Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Biodiversity is not a static thing ,,,

This patch ridden picture of the 1939 bushfires illustrates a process that has been happening in the Otways and southern Victoria for eons ;  The patchy removal and replacement of vegetation .
If it wasn't for such a process we  wouldn't have Northofagus cunninghamii  in a few valleys at Maits rest ( must see place) and the diverse types  of mixed types of native regeneration that make the southern Otways ( for us and Victoria ) so interesting both for plants , animals protozoa fungi and you name it . Valley vegetation on the  the central southern fall of the Otways is not easily burnt.

The Otways is a great area and a great area for trees. As stated  many times over by those who know how to manage the environment , we need to encourage our city centric leaders to have the bigger vision of biodiversity and adopt the long term vision  of replacing and regenerating them .

 The shallow and incomplete legislation which has ruled Victoria for 30 years must be replaced.  All sides of government are complicit in this complete cockup.  The NVR legislation has made people believe  RETENTION ( the last word in NVR ) is the best way to create biodiversity .  It is the NOT last word on biodiversity and barely the first.  
 Today in the Colac paper we have yet another incomplete discussion on finding more habitat for koalas currently starving at Cape Otway  . If koalas  had more new young regrowth there would be more of them and more room for them.  Koalas get an inefficient form of young regrowth along the coast because of salt pruning of the older leaves .   Even age stands  of native vegetation are not natural, even in central areas . Consider the effect of the 1939 fires .
Can I encourage you ( cause we can't do it alone)  to encourage our leaders to continue to do what they have started; Resist the overly simple stuff from Spring Street and plan for replacement as a priority -

We are not Museum Victoria, but living, dynamic Victoria out here  Call for new biodiversity and conservation legislation that is not stuck in the past or the present;  Legislation  that  clearly takes us all into the future.
Yes if you want to see koalas  ,,,,,,,you now know where to look .

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