibson:  

‘This is yet another act of violence against the non-violent protest movement.   This was not the first time that such acts of intimidation had been committed towards the protesters and community involved in the camp.

‘In 2008 when there was a fire-bomb attack on the camp in the middle of the night, many people were there and were awoken in terror. Two people at the camp had their cars set on fire by the attackers, as well as the camp’s information center being torched.

That incident occurred within days of a violent assault on myself and another protester at a peaceful action in another part of the Upper Florentine Valley. Logging contractors used a sledgehammer to attack a car that we were in. Smashing glass in on us and screaming abuse. When we eventually managed to get out of the car, fearing for our lives, my fellow protester was dragged to the ground and kicked in the head.’

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How the incident was reported back in 2008..

“…Police have been called to investigate a film showing protester’s car being smashed by logging contractors.   Protesters have posted footage of the attack  by logging contractors on the Internet. They say one contractor kicked a man’s head when he was escaping from the car during the Upper Florentine Valley confrontation.

A representative of forest contractors said they had been pushed to the limit and he predicted further violence in the forests.  He called on Gunns and Forestry Tasmania to compensate workers.  The video shows several men, one wielding a sledgehammer, and one screaming expletives and abuse and smashing windows of the car.

The man and woman protesters were using a “dragon” technique, in which they put their arms into a pipe running through the floor of the car and into a concrete block in the ground below.

“The man was trying to get out of the car and he was pulled out and kicked in the head,” said Ula Majewski, spokeswoman for protest group Still Wild Still Threatened.  She said a Forestry Tasmania staff member warned protesters to get out of the car before the attack but then stood by.

“Members of the Tasmanian community engaged in legitimate peaceful protest should not be subjected to this kind of violence, nor should it be condoned by a Forestry Tasmania employee,” Ms Majewski said. She said the FT employee could be seen in the video, which is on the public video website Myspace.

Forestry Tasmania last night said it had asked police to investigate the video footage.

Acting general manager operations Steve Whiteley said the staffer denied witnessing the violence.  “Forestry Tasmania staff at today’s protest had provided a categorical assurance that he didn’t witness any confrontation while he was at the scene and did not receive any complaint,” Mr Whiteley said.

Australian Forest Contractors Association chairman Colin McCulloch said the contractor involved had had his work interrupted several times and had lost about $30,000.

“These loggers should be compensated by the industry or Government,” he said, adding that Gunns and Forestry Tasmania should pay in this case.’

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2008 Fire Bombing of Camp Flozza:

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Camp Floz, more than a protest camp

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“Florentine camp has been in place for the past five years as a frontline defence to protect the Upper Florentine. There have been violent attacks on the camp in the past. This valley is one of Tasmania’s most iconic high conservation value forests yet the current negotiations have failed to provide certainty for the future of this area. The camp is operating as an information centre, providing opportunities for tourists to take walks through the forest and find out more about the area”, said Ms Gibson.

“Sometimes I really miss the Floz and one thing I am looking forward to when I get down from this tree is going back to walk in the forest around the camp and visit all my favorite little spots. And I care deeply about all the people who are spending their time maintaining the camp. And it is hard for all of them to have to be out there this weekend, shifting through the ahes and rebuilding the camp again.”

“There is an odd lack of curiosity in the camp.  People float in and out, asking a few questions of one another, as if the past is erased and this, what they are now, is all that matters.”

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Camp Florentine arson attack Sunday 9th September 2012

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‘Anti-forestry protesters have reported an apparent arson attack on a well-known protest camp in the Upper Florentine Valley.  Activists say a large area of Camp Florentine has been destroyed by fire.  They believe it happened earlier this week.

Jenny Weber from the Huon Valley Environment Centre says there were no protesters at the site at the time of the fire because they had been helping at a tree sit.

“It’s very serious because it’s an arson attack, it’s a pattern that we’ve seen before where arson has been used against the protesters camp at the Florentine Valley,” she said.  “Even though people weren’t there at the time, it’s also a threat to what we believe in and the very real fact that we’re standing up for Tasmania’s forest.”

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Miranda Gibson:

“Environmentalists have been targeted by the industry in calls for durability despite the fact that our actions are always peaceful. The question is, will these same critics be condemning this violent attack on the conservation movement?   There has been a great show of support from the community, in response to this act of violence. We have received many calls from people in the Derwent valley and offers of support to help with rebuilding the camp, which has began today.”

Environment Tasmania today condemned the reported arson of Camp Florentine and condemned all violence towards person or property as totally unacceptable, and welcomed the police investigation into the incident.

“It is very fortunate no-one was present or hurt during this incident and we welcome the police investigation,” said Dr Phill Pullinger, Director of Environment Tasmania.  But it was also wonderful to receive so much support from the community and offers of help to rebuild. I guess it is a perfect time for a spring clean!

And with so much help, I’m sure they will be able to build an even better camp. And so Camp Floz will, as it always has, rise up from the ashes.

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Comments on Tasmanian Times:

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Ron, 20120913:

“Nothing in the mainstream newspapers?  When forestry equipment gets damaged you dont hear the end of it.”

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Garry Stannus, 20120913:

” The last time it was wrecked, was by the police.  And the time before that …?  ..the brotherhood roguery of Forestry Tasmania?

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William Boeder, 20120914:

“I can envision in my mind the snortings and sniggerings going on between the many upper level individuals that orchestrate the denudation of our Old Growth Forests, (along with the incumbent wildlife species and ecosystems,) this must give each individual attendant to and associated with this plundering consortium of Neanderthals the most enormous mirth.

Across the top end waters of Australia’s North a like-minded family of Malaysians have almost completely destroyed their own natural forests and the many homes of their indigenous people, all this for the life-killing tainted dollars that they now have squirreled away for themselves, yet now they are greedily and cunningly sourcing their cheaply negotiated timber product from our Tasmanian people’s forests, thanks to our feckless State government of Lib/Labbers…”

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John Hayward, 20120915:

“I can’t see any great moral difference between obliterating the camp and obliterating the surrounding forest.  The same contempt for everyone and everything else is apparent in both.”

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Was it misguided logger payback?

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Less than a week before the arson attack on Camp Flozza, Tasmanian news media reported that vandals had caused about $750,000 damage to logging machinery in a Forestry Tasmania logging coupe.

Who attacked Les Walkden’s machinery at Butlers Gorge?

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The media report ran thus:

…’Police were called to the logging coupe near Butlers Gorge in the Central Highlands early yesterday morning and found two damaged excavators and a skidder.  One excavator had been used to ram the other two pieces of machinery.  Private contractor Les Walkden owns the equipment.

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“It’s extremely upsetting especially when your workers have got to go to work and find that,” he said.  “I just hope that we can catch these people and, if we do, I can assure you…they’ll be (pursued to) the full extent of the law, we just can’t have this sort of thing going on.  “We’re supposed to have peace with this forest agreement that’s being mooted at the moment and its just disgusting.”

Mr Walkden says he will have to stand workers down until new equipment is sourced and the site is forensically examined.

Ed Vincent, from the Forest Contractors Association, says it is another blow to a struggling industry.  “Vandalism by whomever is to be abhorred.”

The State Opposition has condemned the damage, saying its proof the forest conflict is not over.

 [Ed: This media statement by the Tasmanian Liberals is unsubstantiated, presumptive and spiteful and has likely become the incitement causing the arson at Camp Flozza and the Tasmanian Police ought to investigate who made this statement as part of their arson investigation.]

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Just two days hence, and just three days before the Camp Flozza arson attack, came a second related report of property damage to the same industrial logger.

The Tasmanian news media report ran thus:

‘Police believe an arson attack at a forestry company’s New Norfolk offices on Tuesday night is linked to the vandalism of forestry machinery over the previous weekend.

“The office and dining area was entered and multiple fires were started,” Detective Constable Craig Fry said.  “It appears some sort of flammable liquid was used in the incident,” he said.
Detectives believe the fire at Les Walkden Enterprises at 69 Hamilton Rd was started at 11.40pm. It caused an estimated $50,000 damage.

“The fire is being investigated in conjunction with a recent incident involving damage to two excavators and a logging skidder, also owned by Les Walkden Enterprises,” Constable Fry confirmed.  The vandalism attack caused $750,000 damage and was carried out at a logging coupe 12km south of Butlers Gorge in the Central Highlands on Saturday night.

“The attacks on the business do not appear to be linked to any kind of protest activity,” Constable Fry said.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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Yet the Tasmanian forest environmentalist campaigns have been consistently non-violent.

The fundamental core of the environmentalists defending the magnificent Florentine is non-violent protest.

All participating groups have a policy as such and the protest record is consistently non-violent.  Importantly , the two night-time attacks on Les Walkden Enterprises have been confirmed by the investigating police detectives as not connected with environmental protest.  It could more likely be a disgruntled past employee seeking revenge or some other criminal attack targetting specifically Les Walkden Enterprises, and happy to have blame attributed to environmentalists.

Indeed, the modus operandi of the night time attacks on Les Walkden have similarity with the attack on Camp Floz.

Yet as night follows day, within a few days Camp Flozza is torched, following the Tasmania Opposition publicly implying that this damage was associated with the “forest conflict”.  How irrespponsible?

So what involvement did Tasmanian loggers play in this misguided arson attack on Camp Flozza just two weekends ago?    Police ought to be taling to the local Forestry Tasmania crews under Scott Marriott, asking questions whther anyone saw anything; about who was where when around the local Maydena logger haunts like the National Park Hotel, the Maydena RSL and the New Norfolk Hotel.  What vehicles were seen travveling along the Gordon River Road west of Maydena on the night of Sunday 9th September 2012?

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Word of mouth says that in the days between the two attacks on Les Walkden Enterprises logging operations and the arson attack on Camp Flozza, loggers on Facebook were fuming and texting prolifically threatening retaliation against ‘Green scum’ and ‘Green terrorists’.  Police investigation of social media could well identify the culprits of all three attacks.

One Tasmanian logger page on Facebook includes correspondence on a known Tasmanian logger page is telling of the angst.

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“…the interim protection order on forests locked up for the IGA expired at midnight this Saturday just gone.  Some of that forest was in the Buttlers Gorge area. Walkdens machinery was burnt out in the Buttlers Gorge area this weekend just gone, then his offices at New Norfolk….. co-incidence or not?”

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“How would they like it if someone did this to their property??? They’d squeal like crazy.  Makes me so angry when they do this.”

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“Find them and cut off their centrelink payments plus jail time of 4 year. the governemnt BAN and shut down everything else so what not shut down the greens and BAN them.”

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“Hope they catch the dickheads that did this soon, someone must have seen strangers in the area they didnt walk there .”

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Jarrod Halsall should be nmade to pay for the damage done intil its completely paid should come out of there own back pocket ill go set there green alight and there propbety gutless doggs.”

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“I suspect that there are a couple of lackwit bogans somewhere sniggering about how they not only got away with it, but the “greenies” are being blamed. No doubt a double bonus to persons of that ilk.”

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“K***’are you really so gullible and naive that you think this is not the handywork of Green terrorists? Have a talk to Jenny – I believe she has a great little hand book on this kind of thing – Im sure you are aware of it?”

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Police inspect the arson attack, Thursday 20120913

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Still Wild Still Threatened – visit their ^website

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