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Volume 3 #24 Thursday, February 24, 2011 Advertising and news enquiries: Phone: (02) 6672 2280 editor@tweedecho.com.au adcopy@tweedecho.com.au www.tweedecho.com.au
LOCAL & INDEPENDENT
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THE TWEED
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Council votes for koala habitat protection Luis Feliu
The flip side of urban sprawl Luis Feliu
Back-flipping from front to back, Kaneya Poudal, Osmar New and Mark Long; Jack Care Acrobatics coach Hamilton Barnett believes handstanding and Hamilton Barnett sitting. many teenagers have what it takes to be skilled Photo Jeff ‘Ouch’ Dawson
urban high flyers: it’s something they do on a old Uki local said. daily basis. Hamilton has been running Xtreme Teen ‘They’re all naturally trying out this stuff among themselves so providing a safe forum Acrobatic Forum for aound 20 youngsters at for this physical theatre or street performance the Hoopla Circus space in Murwillumbah for continued on page 2 offers them something different,’ the 41-year-
A move to create extra tree preservation areas for koala habitat to protect the Tweed’s dwindling koala population has been described as a major step forward in the protection of the iconic animal. Tweed councillors unanimously agreed last week to adopt council’s Tweed Coast Koala Habitat Study as an interim measure to protect the area’s koala population, which some campaigners fear face extinction. As an immediate measure recommended by the study, councillors agreed to create a tree preservation order (TPO) for 1,870 hectares of vital koala habitat not covered by earlier TPOs council adopted in 1990 and 2004. A council spokesman said the new protected area brings the total koala habitat area covered to 9,760 hectares and landholders need consent to clear vegetation in those areas. The order will also cover any koala food trees (swamp mahogany, forest red-gum, tallowwood and grey gum) that are more than three metres tall within a five-kilometre strip along the full length of the Tweed coastline. The study defines the Tweed Coast’s current koala population and maps its remaining habitat as well as key threats and identifies suitable sites for habitat restoration. It also outlines measures needed to preserve the remaining populations, believed to number only around 144. Council’s biodiversity program leader, Dr Mark Kingston, said with that number already below the minimum viable population size of 170 individuals, the koala’s current status would justify its nomination as an ‘endangered’ population. Team Koala campaign founder Jenny Hayes praised the study as a ‘fantastic step towards protecting the endangered population’. ‘Now we are dealing with statistics and facts. We were speculating that koala numbers were diminishing at a rapid rate and now we have facts,’ said Ms Hayes, a member of the Tweed Coast Koala Advisory Group which is made up of council and community members.
‘The immediate protection provided by this new tree preservation order is incredibly important,’ she said, adding also that the unanimous agreement by councillors was ‘extremely heartening’. The study was prepared by Biolink Ecological Consultants with help from the advisory group and is the first of two stages for a final and comprehensive Koala Plan of Management for the Tweed Coast, which councillors also agreed to proceed with. Jenny Hayes founder of the Tweed group Team Koala: ‘A fantastic step… now we are dealing with statistics and facts.’ Photo Jeff Dawson
Dr Kingston said this plan of management would provide the vital steps to curb and reverse the koala population’s rapid decline. Friends of the Koala president and advisory group member Lorraine Vass also welcomed the TPO, saying ‘we’re pleased the penny has finally dropped and the dire situation of the coast’s remaining koalas is at last understood and accepted by Council’. ‘Local extinction is a real possibility. When the consultant proposes the current status would likely meet the criteria for listing as an endangered population, there can be no doubt,’ Mrs Vass said. The study is available at the shire’s three public libraries in Murwillumbah, Tweed Heads and Kingscliff as well as online on council’s website (www.tweed.nsw.gov.au) by clicking on ‘Your Environment’ on the top of the page, then ‘Fauna and Flora Management’ then ‘Koala Management’.
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