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See below this letter a telling assessment of vegetation loss from Royal
Botanic Gardens botanists. |
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PORT PHILLIP CONSERVATION COUNCIL INC. Telephone +61359871583, Facsimile 0395891680 warfej@bigpond.com A0020093K Victoria www.vicnet.net.au/~phillip ABN 46 291 176
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City of Kingston Bay
Trail Project MENTONE VIC 3194 Dear Sir or Madam, Kingston Bay
Trail Project Stage 1 Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc, a
federation of 15 conservation groups around Port Phillip, seeks
protection of Port Phillip’s scarce remnant coastal vegetation. It
objects to the present proposed bicycle road route on the City of Consistency
with PPCC Inc. considers that Kingston City Council: - should agree that establishing visual continuity and consistency in the style of management of our Crown land foreshore assets between adjoining municipalities will improve the general amenity and ambience of our coastal areas, instead of presenting a hotch-potch of different styles, that a consistent style is safer for bicycles, and that it - should refrain from short-sighted attempts to vie with the prudent and responsible managers of the adjoining coastal reserve to the north by gratuitously proposing a novel variant (for localized short-term applause from a few short-term thinkers) in the style of the bicycle road route, namely the incursion into vegetated areas - even grassed areas - as it is utterly predictable that such incursions will degrade those areas, and displace present users. Doubling of Boundaries of Bushland: One of PPCC Inc’s Member Organizations, Mordialloc-Beaumaris Conservation League Inc, is very familiar with the proposed bicycle road. It has received a most compelling letter from Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne botanists, which supports MBCL Inc. and PPCC Inc. concerns. The letter (copy attached) draws attention to the area of about 1 hectare (2.5 acres) of indigenous coastal vegetation (up to 10% of the present amount) that would be lost under the present proposal to route the bicycle road through existing indigenous coastal vegetation on the Mordialloc-Mentone foreshore reserve. The letter also suggests that retention of indigenous vegetation wherever possible (see Victoria’s Native Vegetation Management Policy) is highly desirable, and that ‘edge effects’ caused by paths and other incursions into otherwise contiguous bushland, resulting in division or increased fragmentation of it, contribute to weed invasion and loss of species and habitat. Every such division on an essentially linear reserve nearly doubles the ratio of the length of the boundary of the fragments to their area. That decreases their viability as the threats and pressures on them come from the boundaries. Council has Lost Sight of What would be Lost: Residents and foreshore users would be unfairly and improperly deprived of the longstanding and well-established major value and asset of a natural walking area free from hard surfaces and wheeled vehicles. There is precious little of such land in the vast and rapidly increasing urban area of metropolitan Melbourne, whereas hard surfaces with wheeled vehicles are almost everywhere, and are increasingly taking over, leaving very few informal soft surfaced areas for the feet and joints of walkers to benefit from.
Stability and Erosion of Cliffs: The construction of the proposal in its present form would only contribute to a further increase of hard surfaces, in a place where run-off and erosion issues are significant, and where natural soft surfaces and indigenous vegetation can do much to improve cliff stability. The opposite is true of hard surfaces such as the proposed bicycle road, which would unfortunately contribute to erosion potential and cliff instability. Advantages of Using the Road Verge: The advantages of locating the bicycle road on the road verge rather than on the foreshore reserve include: - safety of cyclists and pedestrians, as riding in a straight line is safer than negotiating bends and banked sections, - safety of cyclists and pedestrians, as sight lines are uncluttered, with no dangerous blind spots, - security
of cyclists and pedestrians, as all on the bicycle road are always
visible to people on - security of cyclists and pedestrians after dark, as Beach Road is already lit, obviating the eventual likelihood of an expensive demand for lights on a foreshore route, with resulting disturbance of ground, and even light poles, - utilizing
existing drainage on - removal of the existing temptation, to which many now succumb, of unsightly parking on the road verge, and - inclusion of an attractive extra fringe of indigenous coastal planting between Beach Road and the bicycle road, as Bayside City Council has provided. Contrary to some uninformed opinion, proper
conservation of the foreshore reserve does not prevent the Bay-wide
bicycle road being completed. We understand there is widespread support
from local residents for Kingston City Council to build the bicycle
road on the straight, well-lit verge of Placement of the bicycle road adjacent to - reducing conflict between cyclists, roller bladers, skateboarders and pedestrians, particularly at the track south of Parkers Road, which is heavily used on warm days by all ages and groups, - protecting a Bunurong shell midden
at Parkdale just south of - retaining the few remaining charming walking tracks and shade trees on the Kingston foreshore reserve, which are highly valued by thousands of residents and visitors. Foresight for the Future: We urge Kingston City Council to take the long term view on this proposal by choosing to retain our increasingly scarce, increasingly valuable, coastal reserves in as natural a state as possible. Natural vegetation near cities will be much harder to find in the 22nd Century than will concrete. Yours sincerely, Ms Jenny Warfe Secretary, Port Phillip Conservation Council Inc. cc. Hon. John Thwaites MLA, Hon. Rob Hulls MLA, Ms Janice Munt MLA, Mr Noel Pullen MLC, Mr David Davis MLC |
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ON LETTERHEAD
OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS Ms Mary Rimington Secretary Mordialloc Beaumaris Conservation League Inc. Mordialloc VIC 3195 Dear Ms Rimington: Thank you for
your letter dated l9 June 2006 regarding details of the proposed
Bicycle trail between Although
these figures appear to be relatively small, they represent a
significant loss of remnant vegetation when considering the limited
extent of remnant vegetation within urban areas. The City of In addition
to the direct loss of remnant vegetation associated with this proposed
bike path alignment, there are also indirect losses. .In the short
term, the construction of the bike path is likely to impact a wider
area than shown on the design plans, as the heavy equipment used in the
construction of bike paths requires relatively large areas to maneuver
within. There are also medium to long term consequences associated with
the construction of the bike path. Narrow linear patches of remnant
vegetation are considered to be more susceptible to weed invasion and
other degrading processes. Locating a bike path lengthwise through the
centre of a narrow linear patch will increase the potential invasion
risk to the remaining vegetation, through the introduction of seeds and
other propagules from both the bike path
and adjacent edges. Compaction due to the heavy equipment is likely to
compact the soil in the area, altering the surface hydrology and
run-off in the area (Forman and Alexander 1998). The bike patch may
also act to increase the soil moisture and temperature immediately
adjacent to the edge of the path (Trombulak
and Frissell 2000), which could
potentially favour introduced plant
species and disadvantage the existing
native plants. The proposed revegetation works accompanying this bike path
are not presented in great detail so it is difficult to comment on the
extent to which they may compensate for the loss of remnant vegetation.
However, the scientific literature suggest that revegetation
efforts to compensate for the loss of existing habitat are often costly
and are not guaranteed to replace the ecological values of the existing
habitat that has been lost (Cuperus et
al. 1999). Due to the
large amount of remnant vegetation likely to be lost both directly and
indirectly under this proposed alignment of the Bay Trail, we would
propose that a roadside alignment of this trail would minimize the
potential impacts of the Trail on the small areas of remnant coastal
vegetation in this area and would maximize the likelihood of these
plant communities persisting in the future. We hope this
information helps you in your efforts to realign the proposed bike
path. Please feel free to use this information in your future
submissions and acknowledge us as the source of the information. Yours
Sincerely, Dr Amy Hahs Assoc Prof.
Mark J. McDonnell Cc: Cr Topsy Petchey, Cc: Cr
Rosemary West, Literature
Cited Cuperus,R., Canters,
K.J., Udo de Haes,
H.A. and Friedman D.S. (1999) Guidelines for ecological
compensation associated with highways. Biological Conservation 90, 41-51. Forman,
R.T.T. and Alexander, L.E. (1998) Roads and their major ecological
effects. Annual Review
of Ecology and Systematics 29,
207-231. terrestrial and aquatic
communities. Conservation Biology 14, 18-30. Table1.
Calculation of area of remnant vegetation likely to be lost due to construction of proposed
Bike Path under both Option A and Option B.
1
Proposed Width of bike patch taken from A3 plans provided. 2 Length
of sections was calculated as a linear distance in the GIS program ArcView 3.2. 3 Areas
of remnant vegetation were limited to those recorded in the Department
of Sustainability and
Environment’s ‘Ecological Vegetation Class (EVC)’ digital data set. |
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