Freedom of Information (FOI) requests made by the Stop the Chop alliance have revealed that the NSW Government ignored expert advice when deciding to enact the 10/50 Vegetation Clearing Code of Practice. What were they thinking? Their attempt to make easy political capital out of the Blue Mountains bushfires in September 2013 has backfired. This misguided legislation is causing irreparable damage from the cutting down of thousands of trees for reasons other than bushfire protection.

The first FOI request revealed that, even before the legislation was enacted, an assessment by the NSW Rural Fire Service of the similar Victorian 10/30 legislation allowing people living in fire prone areas to cut down trees within10 m of their homes would not help with bushfire safety and may add to risks. One key problem identified is the breaking of the relationship between fire experts and property owners, The document also revealed issues with clearing on steep slopes, damage to riparian zones, heritage areas and significant vegetation.

The second FOI request revealed that, in November 2014, at the early stages of the enquiry into the code, the Rural Fire Service received Office of Environment and Heritage advice that the code could cause land slippage and soil erosion, ignored environmental impacts to flora and fauna, operated ‘inconsistently with current planning guidelines’. Office of Environment and Heritage recommended a return to the pre-10/50 bushfire management system in ‘some or all of NSW’. Despite this advice demands from local environmental groups to suspend the code have been ignored.

There were 3454 public submissions to the Rural Fire Service review of the code, with 97% opposed to the law

The relaxing of land-clearing laws was prompted by the 2013 bushfires, which destroyed close to 200 homes in the Blue Mountains. But the Blue Mountains City Council has voiced its concerns. Council members unanimously passing a mayoral minute that noted the impacts of the code were cumulative but ‘not readily measurable’ since residents aren't required to give notice of their clearing. ‘This was meant to be about bushfire protection,’ Mayor Mark Greenhill said. ‘It was not meant to be a new way of land-clearing with no regulation around it.’

The outcome from the enquiry into the legislation is promised shortly after parliament resumes in August. Surely they will have enough nous to stop the tree destruction that is causing so much angst in the community. One only has to look at the Stop the Chop Facebook to get a sense for the furious opposition.

This information came from an article written by Margery Street for Blandfordia, the newsletter of the North Shore Group of the Australian Plants Society.

On 1 April 2015 Hornsby Council’s Bushland Team led the Bushland Management Advisory Group on a visit to four reserves in the newly established Waitara Creek Upper Catchment biobanking site. The four reserves are:

• Dog Pound Creek Bushland
• Florence Cotton Park
• part of Ginger Meggs Park
• Waitara Creek Bushland

You may have seen the Hornsby Advocate story on 26 February, Agreement Prices Parks emphasising the monetary value of nature. However, Australian Plants Society members might be more interested to know that the land will be managed in perpetuity by Hornsby Council primarily for biodiversity conservation, with some passive recreation opportunities.

Through extensive research and mapping council was able to establish a $1.135 million value for maintaining and improving the land. This amount has been pledged for the land’s rehabilitation over 20 years with $1.1 million of this coming from the NSW government.

Biobanking is the scheme by which the Office of Environment and Heritage manages offsets for development on environmentally sensitive land. The scheme allows landowners in NSW to establish their land as a biobanking site, agreeing to enhance and protect its biodiversity. The site generates credits according to its value, for example, connectivity, condition, species and size, and other criteria such as cost of rehabilitation.

The calculation of the price of a credit is complex. It includes the estimated cost to the landholder of managing the land for the life of the agreement as well as establishment costs. The landholder must pay an application fee and provide a field assessment, management plan, land valuation and opportunity costs. The Office of Environment and Heritage website explains the processes.

The main forest types in these reserves are Blackbutt Gully Forest and Peppermint Angophora Forest. Also an area of Blue Gum Diatreme Forest which is significant because it is critically endangered, is found in the Hornsby Volcanic Diatreme system. It has lost 95% of its original extent through mining and logging and half the remaining area will be conserved by this agreement.

The reserves are home to four NSW threatened plants species including:

• Galium australe (Tangled Bedstraw) once thought extinct and now found in Dog Pound Creek, listed as endangered
• Grammitis stenophylla (Narrow-leaf Finger Fern) listed as vulnerable
• Epacris purpurascens var purpurascens, listed as vulnerable
• Syzigium paniculatum (Magenta Lilly Pilly, Magenta Cherry, Pocket-less Brush Cherry, Scrub Cherry, Daguba or Cadigal, Creek Lilly Pilly or Brush Cherry) although commonly cultivated, is listed nationally as vulnerable and endangered

Below left: Blue Gum Diatreme Forest is restricted to gullies on Jurassic diatremes (volcanic necks) along tributaries of Waitara Creek; here shown along Larool Creek, Dog Pound Track, Westleigh

Below right: Track through Florence Cotton Reserve, a Blackbutt Gully tall open forest found in gullies on Hawkesbury Sandstone with a shale influence from shale lenses in the sandstone or from proximity to Wianamatta Group shales

Under the United Nation's climate change agreement Australia’s current greenhouse gas emissions reduction task is to reduce its emissions by 5% below 2000 levels by 2020.

This equates to emissions of no more than 530 Mt CO₂-e in the financial year ended 2020. Without taking account of intended reduction measures, domestic emissions are projected to be 656 Mt CO₂-e in 2019–20 and the total reduction required over the period 2013 to 2020 is 236 Mt CO₂-e.

Mt CO₂-e is total greenhouse gas emissions in millions of tonnes with non carbon dioxide greenhouse gases, such as methane converted to an equivalent CO₂ warming potential

The table below gives a history of emissions recorded under the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory.

The reduction task has declined significantly compared with the projections made in previous years when it was expected that emissions would increase each year. The following reasons have been given for the reduction:

• lower electricity demand due to uptake of household solar, energy efficiency and higher retail electricity prices
• worse than expected agricultural conditions due to drought
• lower manufacturing output due to industrial closures
• weaker growth expectations for local coal production due to a fall in international coal prices

Direct Action Climate Change Policy

The main plank of the Australian Government’s policy to achieve the emissions reduction goal is the Direct Action Climate Change Policy. This involves companies putting up projects that will reduce emissions relative to a previous baseline level at a competitive cost.

There are three inherent problems with this idea:

• money is given to projects that would have gone ahead anyway, thus taking funding away from other worthy projects
• the way reductions are calculated could potentially penalise those who have already made cuts, while others will not be penalised for doing nothing to reduce emissions even if they are below best practice
• it is not clear what will happen to successful bidders who do not meet their commitments

The outcome of the first auction in April 2015 under the Policy is expected to achieve a reduction of 47 Mt CO₂-e at an average cost of $14 per tonne. The cost of the projects is a total of $660 million out of $2.55 billion that has been allocated from the budget up to 2020.

About 60% of the projects are carbon sequestration such as farmers fencing off and/or revegetating part of their land. About 38% relates to the capture of methane from land fill and other waste reduction measures. There are small amounts from changes to savannah burning, piggery management and transport.

There are many causes for concern that the reduction target will be not achieved.

There is still a long way to go and the allocated budget looks to be inadequate. For example, if the cost or abatement in future auctions is also $14 per tonne then the money currently available will buy only 182 Mt, 54 Mt short of the target. The government might be caught short with very little time to make amends.

Many of projects have timeframes of 7 to 10 years and will take some time to get established but have only 6 years to achieve the contracted carbon reduction.

The farm carbon reduction may not lead to permanent sequestration or weather conditions may lead to less growth than expected.

The main shortcoming of the plan is that the major polluters are missing. It appears there is no incentive for projects to lock-in long term energy efficiency measures and conversion to renewable energy sources.

Australia needs to make a commitment for major reductions in emissions beyond 2020 if we are to make a fair contribution to the goal to limit climate change. The Climate Change Authority has recommended a reduction of 30% on 2000 emission levels by 2025. There is currently no plan beyond 2020 that will go anywhere near making a significant difference.

Reference: Department of the Environment Fact Sheet.

A new high quality walking map of the Berowra Valley has been published by Friends of Berowra Valley.

The map is based on data supplied by the National Mapping Authority and includes tracks and walks. The double sided purpose-designed topographical map:

• shows approved walking tracks and fire trails
• references picnic and camping places, toilets, and important, notable and historic sites
• shows clearly marked track head access from public transport
• reproduces clear and specific safety guidelines for some tracks that cross the restricted Hornsby Rifle Range
• is printed on quality synthetic paper which handles wet conditions, repeated folding and tearing
• is folded for convenient part-opening to follow a track
• is cross-referenced to the Friends of Berowra Valley website
• describes and illustrates the ten walks in Guide to Berowra Regional Park (2004, out of print, 245 pp, more than 400 colour images)

The map costs $8 and is available from our on-line shop.