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Newsletter #68 February 2008

Underwood needs your help (again and again!!!)

UWA claims these sites are suitable Carnaby's feeding sites! What do you think?

While we await the decision of the WA Environment Minister (David Templeman) regarding Underwood, we have been advised that the Commonwealth Department of Environment and Water has now invited public comment on the same proposal before asking the Federal Environment Minister (Peter Garrett) to decide whether or not to lift a control order that prevents UWA from subdividing the bushland. The Commonwealth is concerned that the proposal may threaten the endangered Carnaby's Black Cockatoo which uses the bushland as a food source during summer.

The submission form and project documents can be downloaded from the UWA website

Submissions close on Feb 20th. Send your submissions to Paul van der Moezel, Coffey Environments, Dilhorn House, 2 Bulwer Street, Perth, 6000. Electronic submissions can be made to paul_vandermoezel@coffey.com. Contact phone number (08) 6462 7900.

UWA is arguing that subdividing Underwood Bushland will not endanger the Carnaby's cockatoos because there are lots of alternative food sources in Perth's Western Suburbs.

To support their claim UWA have produced a list of 526 sites. We have examined a number of those sites:

• two were 100 m offshore in the Swan River
• one is in the middle of Herdsman's Lake
• one is in the Rokeby Rd shopping strip (maybe Carnaby's have taken a liking to lattes)
• two are in AK Reserve (about to be bulldozed)
• 203 sites are repetitions (there are only 323 unique sites).

Other errors in the UWA proposal include:

• misleading statements about the importance of Banksia prionotes as a food source for Carnaby's cockatoos,
• misleading statements about the size of the proposed subdivision (UWA have arbitrarily excised 3 hectares of the bushland for future use to disguise the full area they are planning to clear),
• claims that population surveys of Carnaby's cockatoos are not scientific, and that Carnaby's are not really endangered at all.

Please make a submission to this process.

In the Bushland

Jewel spider Astracantha minax encountered in the bushland

We have been active in the bushland over summer, removing veldgrass, fountain grass, and pelargonium.

We record all of our activities on our weblog - go there to to catch up on what we are up to.

You can also leave comments there!

Next Meeting

Our next committee meeting will be discussing our activities for the coming year.

In preparation for this meeting we have produced a management plan that summarises everything we have done in recent years and makes recommendations for the future.

You can view our management plan here.

The committee meeting will be held on Sunday 3rd Feb at 9am at Shenton Bushland 'shed'. Dani will be bringing organic fruit icecream.

Contact Dani (9381 3470 or Dani's email for details.