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Tasmanian Platypus Fungal Threat

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Tasmanian Platypus Fungal Threat Caring for Tasmania since 1968 THE TASMANIAN CONSERVATIONIST Number 302 October 2005 Tasmanian platypus fungal threat The Tasmanian Conservationist is the regular Contents newsletter of the Tasmanian Conservation Trust Inc, 102 Bathurst Street, Hobart, Tasmania 7000. From the (new) Director 3 ABN: 63 091 237 520 What Use is Policy Planning? 4 Phone (03) 6234 3552 Fax: (03) 6231 2491 email: [email protected] Platypuses are also Having a Devil of a Time 5 website: http://www.tct.org.au Mitigation or Make-Believe? Protecting the Spotted-tailed Quoll 6 Director: Craig Woodfield President: Geoff King Does Commonwealth Heritage Listing have any Value 8 The views expressed in this newsletter are not The War against Foxes 9 necessarily those of the Tasmanian Better Homes & Gardens for Little Penguins 10 Conservation Trust Inc (TCT) . Water: Facts, Issues and Problems 10 Editor: Craig Woodfield Don’t Miss Tasmania’s Environmental 11 Home Expo We permit photocopying of all original Feral Cats and Feral Weeds 12 material in The Tasmanian Conservationist. Feel free to make use of our news and articles, Coastal Orchid Haven Up for Grabs 13 but please acknowledge the source. Good Year for Greenhoods 14 Why Educate? Increased Community Awareness Contributions: We encourage our readers to could be Vital to Shorebirds’ Survival 15 submit articles of interest for publication. Articles should preferably be short (up to 600 words) and well illustrated. Please forward copy on computer disk or by email if possible. Guidelines for contributors are available from the TCT office. North-West Branch We reserve the right to edit contributions. Tasmanian Conservation Trust Meetings of the North-West Branch of the TCT are Deadline for next issue: 18 November 2005 held on the first Wednesday of each month at 12 James Street, Ulverstone from 5pm to 6pm. Advertising: We accept advertising of products All members resident in the north-west are invited and services that may be of interest to our to attend all or some of these meetings to readers. Our rates are GST inclusive: discuss conservation issues in the region. 1 Issue 2 Issues 3 Issues Writing Full Page $110 $192 $330 Editing Half Page $55 $93 $165 Proofreading Specialising in conservation issues and Quarter Page $30 $46 $82 promotional literature. Reports and management plans, newsletters and magazine articles, books and guides. Proofreading: Janice Bird Layout: Patricia McKeown Circulation: 475 Front Cover: Platypus. Photo: Dave Watts. BA (Hons) Literature See cover story,’ Playtpuses are also having a Member of Society of Editors (Tas), devil of a time’ on page 5. Tasmanian Writers’ Centre, Society of Authors. ABN 86 028 924 992 Phone (03) 6234 6569 Email [email protected] 2 Tasmanian Conservationist October 2005 From the (new) Director As you are all now aware, after twelve and a half years of Although I am honoured to be appointed Director, I am distinguished service, Michael Lynch has retired as also somewhat anxious about the future of the TCT. I Director of the TCT. Michael’s contribution to this believe that the next few years will be as challenging as organisation and to the protection of Tasmania’s any the TCT has faced. Funding sources are shrinking, environment cannot be overstated. His professionalism, whilst competition for that funding is growing. At the leadership, good humour and, above all, common sense, same time, almost everything has become more expensive, will be sorely missed. As his replacement, if I can do no from appeals to printing. Those who would deny the more than simply maintain the TCT at the level of efficiency and effectiveness that Michael established, then I will be content. I have been encouraged to tell members a bit about my background and so offer the following abbreviated bio- graphy. I was born and grew up on the north-west coast of Tasmania before moving to Hobart to attend the University of Tasmania. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in 1991, I went back to the north- west to work for the poppy industry. The next ten years or Former Director Michael Lynch congratulates Craig Woodfield on his so included several more stints appointment as Director of the TCT in September of this year. in that particular job, conservation movement a voice have become more interspersed with two years in the United Kingdom and belligerent and proactive than ever before. And the wider four years in Sydney, where I was lured into the community often appears to be too busy or distracted to conservation movement by the meagre wages, long hours wade through the layers of spin and propaganda that and limited career opportunities. When I moved back to surround even the most straightforward of issues, let alone Tasmania in mid-2001, the TCT accepted the challenge the complex ones. of employing me to work on freshwater issues and the State Government obligingly provided a large, slow- Despite this, there is no shortage of conservation issues moving target in the form of the proposed Meander Dam. that need to be addressed, and there are still opportunities and processes for an organisation such as ours to achieve In my spare time I tend to read a lot, watch football and/ conservation outcomes. I look forward to working with or cricket, and plan the next phase of the seemingly endless the staff, council and membership of the TCT to achieve renovations of my house. I also practise Kendo, a these outcomes. traditional Japanese martial art which involves getting Craig Woodfield hit very hard with a bamboo sword. I have found this to Director be excellent preparation for dealing with the likes of the Forest Practices Board, RMPAT and the RPDC. Occasionally I get to spend time with my wife and family. Tasmanian Conservationist October 2005 3 What use is Policy Planning? Making the State Coastal Policy Work The recent release of the State Coastal Policy prompts me Even here, when the Policy proves to be a hindrance the to think about what all this policy activity actually achieves. State has given exemptions – the Shack Sites Program State and local governments place a lot of emphasis on being the best example. policies and spend a great deal of time and money on The only bright spot is the setting aside of Marine preparing them, consulting the community, and promoting Reserves in the Kent Group and Bathurst Harbour. Whether policies once they have been finalised. these have resulted from the policy, of course, is another But what happens next? If the State Coastal Policy is matter. anything to go by, precious little. Apart from the above, the resources actually allocated to We have had a State Coastal Policy for almost a decade. coastal management by State and local government are There is nothing particularly wrong with the content of miniscule. In my view it would be more valuable to assess the existing policy. However, there is a yawning gap why the current policy is not producing the desired between what it says and what is actually happening on outcomes than to carry out another review. the ground and in the water. What is wrong? For example, the policy says, To my mind the current debate about the State Coastal ‘Natural and Cultural values of the Coast shall be Policy Review is at best misguided. The focus is on content. protected.’ But what does it matter what the policy says if there is no This is a principle to which most would subscribe. real commitment to its implementation? Following from this principle, Clause 1.1.9 says, In my view, the fundamental problem is that what is called ‘Important Coastal wetlands will be identified, protected, ‘policy planning’ is nothing of the sort. Activity that focuses repaired and managed so that their full potential for merely on producing ‘policy’ is not policy planning. It is nature conservation and public benefit is realised.’ only a part of it. In isolation, the production and review of policy documents is a meaningless exercise. As I sit and write this I can hear the bulldozers at work on the edges of a coastal wetland that contains high priority There are three essential components of any effective vegetation under the RFA; the clearing is for yet another planning exercise: speculative housing subdivision. No approvals to carry out 1 Establishing goals, objectives, desired future this clearing work have been given by the local council or outcomes etc. i.e. the purpose of the plan. by the Forest Practices Board under the Forest Practices 2 Putting in place mechanisms, resources and Act. programs to achieve the purpose i.e. the process of Quite simply, the natural and cultural values of the coast plan implementation. are not being protected. I could go on ad nauseum with 3 Ensuring through monitoring and assessment that examples of breaches of the policy: grazing on sand dunes, what happens on the ground is what was intended and clearing of riparian vegetation, construction of roads in the purpose of the plan is being achieved. i.e. having sensitive coastal locations without proper environmental a product which reflects the purpose. management controls, degradation of inshore marine Unless all three of these components are in place we do habitats, lack of management of uses that have an adverse not have policy planning – all we have is policy formulation impact on coastal resources, etc, etc. I am sure that readers (what has been referred to as ‘White Man’s Dreaming’). It have their own list. is a common activity of government. So why are policies so ineffective? Could it be that they The Coastal Policy Review are actually not meant to achieve the stated outcomes? One Readers will probably have noticed by now that the current might be forgiven for thinking this, considering the paltry review is very thin on implementation and borders on effort and resources that are put into implementing policy.
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