LC EPC Inquiry into Ecosystem Decline in Victoria Submission 759 Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into Ecosystem Decline To: The Standing Committee on Environment and Planning Murrindindi Climate Network Inc. submission (31. August 2020) 1. Who we are Founded in 2007, the Murrindindi Climate Network Inc. is a not-for-profit community group located in the Murrindindi Shire area. Our objectives are to promote renewable energy generation and use, to provide education related to understanding climate change and its impacts on the natural environment and the community, to provide education on pro- environmental lifestyle choices and business practices and strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including but not limited to behaviour change measures, energy efficiency measures and renewable energy technologies. 2. Witnessing drastic ecosystem decline and biodiversity impacts first hand The Black Saturday 2009 fires had a dramatic impact on the Murrindindi Shire, its population and its natural environment with 1,539 km2 or 40% of its area burnt. In accordance with the Code of Practice for Fire Management on Public Land (DSE 2006), the Victorian Interagency Rehabilitation Group (including staff from the Department of Sustainability and Environment and Parks Victoria) and the Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) Team (visiting from the USA) conducted an assessment. In summary the recommendations included (Murrindindi Shire Council, 2011): • Catchments—Over 49% of the burnt area was rated moderate to high soil burn severity, and 52% had steep slopes and therefore increased risk of erosion and runoff. Recommendations for treatment include posting public warnings, removing debris from channels and infrastructure, developing debris basins, maintaining roads and monitoring water quality. • Forests—126,000 ha of forested Ecological Vegetation Classes were affected with 54% of total land burned to moderate to high levels. Twenty thousand hectares of high-value mountain ash and alpine ash forest were affected. Recommendations include selected salvage logging on slopes that are less than 30º inclination, are outside Leadbeater’s possum habitats and 50 m from rainforest stands; reforestation of alpine ash stands younger than 20 years; examination of over 800 km of roads and walking trails; and removal of tree hazards. • Flora—Noxious and environmental weeds are present within and adjacent to the burnt area, with the risk that weeds will invade areas not yet infested. Burning of mountain ash and alpine ash before seed maturity results in changes of vegetation types and structure, with immediate post-fire dominance by Acacias. Plants vary in their responses to particular fire regimes and fire suppression activities. Recommendations include protection of sphagnum bog areas, installation of straw tubes to stabilize the ground against erosion and survey and detection of environmental weeds. • Fauna—Many rare and threatened species were affected by the fires, as shown by the Figure 1 below. Five species listed under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 occur within the burnt areas: Leadbeater’s possum Gymnobelideus leadbeateri, Macquarie perch Macquaria australasica, barred galaxias Galaxias olidus var. fuscus, powerful owl Ninox strenua and sooty owl Tyto tenebricosa. Leadbeater’s possum, barred galaxia and Macquarie perch are also listed under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Specifications for emergency stabilisation included assessing water quality, removing barred galaxias and Macquarie perch from creeks if necessary, and installing trout barriers in barred galaxias streams. One specification included monitoring the distribution, abundance and habitat use of Leadbeater’s possum. General recommendations included future research, a review of fuel reduction and fire 1 LC EPC Inquiry into Ecosystem Decline in Victoria Submission 759 management programs, the preservation of large hollowbearing trees and habitat corridors, trout removal and riparian revegetation (DSE 2009). Tallarook Yarck Glenaroua Kerrisdale Cathkin Molesworth MOUNT HICKEY (MOUNT TALLAROOK) Goughs Bay Alexandra Broadford Yea GOULBURN RIVER Eildon MELBA HIGHWAY Limestone LAKE EILDON Snobs Creek HUME FREEWAY FREEWAY HUME Flowerdale Taggerty Clonbinane Rubicon Bylands MOUNT TORBRECK Wandong THE CATHEDRAL Heathcote Junction Wallan MOUNT DISAPPOINTMENT Glenburn Buxton Enoch Point TOOROURRONG RESERVOIR Kinglake West LAKE MOUNTAIN Whittlesea MOUNT TANGLEFOOT Marysville Kinglake Toolangi YAN YEAN RESERVOIR MOUNT SAINT LEONARD Narbethong MOUNT EVERARD Saint Andrews THE GREAT DIVIDING RANGE MOUNT RITCHIE Hurstbridge MAROONDAH RESERVOIR Epping Christmas Hills Yarra Glen Healesville Diamond Creek SUGARLOAF RESERVOIR OSHANNASSY RESERVOIR Thomastown MAROONDAH HIGHWAY UPPER YARRA RESERVOIR Mcmahons Creek Greensborough MOUNT DONNA BUANG YARRA RIVER Eltham BRIARTY HILL Warrandyte Coburg Preston Heidelberg Lilydale Warburton Brunswick Wesburn Launching Place Kilmore East - Murrindindi Complex North Fire 2009 Victoria Overview Threatened Fauna Top Kill / Vegetation Mortality Plan Boundary Freeway Barred Galaxias Unburned Fire Boundary Highway Mortality Kill / Vegetation Threatened Fauna & Top Leadbeater's Possum Low Permanent Waterbody Main Road Macquarie Perch Moderate Wetland Area Collector 1:350,000 Powerful Owl High Major Water Course 063 12 Sooty Owl Minor Water Course Kilometers Disclaimer: Base layer information on this map has been sourced from Firemap 100k topographic map series. This material may be of assistance to you but the State of Victoria does not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for error, loss or damage which may arise from reliance upon it. Source: Department of Sustainability and Environment (2009) Murrindindi Complex North Fire Emergency Stabilization and Rehabilitation Plan. Prepared by the Victorian Interagency Rehabilitation Group and USA Burned Area Emergency Response Team (BAER). Page 18. Legend: Threatened Fauna: orange triangle: Barred Galaxias; yellow dots: Leadbeaters Possum; purple star: Macquarie Perch; blue cross: Powerful Owl, pink star: Sooty Owl Top kill/ vegetation mortality: dark green: unburned; light green: low; yellow: moderate; red: high. Figure 1 Threatened Fauna and Top Kill / Vegetation Mortality – Kilmore East – Murrindindi Complex North Fire 2009 Over the past ten years, since the 2009 fires the residents of the fire affected areas in the Murrindindi Shire have by and large been trying to make a “green recovery”, rebuilding in energy efficient ways and engaging in sustainable land improvements. The post fire recovery process has also seen a high level of cooperation between Landcare, Parks Victoria, DSE/DPI (now DELWP), the local government (Murrindindi Shire Council), the Catchment management authorities and affected landowners - all pulling together trying to revegetate riparian zones and reserves and combatting weeds spreading in fire affected areas. Sadly, with the 2019/20 fires the pressure on the natural habitat and flora/fauna species in Victoria (and other States of Australia) has increased exponentially. First estimates amounted to 1 billion animals killed (C. Dickman, 2020). However, the most recent estimates now talk about 3 billion animals killed or displaced as a more realistic number (WWF, 2020). Rising average temperatures, extended periods of drought and extreme weather events are a consequence of human induced climate change and will increase enormous pressure on 2 LC EPC Inquiry into Ecosystem Decline in Victoria Submission 759 ecosystems in the decades to come – especially if we are not able to keep average global warming at a maximum of 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels (UNFCCC, 2015). Without immediate action, the extinction crisis will be irreversible. 3. Why we have grave concerns about ecosystem decline and its drivers The Murrindindi Climate Network believes that the natural environment has an intrinsic value and that it is our ethical and moral obligation to respect it, take great care of it and actively protect it. We also have a moral obligation to future generations, our children and grand children, for them to be able to live in a healthy natural environment – with intact ecosystem services underpinning their societies and their quality of life. For over 40,000 years, the First Nations people of Australia have lived on the land in environmentally caring ways following elaborate and sophisticated cultural traditions that were able to durably preserve nature with all its varied and diverse ecosystem services in a sustainable homeostasis (Pascoe B, 2014). In Australia since the start of colonisation, in just two centuries an enormous and often violent socio-cultural transformation has taken place leading to extensive land clearing – e.g. in Victoria of 66 % (DSE, 2011). Even today, native vegetation continues to be lost at approximately 4,000 habitat hectares per year (SoE, 2018). Since the industrialisation, anthropogenic climate change is exacerbating ecosystem decline and is bringing global warming near levels that are endangering ANY life on Earth. In the global context, the average Australian per capita greenhouse gas emissions of 21.5 t of CO2-equivalent (2018) are amongst the highest (Australian Geenhouse Emissions Information system: 2018: AU Total CO2-e 537.446 Mt; population 24.99 million). The Australian per capita CO2-e