Good community work undermined by concreting
It is with great sadness that we at Ettymalong Creek Landcare see that Council has begun the destruction of an area of the hind beach dunes at Umina, despite widespread community protest and a range of possible alternatives which would have enhanced the dunes and provided a shaded parking area and pathway. (Peninsula News, November 14).
The compensatory planting and weeding work to be done on the remaining dunes, while essential in the circumstances, by no means compensates for the loss of the mature and juvenile trees, shrubs and ground cover plants.
It is enormously difficult and expensive to establish new growth on beach dunes in times of weather extremes.
Planting is one thing, ensuring long term survival is quite another.
Implementation of the current plans on top of the incursion into the dune area when the gravel car park was created will see a cumulative reduction of 30 per cent of this dune.
This loss of dune area cannot be compensated and is likely to have long term and adverse consequences for the adjacent bushland (which is already listed as an endangered ecological community), and for the council infrastructure being built.
The good work being done by community tree planting and bush regeneration groups on the Peninsula is being undermined by the concreting of public open spaces and the daily destruction of mature trees, including street trees, right across the Peninsula.
It can take up to 30-50 years to truly replace the loss of a mature tree and its habitat, foraging and shade benefits.
If we are going to survive and have a habitable environment, things need to change.
Council and the State government need to listen to the community and do much, much better.
SOURCE:
Email, 8 Dec 2022
Bryan Ellis, Umina