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Local fauna and related issues |
http://www.armadale.wa.gov.au/services_and_facilities/environment/environmental_initiatives/#cr |
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More than 80 per cent of Perth’s bush birds face extinction if land clearing continues at current rates. University of WA scientists have undertaken an extensive study of native birds on the Swan Coastal Plain in a project led by the Perth Region Natural Resource Management organisation (Perth Region NRM) and funded by the Federal Government’s Natural Heritage Trust program. The study examined 121 sites in and around Perth as part of the Perth Biodiversity Project/Birds Australia bird survey project. And the news is not good. According to UWA research associate in the School of Animal Biology, Dr Robert Davis, Perth is facing a tide of potential bird extinctions. Dr Davis said 83 per cent of the 65 bush birds examined in the study require a two kilometre radius of native vegetation to continue to survive on the Swan Coastal Plain. Those areas are now limited to the fringes of the metropolitan area with the exception of Kings Park and Bold Park and some other reserves. Dr Davis said those available areas for native birds were diminishing fast, for example in the Baldivis and Wanneroo regions where clearing for housing is taking place at a rapid rate. Since European settlement, nine species of native birds have become extinct on the Swan Coastal Plain and a further 50 per cent have declined in distribution or abundance. Dr Davis said long-term studies at King's Park have documented the loss of nine species and the decline of 14 species over a 60 year period. “The best thing that urban planners could do is to stop clearing all native bushland prior to housing construction, retaining as many native trees and plants as possible,” he said. “Australia seems to be one of the few places in the world that develops in this way, whereas in Europe trees are retained wherever possible. “New estates should strongly encourage the planting of local native species and like the Shire of Mundaring policy, should ban the planting of non-local species in public streetscapes,” Dr Davis said. “Native bushland must be retained at all costs and currently the areas left as public open space during development are grossly inadequate in both size and often in condition. This needs to be rectified by planning and legislation instruments with the State Government,” Dr Davis said. Perth Region NRM, which organised funding for the study and manages the project, said local government has a major role to play in banning the planting of exotic streetscape plants and in providing free local plants to residents. Perth Region NRM chairman Colin Heinzman said: “As Perth's leading natural resource management agency, the Council is committed to working with land managers to ensure that planning for the metropolitan area takes into account issues such of the loss of localized native bird species.”
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Mr & Mrs Scarlet Robin |
Splendid Fairy Wren |
Inland Thornbill |
Yellow rumped Thornbill |
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The study, conducted by Dr Davis and colleagues Lesley Brooker and Dale Roberts, found common urban species such as the Brown Honeyeater, Red Wattlebird, Singing Honeyeater and Australian Raven will be favoured by ongoing land clearing in the metropolitan region and may be the only species that we end up with in our future urban landscapes.
For more information contact: Wendy Pryer
Media article background: "Ecological Linkages" Perth Region NRM, |
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