Small things done now will be disproportionately important in decades to come.

NEXT MEETING   7pm Thursday 17th June at Meeting Room, Sunnybank Hills library     
Level 2 Sunnybank Hills Shoppingtown
Cnr. Calam Rd. and  Compton Rd.  Sunnybank Hills

Email contributions to cpasrf@tpg.com.au

PRESIDENT'S REPORT

Planning schemes such as the South East Queensland Regional Plan were severely compromised recently with the announcement of three new satellite towns to be built to the south and south-west of Brisbane. These proposals and others have been on the peripheral agenda of the KFPS committee for quite some years. We have endeavoured to deal with local issues as our core responsibility but the Forest has always been vulnerable to the impacts of components of broader planning. The problem has always been the potential for planning to be compromised, as we have seen in these glaring examples. This ad hoc approach is driven by elements which are almost intolerable to the average person. They include:-

1. A failure to consider ‘Green spaces’ as an integral part of any vibrant growth area, the health of which is as important to sustainable living as any infrastructure provision;
2. The sacrificing of lifestyles through the added burdens of infrastructure provision, or the inability to adequately provide it in a sustainable way;
3. The fact that policies are driven by commercial interests such as the Delfins, Tolls, Mirvacs, erstwhile Q.L.D.Groups, Sinnathambys and Brassalls of this world through political lobbying and ingratiation;
4. Failure to look beyond the South East Queensland area to create alternative hubs of expansion for the estimated population growth of the next twenty years;
5. A political system at all levels of government which resists the expansion of planning bureaucracy, particularly in those areas which might resist growth for growth’s sake such as environmental departments.

1A The severest impact to the FGK corridor has so far been felt in the Springfield area but this could be small change compared to the railway line and housing development in the Ripley Valley. The buying up of land for a future highway extension from the Gateway Motorway out to Yarrabilba is another. The proposal that a road be built from Yarrabilba east over sensitive area mountain range country to connect it with Ormeau could be a further example.

2A These satellite towns do not have train or bus provisions and will not for years to come. The residents there will see Brisbane as their major city and will travel by car on a regular or semi-regular basis, exhausting large amounts of greenhouse gasses and, with the increasingly limited open spaces for future highway provision, must surely clog the existing transport arteries.

3A Large, and smaller, company interests should be working within a sustainable environmental framework. The fact that their economic bottom-line can transcend the best planning advice speaks volumes to the insipid, cowering nature of our law makers.

4A  Decentralizing Government and attracting business branches and headquarters under such initiatives as Smart State would attract populations to other areas of coastal Queensland which are presently hamstrung from developing their full potential.

5A  In the last fifteen years we have seen a steady lag of growth in the EPA and Council Environment Branches leaving them unable to stay on top of the increasing demands place upon them.

INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF BIODIVERSITY

2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity – don’t let it be remembered as the year in which we lost the battle to save some of our most endangered species.The purpose of the International Year is to raise public awareness of the importance of biodiversity and the consequences of its loss to human well-being.

The Year's official launch took place in Berlin on January 11. This was followed on January 21 and 22 by the first major event of the International Year, a high-profile meeting at the Paris headquarters of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, which brought together heads of state, royalty and their representatives.

Ten species likely to be hardest hit by climate change are profiled in a new research report from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, IUCN, which maintains the authoritative Red List of Threatened Species. Among the most vulnerable species on this list are the Arctic fox, leatherback turtle, koala, the beluga whale, clownfish, emperor penguin, quiver tree, ringed seal, salmon and staghorn corals.

Australia's iconic koala faces malnutrition and ultimate starvation, the IUCN report shows. Increasing atmospheric CO2 levels will reduce the nutritional quality of eucalyptus leaves, causing nutrient shortages in the species that eat them. As a result, koalas may no longer be able to meet their nutritional needs. William Foley at the University of Sydney says, "My view of koalas is that the strong connection between food quality and demography means that they are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Elevated atmospheric CO2 reduces the amount of protein available from eucalyptus leaves for animals. This eucalyptus-marsupial system is one of the very few examples in which the direct effects of CO2 can be linked to populations of wild mammals."

As one of the activities for the International Year of Biodiversity the Australian Government has set up Bush Blitz which is the world’s first continental scale surveys - a three year multimillion dollar partnership to document the plants and animals in hundreds of properties across Australia’s National Reserve System. Teams of Australia’s top scientists will survey hundreds of Australian reserves to document the native plants and animals they protect. The surveys are expected to uncover hundreds of new species and provide baseline scientific data that will help protect Australia’s biodiversity for a generation to come.

As Australia’s first site for the PPBIO research programme into the effects of climate change on biodiversity, Karawatha Forest plays an important role in this kind of data gathering research. Dr Jean Marc Hero and his team will have much to offer to any biodiversity focused analysis programme.

BUSH CARE GROUP

Bush Care Groups meets every second Sunday of the month   7am - 9am
Please confirm location with Dennis Kerr - 0450 353 206, dennis.kerr@hotmail.com

RUNCORN HEIGHTS STATE SCHOOL 35 YEAR CELEBRATIONS

Members of KFPS were recently invited to help celebrate the 35th anniversary of this local school. We have had a productive and rewarding association with staff and students over many years due to our nestbox research project and other forest focused activities. Congratulations to everyone at the school on the many positive advances they have made over the past 35 years.

DATES TO REMEMBER - JUNE / JULY

Report illegal activities to 3403 8888