Newsletter – Autumn 2017 CLARENCE ENVIRONMENT CENTRE 31 Skinner St, South Grafton 2460 Phone / Fax 66 43 1863 Email: [email protected] Website www.cec.org.au ____________________________________________________________________ Chaffin Creek drying up Some of those involved with the Upper Coldstream Biodiversity project will recognise the log crossing that we used to cross Chaffin Creek waterholes on the crown land at the northern end of Firth Heinz Road, home to the very healthy Giant Dragonfly population. As you can see there was no need for the 'bridge' when this picture was taken in mid February. The creek had ceased to flow, but I had never seen the waterholes so depleted. I know there was a major drought in the Clarence, and none worse affected than Pillar Valley, but I was still surprised at the dramatic drop in the level of water in these permanent waterholes. It so happens that the crown land is right next to the Pacific Highway upgrade As can be see there was no need for a 'bridge' when this picture (forest now cleared right up was taken in mid February. The creek had ceased to flow. to the crown land boundary), so I went to check on my way out, and guess what the RMS has done? 200m down-stream of the log crossing, the RMS has installed a great big pump and were drawing the last remaining water out of the billabong to suppress dust and help pack down the new road foundations. What the Hell is the 3 year's supply of water stored at Shannon Creek for? Nobody else is using it, and trucks could simply hook up to a hydrant in Tucabia without destroying the riverine habitat. This was not the first local creek that the RMS had pumped dry, having been forced to remove another pump they had installed at Whites Bridge in Amos Creek. A strongly worded letter from CEC to the EPA, pointing out the many environmental threats, not the least of which was to the population of endangered Giant Coastal Petaltail Dragonflies that had been identified in a swamp less than 100m away, and the pump was immediately withdrawn. And then the rains came! Two heavy dumps in quick succession. The above picture was taken at the bottom of a steep hill down which the new highway route is being constructed, with a huge stockpile of dirt already in place to form the bridge approach (see image at right). The flimsy 1 metre high silt trap across the slope and that along the river bank (see above) was never going to stop erosion even from a moderate storm event, and so proved to be completely ineffective when the flood came. The picture at left, taken several days after the first, relatively small flood event, shows the upper silt trap cloth spread and half buried at the right of frame, while the brand new white section of meshing along the river, and the plume of silt show where the entire mud flow, along with the original silt trapping, have ended up in the Chaffin Creek waterhole. A kilometer further north at Summervale Road, the RMS 'brains trust' (engineers) had designed the highway to run directly along a small creek line and wetland complex. The drought conditions made it easy to transform the wetland, at left. By filling it with rocks it ended up as shown above right. The creek too was filled but no provision was made for the water that would normally flow along it, so nature provided the solution (see below) The creek found a new course, washing away all the flood mitigation devices and silt traps (below left), carrying thousands of tonnes of silt, over-topping silt traps, and depositing it all into the remaining wetland (see below right where the top centimetre of mesh is still visible above the silt). And than the bigger flood arrived! I was unable to access these sites immediately after the event to view the destruction, having been flood-bound myself, and when I did go, the place was a hive of activity, with excavators frantically trying to sort things out in drizzling rain. At a subsequent meeting with the EPA at the Environment Centre, this matter was discussed, along with others, and it was explained to us that the RMS is required to deal with erosion mitigation measures in line with specifications laid down in the EPA's “Blue Book” which takes into consideration geographical regions, annual rainfall etc. However, I doubt if their Blue Book has ant standards for dealing with road building along creek lines! I was unable to ascertain whether or not the RMS had complied with Blue Book regulations, or if any punitive action was taken, other than being told to remove silt from the Summervale Road wetland. * * * The Roads and Maritime Service (RMS) cares – yeah right! In early February I wrote about the search for the endangered Coastal Petaltail Dragonfly in the Voices for the Earth column, which the Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition contribute to the Daily Examiner's environment page each Monday. In that article, which had received input from two dragonfly researchers, Dr Ian Baird and local ecologist, Fig Forest, I reported that the Pacific Highway upgrade construction was in the process of destroying entire sub-populations of the giant insects near Tucabia. That destruction has been particularly galling because, as regular readers of this newsletter might recall, sightings of the giant insects had been reported to the RMS on numerous occasions after their ecologists had declared the species was likely extinct, concluding that highway construction would have no impact on the species. However, two days after the Voices for the earth article was published, a letter from Bob Higgins, the RMS's Pacific Highway upgrade manager, appeared in the Examiner's Letters to the Editor section, responding to the article. The Coastal Petaltail Dragonfly While certainly gratified to know there are some avid readers of our column, some of Higgins' comments were irritating to say the least. One was his assurance to readers that: “RMS and the Pacific Highway team take our environmental obligations under the project approval very seriously”. To back that up, and respond to the habitat destruction report, he claimed: “Highly qualified and experienced ecologists” carried out targeted surveys for the Dragonfly in 2014, and didn't find any, hinting to readers that their reported occurrence was false and simply vexatious. Adult Giant Dragonflies only emerge over a brief 2-3 months each year during which they mate and lay their eggs in damp mud and peat habitats of swamps, after which they die. Their appearance can occur at any time during spring and summer, presumably depending on favourable conditions. This year, ecologists studying the species as part of the Government's Save our Species program, did not sight any of the dragonflies until late Swamp mud, complete with at least 5 generations of dragonfly December, so if targeted surveys lavae, excavated from the wetland. There will be no survivors. are to be successful they must occur regularly over that spring-summer period. However, on checking the RMS's 180 page “Threatened Invertebrates Management Plan”, we learn that only a single survey was undertaken by those “highly qualified” ecologists, and that was in November, clearly indicating their ecologists have plenty to learn. These before and after photographs depict the stark reality for the Coastal Petaltail Dragonfly. Other comments in Mr Higgins' letter claiming any impact from the destruction of “potential habitat” would be insignificant, as there are extensive wetlands to the west, is further evidence of his (and presumably his highly qualified team's) total lack of knowledge of the life cycle of the dragonfly. After all the adult Coastal Petaltail Dragonflies have died at the end of their breeding cycle, the eggs hatch in the moist soils of their swamp habitat, and the lavae spend the next five years or more in burrows underground before finally emerging as adults. As, in this case, the RMS has dug up the swamps along the route, filled them with rock, and will later cover that with gravel and concrete, at least 5 years of breeding cycle will have been destroyed. There will be no survivors! As for the swamps to the west, there are currently no Coastal Petail Dragonflies living there because they are floodplain wetlands, subject to lengthy periods of inundation during floods, an event that would drown the larvae. Also those wetlands are is grazed, and the larvae cannot survive in areas where stock continually trample their underground burrows, again highlighting the RMS's total lack of understanding of the species. One of those swamp breeding areas destroyed by the RMS is outside the main corridor, and appears to have been deliberately targeted for destruction with a strip of dry creek bank cordoned off and marked for environmental protection (see at right). So much for Mr Higgins' boast that: “The RMS has made further improvement to the route including reducing land-clearing by about 50 hectares”. This statement is meaningless in any event, because the RMS's charter requires them to minimise environmental impacts, so he can hardly expect brownie points for doing what they are required to do in the first instance. If we really want to see how seriously the RMS takes its environmental responsibilities, we only have to look at the annihilation and fragmentation of Koala habitat that is occurring north of Wardell. There they have steadfastly refused to alter the highway route to avoid the impacts that could spell the end to Koalas in that area.