Endangered vegetation now a hospital case.

 French Forest is a Sydney suburb 13 km from the CBD.  Much of the “Forest” has long been consumed by business parks, housing estates and bitumen but right next to busy Warringah road sits a unique remnant of rich biodiversity. This is the vital wildlife corridor that links Garigal National Park with Manly Dam Reserve and Narrabeen Lagoon catchment. 

 True to form, the NSW government has chosen this very land as the location for a brand new private hospital. It is on notice to be bulldozed, concreted and lost forever in the near future. The frustrating thing is that the high quality, existing Mona Vale and Manly hospitals nearby (one with extensive land to expand and upgrade) will also be sacrificed for this misconceived project.

The proposed hospital site (corner of Forest Way and Warringah Rd. Sydney) a remnant area of ancient bushland and a vital wildlife corridor

The bushland on the 6 hectare land parcel is not your average “scrub”. No, this is an unusual sub-segment of an already endangered type of woodland called  Duffys Forest Ecological Community (named after Peter Duffy who was the first man to purchase land in the area). 

It is basically some of the rarest vegetation on the face of planet Earth (dominated by tree species that include Red Bloodwood, Silvertop Ash, Brown Stringy Bark and Angophora Costata) and is at real risk of extinction. 

 The politicians (of most persuasions) don’t know, care or have any interest in this special element of our natural heritage. They are sadly blind and blinkered to the environmental values that make this part of the world so extraordinary. Their focus, as usual, is development and economic activity at any cost.  Because this project has been designated as being of "state significance", most of the flimsy environmental restrictions that do exist are being overridden.

Just off a congested intersection, is this exquisite area of remnant bushland...all will be lost to the bulldozers.

 If the hospital is built at this location, it will be curtains for endangered Powerful Owls, Swamp Wallabies,  Sugar gliders, Bandicoots and other rare wildlife that survives here against all the odds. Even Koalas and Tiger Quolls have been sighted in this area.

The Powerful Owl (Nonox Strenua), a threatened (vulnerable) fauna species listed under NSW legislation, has been recorded repeatedly at this site. (photo M Allen)

 So, yet more of Warringah’s natural environment seems destined to be consigned to the history books because of ignorant, misinformed or corrupted, planning decisions.

"Duffys Forest Endangered Ecological Community." Already some of the rarest vegetation on Earth.

 As much as 70% of Australia’s native vegetation has been cleared or modified in the past 200 years.  There should be no excuse to destroy intact, endangered bushland when other, much more suitable, options are available.  

 

Survey marks predict a bleak future for this high conservation value site.

 Just down the road, residents fought a long but losing battle to save bushland in the Manly Dam catchment from the Ardel Housing development. Endangered listing for the Duffy's Forest Ecological Community came just too late to stop the project proceeding .. but the one small consolation was that, supposedly, "it could never happen again!" Check out this website for the full story:- The fight to save Manly Dam Catchment

The community tries to save bushland at nearby Manly Dam in 1999 (photo M Allen)

The Police "Special Patrol Group" move in to remove protesters trying to save endangered "Duffys Forest" bushland at Manly Dam in 1999 (photo M Allen)

 Tragically even more "Duffys Forest" vegetation is earmarked for clearing when the planned widening of Mona Vale road takes place. Another segment could be compromised by the proposed Warringah Aquatic Centre expansion. Nearby at Bantry Bay, the Aboriginal Land Council has sold off sensitive land adjoining Garigal National Park for a housing estate and the National Parks and Wildlife Services has announced plans to clear bushland within the National Park itself for a contentious mountain bike track.

 Meanwhile, and somewhat ironically, Warringah Council has created a website called Duffys Forest Defenders where it states " Some people don't know much about Duffys Forest and can hurt it without understanding the consequences. if no-one helps, Duffys Forest may be lost forever." 

 It goes on to say that there are many reasons to retain our bushland including ecological conservation for diverse flora and fauna; food,habitat and passageways for native animals; protecting threatened species; Aboriginal heritage values; education and scientific research; scenery, tourism and recreation; pollution reduction and as a division to urban sprawl.

Grass Tree (Xanthorrhoea) an ancient feature of this fragile site.

 The hospital site lies within the electorate of NSW Planning Minister, Brad Hazzard. When in opposition, he released plans to turn French's Forest into a major economic centre,with a hospital being the catalyst for massive commercial growth. The NSW Treasurer, Mike Baird, whose seat is in neighbouring Manly, has given full support to this chosen hospital site. 

 Incidentally,when the NSW government compulsorily acquired the land from the local government jurisdiction of Warringah Council in 2012, Council agreed to the transfer but with the proviso that the Duffy's Forest Ecological Community be protected. It was also noted that "Health Infrastructure will still remain bound by State and Commonwealth environmental legislation"

However..if the government has its way.....the earth movers will soon be getting another outing and another magical wild place will be consigned to the history books. 

 In late Nov 2013 there was a protest rally on site. If you'd like to join the  group fighting to stop this destruction (whilst also attempting to save existing community hospitals) check out the H.E.A.L website. The short term imperative is that this application (5982) must be referred to a Planning Assessment Committee where the environmental concerns, plus a host of other issues, can be thoroughly examined.

Going, going ?...A spectacular Persoonia Pinifolia (Pine-leafed Geebung).

 Mona Vale and Manly hospitals could be upgraded and expanded at a fraction of the cost of a new development and this site could be conserved and donated as a precious gift to future generations. Now there's a healthy alternative!

Please sign a petition to stop this proposal here:Petition

Footnote

it has been over 20 years since 1,700 senior scientists (including 104 Nobel Prize winners) signed a document called 'World Scientist's Warning to Humanity'. The opening words are worth reading at length:

Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practises put at risk the future that we wish for human society ... and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about.

We all know the rest of the story. The warning has not been heeded and as the 2005 Millennial Ecosystem Assessment stated, every single living system on the planet is in a state of decline and the rate of decline is increasing.

More info on the "extinction crisis"

Check out the following article on the proposed new private hospital and the NSW Nurses and Midwives Assoc plan to campaign against it. By Amy Corderoy, featured in the Sydney Morning Herald, 25.1.2014  SMH story

NEWS UPDATE

In July 2014 bulldozers moved in to clear the critically endangered vegetation. Witnesses say that ancient trees with hollows were knocked over and chipped with scant regard for arboreal wildlife. Representatives from Sydney Wildlife (who care for injured and orphaned native animals and birds) were barred from the site. Seed collectors, hoping to salvage some of the rare plant seeds for trans location were also denied access. 

Bulldozing of this irreplaceable remnant of natural Sydney commenced in July 2014

Community members bear witness to the carnage.

(Jan 2016). Constructing massive new road networks around the new Northern Beaches Hospital facility now means that a further 6.1 hectares of the  (fast disappearing) "Duffys Forest Endangered Ecological Community" will be cleared. Full gloomy details are listed in this Biodiversity Assessment Report.

Footnote..if you could see the destruction and loss of vegetation today...you would weep.

Infrequent flyers

 Butterflies used to be so prolific that excitable children would run after them with huge nets in an urge to fulfill their megalomanic urge for bright fluttery things.  Avaricious collectors would pin the fragile little thoraxes of butterflies onto display boards to show off their hunting prowess. In Victorian times, the pursuit of butterflies bordered on being a community obsession. 

 Of course these days, now that butterfly visits have become a rarity, we know much better than to harm them directly.  The gardening commentators still fail to make the simple connection between caterpillars and butterflies though.  If it looks remotely like a caterpillar, then they reckon it should be poisoned, squashed or otherwise eradicated from the neatly manicured, grub free, back yards that they champion.

A Graphium Sarpedon or Blue Triangle Butterfly found in parts of Australia and South Asia, known for their habit of feeding by the edge of puddles. Did you know that a butterfly's sense of taste is 200 times stronger than a human's!

 The fact that one day...those caterpillars would, magically transform themselves into beautiful and highly effective pollinators...seems to interest them not one jot. And  the likelihood that waging chemical warfare on caterpillars will then have a domino effect on beneficial insects and birds would never enter their horticultural heads.

The Australian crow (Euploea Core) Butterfly. One of the most common migrating butterfly species

 Butterflies have been on this planet for 40 or 50 million years and there are a between 15,000 and 20,000 species worldwide, but, thanks to habitat destruction and the use of pesticides, their numbers are in steep decline. In North America, the journey of the Monarch butterfly is heralded as a natural wonder of mass migration. Millions of these brilliantly coloured creatures flutter over 3,000 kilometers from the US to Mexico to hibernate. But now their numbers are decreasing from around 100 million to less than half that (and falling) due to logging, development and the loss of native Milkweed plants that they rely on for sustenance.

One of the drivers causing butterfly decline is gardeners and the fact that they almost invariable eschew endemic native plants for foreign cultivars. American naturalist Benjamin Vogt made these observations –

“We need to be gardening for insects as much if not more than ourselves. We talk about vegetable gardening as this holistic, green, wonderful thing to do for the planet -- but why don't we ever talk about ornamental gardening for insects and larvae?  We garden for butterflies (too often with butterfly bush), but we don't garden with the plants they evolved with to eat. We need to stop gardening solely for ourselves and see the incredible, beautiful, soul-magnifying existence that happens when we open up our gardens to the rest of the local environment by using native plants. We believe in giving to the needy and poor of our own species, and to other causes near our hearts, why not the birds, insect pollinators, amphibians right out back in the gardens we supposedly cherish so much?"

Wasp Moth (Eressa Angustipenna). Found in NSW, Queensland and the Philippines.

It’s all pretty simple really… to create a well balanced, backyard eco-system, we  need to restore the endemic trees, shrubs, ground-covers and grasses that existed there originally.  Don’t use herbicides or pesticides remove exotic weeds by hand and gradually the natural order and hopefully the butterflies will return.

The Manly Fringe 2013

Here's an end of year montage of some of the natural beauty to be found inland from Sydney's Northern Beaches...and a glimpse at a few of the community initiatives designed to help retain it.

Manly Dam Bushland..always in need of more protection

Mermaid Pool, Manly Vale, a focal point for conservation efforts.

A volunteer team removing invasive weeds as part of the "Return of the Mermaids" restoration project.

Community members "rescuing" graffiti spray cans discarded in Manly Creek.

Orara Reserve, Allambie. Gradually being restored from weed invasion by  Bushlink, Beach School and Save Manly Dam Catchment Committee

Avenue of Endemic Native Plants to Commemorate the Wartime Service

of the Merchant Navy (Manly Vale). King St, Avenue of Honour 

Beautiful Gumbooya Reserve, Allambie...

...cared for by a volunteer team as part of "Friends of the Bush"

Local residents putting up nesting boxes for native wildlife (This one is for a Brushtail Possum)

Restored rock outcrop with remnant native species, Manly Vale

Juvenile orphaned Flying Fox being looked after by a volunteer from Sydney Wildlife

A Great Egret visits a Manly Vale pond looking for food 

Native Commelina Cyanea is also called "Scurvy Weed" as it was eaten by early European settlers to avoid scurvy (it contains Vitamin C) 

A spectacular Blue Triangle butterfly (Graphium Sarpedon) visits a Manly Vale garden

Spot the camouflaged Katydid

Gorgeous Apacris Longiflora (Fuschia Heath) at Manly's "North Head"

Ringtail possums. (Two very special Manly Vale locals).

A juvenile yet ancient member of the Manly Vale community.

Magnificent Coral Fern at Freshwater

Angophora Costata (smooth-barked apple)..a truly wonderful tree

Stunning Clematis Aristata (old man's beard) at Manly Golf Course...a star amongst native plants

I hope you've had a great year..please treasure and protect your own local native animals and plants...wherever you may be.

Swanning Around Manly

 There’s nothing quite as exquisitely, elegantly, beautiful as a swan is there? And Black Swans seem to take the word “gracefulness” to a whole new dusky level. 

 Europeans believed that all swans were white, until “gobsmacked” Dutch explorers came across the black variety in Western Australia in 1836 (a “black swan event” has since been used to describe an historical incident that was unprecedented and unexpected).

 The Black Swan is a highly nomadic bird with an erratic migration pattern, dependent on food availability and climatic conditions. It is native to Australasia but has been reintroduced to New Zealand , where it had been hunted to extinction.

 Dee Why Lagoon, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches was once home to a large colony of swans which fed on the prolific sea grass. The “useless swamps” surrounding the lagoon were systematically drained to enable urban development and the living birds largely disappeared -their image, ironically, being retained in symbolic form to represent the suburb (one wag believed that the swan logo should have been replaced by the crane!)

 In recent times, small numbers of black swans have tentatively returned to the area but dog attacks, the ingestion of fish hooks and human interference has lead to a perilous existence.

You’re most likely to observe Black Swans on larger bodies of water because they lose all of their flight feathers after breeding and are unable to fly for a month. They settle on lakes and lagoons, therefore, for relative safety. They are almost exclusively herbivorous, feeding on aquatic, marshland and pasture plants and algae.

 Black Swans breed mainly in the southeast and southwest of the continent, they are monogamous and share incubation and cygnet rearing duties between the sexes.

Black Swan at Manly Dam

Black swan (Cygnus Atratus)

Size: 120cm to 142cm

Weight 6kg

Wingspan: 2 metres

Breeding Season: June to September

Clutch size: Up to 9 eggs taking 35 days to hatch

Lifespan: Up to 40 years.

The Lost Rocks of Sydney (Part 2)

The Dilema:

In “part one” of this report, we discovered that most of the lovely rocky outcrops, dotted around Sydney like gigantic unclaimed parcels, were in a “spot of bother”.

These hulking great edifices have been gradually entangled by deviously aggressive weeds. Most of them now lie ensnared, their original biodiversity choked and suffocating... or already expired.

One of the monumental “lost rocks”, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, epitomised this miserable scenario.  It was besieged by the “Who’s Who” of invasive species. And these are the main culprits:- Fishbone Fern, English Ivy, Japanese Honey Suckle, Asparagus Fern, Lantana, Ochna, Crucifix Orchid,  Buffalo Grass, Mother of Millions.

The Solution:  The small team of volunteers from Rock Face Renaissance gradually worked to remove the weeds, rescue the surviving endemic  plants and rejuvenate this cascading colossus of historic stone. Never in the field of weed removal, were so many green bins filled, by so few.

The Result?

Resurrection, resuscitation and renewal!  A beautiful stone feature has been revealed after years of neglect and what’s left of the indigenous flora and fauna has room to breathe once more. 

Check out these before and after shots:-

This was then..

And these are now...!

It's amazing what was hidden beneath all those weeds

The native flora shines through!

Concealed "treasures" revealed!

On top of the rock, some Lomandras have survived underneath a carpet of weeds!

And a tiny Acacia Terminalis (Sunshine Wattle) germinates.

If only more of Sydney’s "lost rocks" can be saved before it’s too late. If you have any examples of rocky outcrops in need of salvation or require help with some rock rescue..email thegreenmanly@gmail.com

The Lost Rocks of Sydney...

  

 Some of the enduring features of Sydney are the wonderful sandstone outcrops which are dotted around the city and suburbs. In fact, this metropolis is built on top of a giant swathe of sandstone around 50 metres thick. The eroded matter was brought here around 200 million years ago, in the form of sandy deposits, by an ancient river. Many of Sydney’s iconic old colonial buildings are made from this attractive yellow-brown material.

 Immense bulky formations of sculptural sandstone sit heavily at the end of cul-de-sacs, hover broodingly over backyard gardens or majestically frame our beaches. They were mostly too hard to shift when the bulldozers came through, so they were often skirted around and left in a lumpen "too hard basket". Today they are somber and silent reminders of a lost landscape, a forgotten time, an ancient past. 

 These rocky edifices also harbour some of our last remnant suburban biodiversity; ferns, trees and bushes that tenaciously cling to the surviving islands of undeveloped land. The outcrops don’t have a lot of naturally occurring plant-life on them but the species that do (or should) exist, are critical to the fauna of these nutrient poor and thermally stressed environments

  Almost from day one, post European settlement, these native plant refuges have been under siege from invaders. Tenacious weeds were unthinkingly brought here from overseas such as English Ivy, Morning Glory, Asparagus fern, Mother of Millions, Lantana, Honeysuckle and Agapanthus. These, and other opportunistic plants such as Fishbone fern are now blanketing the rock faces and crowding out the indigenous specimens.  Chances are, most of Sydney’s signature rocky outcrops are all but invisible, literally buried beneath a festoon of introduced species.

  One example, among a multitude, is the towering rocky cliff featured below. It was blanketed by a thick green curtain of weeds, but the promise of something special hiding unobtrusively beneath was still evident. The guys from Rock Face Renaissance decided to move in for a exercise in rejuvenation. Check out what happened...

This was the subject rock face before the "renewal" 

The weeds were gradually peeled back to reveal some hidden natives

..

...an Eriostemen...

...and a glorious grass tree emerge "gasping" from beneath the Fishbone ferns

The giant curtain of ivy is also slowly drawn away and underneath is...

Indigenous but barely surviving, Coral fern 

...and an ancient Fork-fern

(Skeleton Fork-fern (Psilotum nudum) is one of the most primitive and simple plants around and its descendants can be traced back 410 million years. They are truly living relics. Amazingly you can still see them on the rock face adjoining the Opera House and on Cockatoo Island..most passers-by wouldn’t give them a first glance, let alone a second one).

An unusual looking Skink also enjoys the new found light 

Martyn Robinson from the Australian Museum advises that this is an “interesting one” and is  known as a gully skink, (Saproscincus Spectabilis/Galli)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saproscincus_galli

Meanwhile, this juvenile southern leaf tailed gecko shows off its amazing camouflage

There are many other similar sandstone formations on the Northern Beaches (see examples below) and across Sydney that could also urgently do with some TLC.  Email me at cowfish5@bigpond.com  if you have some examples.

A rocky, but weedy, headland at Queenscliff

A rocky but  weedy "Welcome to Warringah"

A rocky, but weedy streetscape in Manly Vale

 Check out this blog next time to see how our subject rocky outcrop has been amazingly resuscitated and rejuvenated after decades of neglect.