How safe is our natural environment?

A healthy natural environment is essential for our own survival.

 

The natural environment cleans the water we drink, provides the oxygen we breathe, absorbs carbon dioxide, is a source for the biodiversity that our crops need to be healthy. The natural environment is a source of natural healing. A healthy natural environment is a thing of beauty that provides stimulation and inspiration for the body and mind.

 

Oh yes, let’s not forget our precious wildlife!

Longwarry North

 

There is a world-wide movement trying to place a measure on biodiversity, to give the natural environment a dollar value, in the hope that governments will pay more attention to protecting it. Conservations estimate that the natural environment contributes about $160 trillion to the world economy each year.

The world-wide ‘nature capital’ movement sees nature treated as an asset, where ecosystems contribute to the economy. The movement sees the natural environment as a financial asset and that destruction of it is a liability. The idea being that governments will provide incentives to protect the environment and penalties for destroying it.

 

And in Australia?

 

Neerim East

VicForests, a logging company, has just won an appeal in the Federal Court against a previous ruling that it had razed habitat against the law!

 

Worth a read:

“Putting a dollar value on nature…” The Conversation 11/05/21. LINK

“… a logging company just won a controversial court appeal” The Conversation 17/05/21 LINK

Crystal Waters

The Crystal waters Estate and adjoining Elizabeth Cl Urban Woodland and John Lardner Reserve are located on the eastern edge of Drouin. The area is another very worthwhile location within Drouin for some ‘nature bathing’.

The Elizabeth Cl woodland consists of approximately fifty mature gum trees and many more younger trees and some understory wattles. The gum trees are mostly Mountain Grey Gums and some Messmates. Many of the older eucs contain small hollows, making them especially valuable wildlife habitat trees. 

The west boundary of the Crystal waters estate, an old road reserve, contains around forty Mountain Grey Gums and nine rare Strzelecki Gums. Some years ago, a few of the larger trees were lopped for safety reasons. It is hoped that our shire planners are these days are a little more cognizant of the issues that arise when developers submit subdivisions that abut stands of large trees.

 

White-faced Herons regularly nest in the canopy of the Elizabeth Cl woodland and the hollows are eagerly sought after by Rainbow Lorikeets, Galahs, etc in late winter and spring.

East of the estate, the John Lardner Reserve is a small patch of native bush containing mostly remnant eucalyptus species, and understory such as Prickly Currant, Dogwood and Clematis. In 1982, Drouin Primary School students helped plant a considerable number Spotted Gums, Angophoras and Mountain Ash. 

This area is enjoyed by numerous bushland birds – Eastern Yellow Robins, Brown Thornbills, White-browed Scrubwrens, etc – and no doubt possums, gliders and bats would avail themselves of the hollows. At night, when the very nearby freeway is quietest, the mournful ‘mo-poke’ call of the Southern Boobook is often heard.

The lake in the middle of the estate is man-made and designed to take runoff and provide flood mitigation for the top end of Gum Scrub Creek. The ‘puddle’ as at least one local refers to it, is a haven for the usual suite of ducks and waterbirds. The reed beds are habitat for Little Grassbirds and in spring, the Reed Warblers arrive. Cormorants, Great Egrets and Pelicans are regular visitors. 

 

The woodlands, bush and wetlands within the Crystal Waters estate are precious areas of biodiversity within urban Drouin.