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Council criticised over reserve work

 

Gosford Council's use of a tractor in the Burrawang Bushland Reserve in Hillview St, Woy Woy, has been described as environmentally reckless by a committee caring for the reserve.

The committee is calling on the council to immediately establish a statutory management committee and plan of management for the reserve.

The tractor was used to create barriers to prevent vehicle access to the reserve.

"While some form of barrier is needed, the way this was done ignored established bush management principles and the practices recommended for this reserve," said committee convenor Mr Mark Snell.

"It highlights the need to implement proper planning and management of the reserve."

He said the action was taken without consultation and was contrary to what the committee had previously been told would occur.

Mr Snell said fallen trees had been dragged from within the reserve to block entry from the Nambucca Dr playground.

"The barrier is inappropriate because it hinders pedestrian along a designated track.

"The fallen trees should not have been touched. They provide habitat for native animals and provide protection which assists understorey regrowth.

"The tractor has created substantial damage in removing them" said Mr Snell.

"It is ironic that the damage caused is exactly the sort of vehicle damage that the barriers are designed to prevent."

Mr Snell said that dumped car bodies which the committee had been asking the council to remove for more than 12 months had not been removed but had been pushed further into the bush.

He said that mature trees, such as banksias and melaleucas, were broken or destroyed.

"The more significant damage was sustained by understorey plants, such as burrawangs and acacias, which are already struggling to regenerate from past damage.

"At a time when we are trying to increase community care for and pride in the reserve, this can only be regarded as reckless.

"Such insensitivity undermines the good work put in over many months by members of the community.

"The reserve is already threatened by the dumping of cars, household waste and garden weeds, as well as by the lighting of fires, by trees being cut down and by tracks being created and churned up by trail bikes.

"We have been making great progress in reducing this, but we need the council also to lead by example.

"How can we expect to encourage the community to take care and have pride in the reserve if the council treats it in such an apparently uncaring fashion?"

He said the committee had recently applied for a grant, under the auspice of the council, to undertake a community education and involvement program to increase awareness of and pride in the reserve.

"The reserve is the most accessible and intact piece of bushland in public ownership on the Peninsula," said Mr Snell.

"It has great potential to become a prime recreational and educational asset, and a showcase of local native species.

"It would be an ideal site to establish an environmental field studies centre."

Media release, October 2