The following letter to the editor appeared in the Blue Mountains Gazette newspaper on page 12 of 10th August 2011, written by Rose and Brett Everingham of Lapstone, Blue Mountains, Australia.

‘Native Wildlife Alert’

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‘On the evening of Tuesday July 29 a beautiful Echidna was unfortunately hit by a car outside our house.

We would like to publicly thank the three lovely young gentlemen who stopped to assist us as we moved it off the road, and then rang WIRES.

It was a particularly upsetting experience, no one wants to see any creature hit by a car, especially our native wildlife.  The young gentleman who hit the Echidna was understandably distressed, as it is not something you would usually expect to see, and we reassured him that it was simply an accident.

It is a timely reminder though to take care when driving at night, particularly on Governors Drive which is often used as a race track for some drivers. Unfortunately the Echidna could not be saved.  Once again a thanks to the young gentleman who stayed with my husband and son whilst they buried it.

Whilst a sad experience, it brought relief to know that Lapstone still has such beautiful native wildlife existing amongst us in the bush.’
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Editor’s Comments:

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1. The killing of a native echidna by a driver of a car is an horrific tragedy for the echidna and its likely dependent mate and offspring, which were not mentioned.  Each killing of adult native wildlife harms the viability of the local population of that species in the area.

2. Rose and Brett are right to have done what they did and it is valuable to the local community that Rose has taken the trouble to share this tragic event via her letter in the local paper.

3. The cause of the Echidna’s death was that the car driver was driving too fast to prevent killing it on the road.  Most drivers drive too fast and are not competently trained to drive for the conditions.

It could have been a child killed while running on to the road. I am sure the local paper would have had more than allowing Rose’s letter, which reflects our culture that human life holds selfishly somehow higher values than wildlife.  One may call this ‘speciesism’, a term few are aware.

4. Echidna habitat was there many thousands of years before European colonists destroyed its environment and selfishly carved a road through its habitat, with no care for any native wildlife values.

5. Such roads as Governors Drive, whether constructed by local Blue Mountains Council or larger ones by the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA), not only destroy native vegetation and wildlife habitat in their construction, as well as allowing sediment pollution of downhill watercourses; no respect is paid to the inevitable road death consequences caused by vehicles using the road.  The underlying reason is that human values for wildlife are so low across the community that there is hardly any call for wildlife protection from the threats of road making and its consequential traffic menace. Worse is that perverted attitudes toward wildlife and deviant behaviour prevail to the extent that the killing of wildlife on our roads is disparagingly dismissed as ‘roadkill’.  If the same term were applied to pedestrian deaths on our roads, there would be an uproar by extreme humanists.

6. No attempt is made by road builders (local council or the RTA) to facilitate separation of ground dwelling native wildlife from the inevitable risk of death from introduced road traffic.  Some roads across Australia have wildlife fencing to prevent native animals such as wallabies, wombat and Echidnas from accessing the road.  Others factor wildlife corridors into the design of roads that destroy wildlife habitat.  It is an indictment on both the Blue Mountains Council and the RTA that there are no wildlife fences or wildlife corridors throughout the Blue Mountains.

7. That Rose wrote “it is not something you would usually expect to see” is a sad indictment on the demise of wildlife populations across the Blue Mountains since colonial conquest, such that now people living in the Blue Mountains do not expect to see wildlife any longer.  Villages like Lapstone have become so urbanised that they are all but outer suburbs of Sydney.  The natural bush environment has been lost to a sterile parkland to suit the needs of humans.  The values of native wildlife and their habitat continue to be ignored by humans who live and drive through the Blue Mountains and by custodial government authorities – Blue Mountains Council, NSW Department of Environment (etc), Australian Department of Environment (etc).

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Yet, despite the arrogant disregard for wildlife values across the Blue Mountains, especially at the human interface, other regions take a more proactive view, such as in Sydney’s Northern Beaches region.

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Uncontrolled speeding on Australian roads

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Related Articles:

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‘Wallaby becomes roadkill after fence holed’

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by Brenton Cherry, 20110112, Many Daily, ^http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/wallaby-becomes-roadkill-after-fence-holed/

Eira Battaglia, Mandy Beaumont, Niamh Kenny,

Cassie Thompson and Elvira Lanham at the damaged fence.

(Photo by Virginia Young)

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‘A hole has been cut in the wildlife-proof fence along Wakehurst Parkway at Oxford Falls, leading to at least one wallaby being killed.  The death – discovered by Jacqui Marlow from the Northern Beaches Roadkill Prevention Group – was the first along the stretch of road since the fence was installed.

“Why would anyone cut a hole in the fence?” she said.  “I found the hole after seeing a dead wallaby in the fence area.

“It’s the first one killed in the fence area since it was installed, which shows that it works.”

Ms Marlow said she had become disenchanted by the actions of some people.

“At the moment my opinion of humans is not very good, especially when it comes to their attitude to nature,” she said.  “I’m really tired of dealing with it, the deaths are starting to get me down.”

Fellow group member Eira Battaglia said now more than ever motorists had to be aware of wildlife on our roads.

“Wallabies are around after the recent burn-off,” she said.

“Eight have been killed in the past week so please drive carefully, especially at dusk when the wallabies may be out searching for food.”

A spokesman for the RTA said a maintenance crew would permanently fix the hole as soon as possible.  “A temporary repair has already been carried out,” he said.

RTA representatives yesterday met with the roadkill prevention group for a tour of local hot spots and potential sites for additional fauna fencing.’

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‘Peering down the corridor’

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Source: ^http://www.coolmelbourne.org/articles/2009/07/peering-down-the-corridor/

Wildlife Corridors do exist and are effective where human communities

care enough to insist on them.

But don’t expect road designers and engineers in Australia to suggest the concept.

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‘Conservationists have long recognised the value of using wildlife corridors to connect wilderness areas, and there is mounting evidence to show that these corridors help many species, from the big to the small to the airborne to the aquatic.

But now ‘megacorridors’ are taking the wildlife corridor concept to a whole new level. Australia’s Great Eastern Ranges Initiative (GERI) is Australia’s answer to the megacorridor.

Aiming to create a 2800km wilderness megacorridor from North Queensland to Victoria, the initiative is about halfway towards completion of the first and most critical stage.saving-wilderness-geri-map-new-scientist.jpg

It is an extremely important move in the conservation of Australia’s biodiversity: after more than 200 years of development, the landscape of eastern Australia has changed significantly.

Fences, roads, dams, industrial and agricultural lands, powerlines, towns and cities cut across the country, isolating natural areas which have become ‘islands’ on which plants and animals have become isolated.

This means that many ecosystems have been fragmented, that the landscape’s capacity to maintain our unique plants, animals and Aboriginal cultural heritage has been reduced. It also means that remaining ecosystems are finding it harder to filter and clean our air, maintain the health of our soils, and produce unpolluted fresh water for the 93% of the Australian population that lives along Australia’s eastern seaboard.

This is no quick fix project however: climate change and the migration of human populations means it could take as long as 100 years before the project’s success can be measured.’

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‘Wildlife corridor from far south to far north’

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by Mat Churchill, 20100716, ^ http://www.tourismportdouglas.com.au/Wildlife-corridor-from-far-south-to-far.4317.0.html

The Great Eastern Ranges Initiative, a proposed 2,800km long conservation corridor

Patches of state and national parks around the country just aren’t sufficient to protect Australia’s native plants and animals.

According to a report commissioned by the NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water, a wildlife corridor 2,800km long stretching from Melbourne to the Atherton Tablelands would allow species to migrate when their habitat changes due to climate change.

”One of the impacts of climate change is that species will have to move around to find suitable habitat resources. We need to make the whole landscape more biodiversity friendly.” said Brendan Mackey, an environmental scientist who wrote the report.

Dubbed the Great Eastern Ranges Initiative, the corridor would be made up of public and privately owned land.

Ian Pulsford, from the Department of Climate Change and Water, said areas earmarked to become part of the corridor would see a person acting as a broker visit the private landholder to discuss the program.

”The corridor is voluntary but there has been a good response from private landholders, and there are incentives to make your land part of the conservation area,” said Mr Pulsford.

The corridor concept is a new way of thinking when it comes to conservation. And a change in the way we do things in Australia is clearly needed when nearly half of the world’s mammal extinctions in the last 200 years have happened here, along with 61 species of flowering plants among others. The world’s current extinction rate is 1,000 higher than nature intended.

”The conventional thinking is wait until things are really bad and then desperately try to save things at the last minute,” said Professor Mackey.

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Further Reading:

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[1]   ^http://www.coolmelbourne.org/our-environment/wildlife/

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by Editor 20101010.

Rogue leaf

Believe it or not

I hung on all winter

outfacing wind and snow

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Now that spring

comes and the birds sing

I am letting go.

-by Northern Irish poet Derek Mahon

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Across Prehistoric Britain’s wild dense temperate forests, its moors and boglands – wildlife once teamed.

Agrarian Man, followed by the excesses of Industrial Man, wiped out much of this wildlife and decimated its natural habitat – reducing the landscape to paddocks within a network of pastoral hedgerows and leaving a few tokenistic islands of natural reserves to the ruling classes .

But now it seems that even the hedgerows across the British Isles are at risk from Corporate Man’s insatiable quench for land and profit.

Government leaders could rule to defend the remnants of the British Isles’ natural heritage, yet choose not to.

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Hedgerows and a hedgerow tree (oak). County Amagh, Northern Ireland.

[Photo and those below taken by the editor 20100916, free on Public Domain – click to enlarge.]

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What is a Hedgerow?

“A hedgerow is a line of closely spaced shrubs and tree species, planted and trained in such a way as to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of a field and used to separate a road from adjoining fields or one field from another.

A hedgerow may consist of a single species or several, typically mixed at random. In most newly planted British hedgerows, at least 60 percent of the shrubs are hawthorn, blackthorn, and (in the southwest) hazel, alone or in combination. The first two are particularly effective barriers to livestock. Other shrubs and trees used include holly, beech, oak, ash, and willow; the last three can become very tall.

Across the British Isles many hedgerows include fully grown trees (‘hedgerow trees’), typically those mentioned above. There are thought to be around 1.8 million hedgerow trees in Britain (counting only those whose canopies do not touch others) with perhaps 98% of these being in England and Wales. Hedgerow trees are both an important part of the English landscape and are valuable habitats for wildlife.  Many hedgerow trees are veteran trees and therefore of great wildlife interest.

The most common species are oak and ash, though in the past elm would also have been common. Around 20 million elm trees, most of them hedgerow trees, were felled or died through Dutch elm disease in the late 1960s. Many other species are used, notably including beech and various nut and fruit trees.  The age structure of British hedgerow trees is old because the number of new trees is not sufficient to replace the number of trees that are lost through age or disease.”

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedge_(barrier)]

“Hedgerows serve as important wildlife corridors, especially in the United Kingdom where they link the country’s fractured ancient woodland. They also serve as a habitat for birds and other animals. As the land within a few metres of hedges is difficult to plough, sow, or spray with herbicides, the land around hedges also typically includes high plant biodiversity. Hedges also serve to stabilise the soil and on slopes help prevent soil creep and leaching of minerals and plant nutrients. Removal thus weakens the soil and leads to erosion. “

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedgerow_removal]

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What is Hedgerow Removal?

“Hedgerow removal is part of the transition of arable land from low-intensity to high-intensity farming. The removal of hedgerows gives larger fields making the sowing and harvesting of crops easier, faster and cheaper, and giving a larger area to grow the crops, increasing yield and profits.

In the United Kingdom hedgerow removal has been occurring since World War I as technology made intensive farming possible, and the increasing population demanded more food from the land. The trend has slowed down somewhat since the 1980s when cheap food imports reduced the demand on British farmland, and as the European Union Common Agricultural Policy made environmental projects financially viable. Under reforms to national and EU agricultural policies the environmental impact of farming features more highly and in many places hedgerow conservation and replanting is taking place.

In England and Wales agricultural hedgerow removal is controlled by the Hedgerows Regulations 1997, administered by the local authority.” – 7.—(1) A person who intentionally or recklessly removes, or causes or permits another person to remove, a hedgerow in contravention of regulation 5(1) or (9) is guilty of an offence.’

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedgerow_removal]

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Hedgerow Removal is a serious threat to the biodiversity of wildlife across the British Isles

The hedgerow, “a ubiquitous staple of the British countryside, is actually a species under threat and between 1940 and 1990, the common hedgerow underwent a dramatic decline; predominantly due to human influence. More worryingly, the cornucopia of British wildlife that used to thrive in these hedgerows is suffering from the decrease in natural habitat. A combination of increased urbanisation, a rise in the intensity of farming and therefore field size, overgrazing by livestock and improper maintenance have all had a detrimental effect on our hedgerows.

Another key human factor is the collective ignorance of the 1997 Hedgerow Regulations that demand the application for a removal notice for any hedgerow exceeding thirty years of age. There are hedgerows in the UK that date back from before the Enclosure Acts period – 1720 – 1840 and it is a dreadful thought that this precious rural heritage is potentially being destroyed.”

[Source: Josh Ellison of Floral & Hardy]

“Between 1984 and 1993 185,000km of hedgerow in England and Wales was lost.

This decline was not simply important in a British context but also in a European context. This is because hedged landscapes are found in relatively few areas: parts of northern France; northern Italy; the Austrian Alps and the Republic are Ireland.”

[Source:  Naturenet website – ‘Hedgerow Protection in England and Wales’ by Alina Congreve. ^http://www.naturenet.net/articles/congreve/index.html]

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[The following article by Emily Dugan appeared in the British Sunday newspaper, The Independent, on Sunday 29th August 2010.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/are-we-losing-the-fight-to-save-our-hedgerows-2064800.html]

Are we losing the fight to save our hedgerows?

“A decade after the first legal moves to protect them, they are still under attack – and now they could fall victim to spending cuts

They are the living seams that have typified the British countryside for centuries. But now hedgerows are disappearing fast, and a report published tomorrow will say we are not doing enough to protect them.

Research from the Campaign to Protect Rural England has found that though hedgerows enjoy more protection than ever before, in England their overall length fell by 26,000 kilometres between 1998 and 2007. The study, England’s Hedgerows: Don’t Cut Them Out!, calls for current legislation to be strengthened.

As well as having a nostalgic place in the aesthetics of the countryside, hedgerows are a vital part of the ecosystem. Research by Hedgelink, a network of British hedge conservation groups, shows that without them some 130 species – from the hedgehog and the dormouse to stag beetles and the cuckoo – would be under threat.

Although “important” hedgerows are protected by law, the majority can be taken down if a landowner wishes, which has resulted in many being dug up to create larger fields that are easier to harvest. For the past 20 years, the Government has provided financial help to landowners to restore and manage hedgerows. But most have still been left unmanaged, sometimes growing into larger trees offering fewer benefits to wildlife because they are less dense at ground level.

The CPRE study focused on England, but the picture nationwide is similarly grim.

Nigel Adams, vice-chairman of the National Hedgelaying Society, said: “The hedgerow is the unsung hero of our countryside. It’s often overlooked, but visitors to England say it’s what makes it so special. The majority are not used for their original purpose [as an animal barrier], but people recognise their importance in terms of wildlife and history.”

Since 1998, the number of legally protected hedgerows has risen by 18 per cent. Currently, 42 per cent of the UK’s hedgerows are protected, but the CPRE fears that the narrow criteria required to register a stretch of hedge as “important” will mean many more are lost.

To qualify for legal protection, a hedge must be at least 20 metres long, 30 years old and meet strict criteria on heritage and numbers of animals and plants relying on it. Some hedges were easy to register, such as Judith’s Head in Cambridgeshire, which is Britain’s oldest, having stood for more than 900 years. But for non-celebrity hedges, the future is dicey. More than two-thirds of local authorities surveyed by CPRE said that the current Hedgerow Regulations needed to be simplified to make them more effective.

Emma Marrington, author of the report, said: “The length of hedgerows in the country is declining, which is worrying. They’re a part of our heritage, but they also offer huge benefits to wildlife and the environment in general. It’s over a decade since the introduction of the Hedgerows Regulations, and the time is ripe for the Government to make improvements that give local authorities the power they need to better protect the great diversity of England’s hedgerows.”

The CPRE is concerned that hedgerow protection programmes could be at risk when the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) makes spending cuts in the autumn. “The Defra spending cuts could affect the money for schemes like this,” Ms Marrington said. “I can see how hedgerows could be overlooked; they’re taken for granted as being a part of the English countryside, and people don’t realise how much they’re at risk.”

If hedgerows in Britain decline further, so too will those species that depend on them. Jim Jones of the People’s Trust for Endangered Species is running a study of the impact of disappearing hedgerows on dormice, a species whose population has declined by 40 per cent in 20 years. “Dormice have disappeared from seven counties where they existed in the 1800s, at the same time as hedgerows have declined,” he said. “Hedgerow corridors are crucial because they allow them to forage and move around.”

Species in peril: An ecosystem teeming with life

Mammals

Dormice, harvest mice, hedgehogs, six species of bat, and polecats are all at risk as hedgerows decline. They rely on the covered corridors that allow them to move around.

Plants

The copse bindweed and the Plymouth pear are among the plants that flourish in hedgerows.

Fungi and lichens

From the sandy stilt puffball to the weather earthstar fungus, many fungi do particularly well in hedgerows. Lichens such as the orange-fruited elm lichen and the beard lichen are also at risk.

Invertebrates

Stag beetles, brown-banded carder bees and large garden bumblebees are among those at risk. More than 20 of Britain’s lowland butterfly species breed in hedgerows, including the brown hairstreak and the white-letter hairstreak butterfly.

Reptiles and amphibians

Hedgerows connecting with ponds are vital for great crested newts to move through the countryside. The common toad, grass snake, slow worm and common lizard are also at risk.

Birds

Many woodland birds rely on taller hedges for breeding. The turtle dove, grey partridge, cuckoo, lesser spotted woodpecker, song thrush, red-backed shrike and yellowhammer are all in danger.”

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Further Reading:

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[1]  Naturenet website ‘Hedgerow Protection in England and Wales’ by Alina Congreve. ^http://www.naturenet.net/articles/congreve/index.html] [2]  Hedgelink website homepage – ‘the first place to look for information on the UK’s native hedges, hedgerow conservation and hedge management.’ http://hedgelink.org.uk/

[3]  Hedgelink website – ‘Hedgerow Biodiversity Action Plan‘    http://www.hedgelink.org.uk/index.php?id=29

[4]  Hedgelink website – ‘Hedgerow management’ http://www.hedgelink.org.uk/index.php?id=30

[5]   Hedgerowmobile website – ‘Hedgerows, Hedges and Verges of Britain and Ireland,  exploring the legal and environmental aspects of British and Irish hedgerow and verge ecology, ecotones as well as management strategies.’ http://hedgerowmobile.com/

[6]   UK Legislation.gov.uk – ‘the official home of enacted revised UK legislation.‘  http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1997/1160/contents/made

[7]  University of Reading (England) – ‘Environmental Challenges in Farm Management [ECIFM] – changes in habitat’ http://www.ecifm.reading.ac.uk/habitat.htm

[8]  Epping Forest District Council (England) – ‘Prosecution for the Unauthorised Removal of Hedgerows’ (8th September 2010),   http://www.eppingforestdc.gov.uk/news/2010/prosecution_unauthorised_removal_hedgerows.asp

[9]  Norfolk Biodiversity Partnership (England) – ‘Habitat Action Plans – Hedgerows’ http://www.norfolkbiodiversity.org/actionplans/habitat/hedgerows.asp

[10]  South Straffordshire Council (England) – ‘Hedgerows (Field and Countryside)’ http://www.sstaffs.gov.uk/your_services/architectural__landscape_serv/hedgerows_field_and_countrysi.aspx

[11]  The Sunday Times (UK) – article by Richard Girling July 12, 2009:  ‘Britain’s wildlife: Work on the wild side’ – to save our wildlife we must get our priorities right. How far should we meddle with the animal kingdom?’ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6685127.ece

[12] The Telegraph (UK)  –  article by Charlie Brooks 16^th July 2009:  ‘Bird-brains who undermine our farmers‘ – when it comes to conservation, landowners can be trusted to make the right decisions.  ‘The European Union Habitats Directive has claimed that some 90 per cent of the UK’s threatened habitats are “in poor shape and therefore not supporting the range of wildlife they should do.”   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/5843663/Bird-brains-who-undermine-our-farmers.html

[13]  Countryside Jobs Service (North Yorkshire, England) – Countryside Jobs Service in association with The Tree Council For National Tree Week launched its Hedge Tree Campaign on 23 November 2009. http://www.countryside-jobs.com/Focus/Previous/Nov09.htm

[14] Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedgerow_removal

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