Little Terns or Pigs Will Fly and Sawtell Dogs will be on a Leash

Where the coastal town of Sawtell meets the National Park, Little Terns have their breeding grounds. The endangered Little Terns (Sterna albifrons subsp sinensis) have been nesting in this area for a log time. They like to make beaches, sand spits and sand islands near rivers, creeks and coastal lakes and mouths of estuaries their homes. Every spring and summer the migratory seabirds have been raising their families along the Australian coastline.

“Little Tern nests are a simple scrape in the ground, sometimes lined with feathers and eggshells. The highly exposed hatchlings are very susceptible to predators from both introduced and native species, as well as disturbance from human activities.” (source)



"Nesting sites are usually located where humans swim, walk, exercise dogs, picnic and drive off-road vehicles. The mere presence of people on the beach may cause these terns to desert their eggs and eventually leave the colony altogether" (source)

Unchecked coastal urbanisation spreads 'the package' (McMansions, roads, multiple pets and lawns) into all 'scenic' coastal places. The sprawling want-to-be Sydney culture rejects the specificity of the local environment.

Not long ago there were 70 separate breeding colonies in NSW, but today there are only 15 sites left in NSW. (source) Roaming dogs and their lawless pet owners are one of the main threats to the continuing existence of the bird.

"It had also been disappointing to see the number of people taking dogs into the little tern breeding compound on Bongil Spit, south of Sawtell Headland….The locations where the little terns are nesting are clearly signposted and dogs are prohibited from entering national parks at all times due to the threat they pose to native animals...The law allowed for an immediate fine of $1500 and people found with dogs within the national park could expect an on-the-spot fine of $300." (source)

The forest of signs, the absence of enforcement and the paltry fine do not repel the enthusiasts of introduced canines from making the wildlife refuge a dog loo.

Rangers even have to expect aggressive responses from dog-walkers if they point out the law to pet owners. 'Dogs Breakfast' and appeals to the local population are there to 'raise awareness' of residents that have already 'voted with their feet' for pets. For birdwatchers or bushwalkers it seems outright dangerous to approach people that are wilfully breaking the law.

Images:
Sawtell, aerial photo
Little Terns, White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Hawksbill turtle, Bonville Headland mural, Sawtell

Update:
A car drove through a seabird community, leaving injured and dead birds lying on the sand.  A "crested terns had to be euthanised by the vet because its wing had been smashed to pieces" Cars on Airforce Beach at Evans Head. 08022017

The Cars and Trucks That Ate Bellingen

Bellingen is a small town on Waterfall Way on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales. Waterfall Way runs east-west from the Pacific Highway to the New England Highway at Armidale.

The narrow little town is a 'drive through town'.  The vehicles of locals and out-of-towners scramble for spaces to park. Logging and quarry trucks aim to shoot through the town and Waterfall Way (WFW) delivering the 'vanishing forests' and mountain rocks to ever expanding coastal urbanisation hotspots.

The throughput rate of trucks through the narrow and busy main street and WFW is to be increased to 66 loaded trucks a day.

'The modification requests the daily limit of 20 loaded quarry trucks per day to be increased to a maximum of 66 loaded quarry trucks Monday to Friday and 36 loaded quarry trucks on Saturdays within the approved hours of operation (7.00am to 6.00pm Monday to Friday and 7.00am to 1.00pm Saturdays)." (source)



Crossing the main street is a risky challenge. The fumes and noise in town force users to shorten their visit and get things done as quickly as possible to avoid poisoning or becoming roadkill.

Strings of properties are on the market as WFW is becoming a small highway. Along the Pacific Highway 'Upgrade' many properties within a few kilometers are for sale as it seems to be a big downgrade for residents and wildlife.

Roads blasting their way through the topography
Our ‘infrastructure tsunami’ consumes the Earth rapidly. ”Rampant road building has split the Earth’s land into 600,000 fragments, roadless areas are disappearing” (source).

"Today’s transport systems with their supporting infrastructure entail substantial environmental impacts and consume non-renewable natural resources including our most limited asset: space. With ever more roads and railways being built or upgraded, further encroachment on and disturbance of natural living spaces is inevitable" (Laurance et al. 2014). 

"95 percent of forest destruction... occurs within five and a half kilometers of roads. Once the first cut is made, deforestation spreads, and with it fires, hunting and habitat fragmentation." (source)

Back to the little town.
All of NSW is car dependent on fossil fuel transportation. Poverty is expressed as the absence of public transport and safe walking and cycle paths. Low walkability and street networks designed around the car make locals dream of walking at least along the shopping area unharmed.

The tourism interests lobby wants to pump more tourists along the many ‘scenic drives’. Maybe the gridlock in town, WFW and the HWY can be alleviated. During the standstill and frequent blackouts shops close their doors quickly. Time to drive along the dangling electricity wires, erosion slopes, land clearing and roadkill.

Walking
In Australia and “America a pedestrian is someone who has just parked their car.” The average Australian takes 9,695 steps per day in a car dependent setup to 'get things done'. (source) One drives to 'go for a walk' in habitats where biodiversity lives, but not in bland sub-urban human settlements. The city flâneur is an alien here.

At a time when internal combustion mobility became ubiquitous in the Western world Alberto Giacometti created Walking Man I.

 

Walking Man I, Alberto Giacometti

Gurruuja the whale came from the Milky Way...

Gurruuja the whale came from the Milky Way bringing along all living creatures and shaping the land. Humming musical notes on the trail.

So goes the mural in Gumbaynggirr country, Scotts Head Public School.

Many creatures inhabit this school, giving the place a very special ambiance.

Outside, hot suburbia spreads, rejecting the local environment.

Big chunks of coast and gentle green hills populated with bio-diversity are to be flogged off. What would the inveterate composer say?

Update:
Images: A comment from the 23.2.19 gave us a reminder to mention the mural artist Nelli Gallop that did the art works on the Scotts Head primary School (above pictures). The name of the painter was not known to us when we admired the beautiful images on the public building at the time. Apologies.

Valla Nature Reserve and Urbanisation

In coastal Gumbaynggirr country Ngunguru Mirral or 'Picket Hill' can be seen for miles in the area. The ever expanding highway cuts the sacred mountain off from the seaside. The town of Valla divides two coastal nature reserves. Both Valla Nature Reserve and Jagun Nature Reserve to the north contain littoral rainforest and endangered ecological communities. Koalas, powerful owls and glossy black cockatoo among other wildlife find refuge in this habitat.



The Valla Nature reserve and Valla sub-urbia interface
is the usual story of NSW coastal settlements: Habitat fragmentation and habitat grab. Drain pipes spill into the creeks. Horticultural weeds and dogs pour their externalities into nature's refuge. Pets keep wildlife at bay. Endless paths from private properties find the fastest way to the beach and waterways. Private gardens annex the reserve. Fossil fuel and water fuelled lawns expand. Trees blocking 'views' are chopped, poisoned or ripped from the ground.

Dead trees
Each access point to the beach seems to be a hot spot for degradation. Trees all die near housing and human infrastructure. Bitou weeds, the legacy of previous extractive industries are blooming. Today a place for extractive recreational activities.



Frontier lawlessness
An abundance of 'drives' are leading to the ocean. The usual car park 'viewing platforms', timber walkways and forests of signs. Prohibition signs by absentee authorities are always an indication of what behaviour or actions are taking place there. Users seem either illiterate of lawless. At both North and South Valla Beach the beaches and waterways are teaming with dogs 24/7. Pet owners drive their 'best friends' to the beaches to roam and deposit their feces.  Families swim and surf in this beach side atmosphere. SUVs race at high speed through the beach scene. All seem to be in the spirit of indulging in this frontier 'freedom'.

Locals reject the local environment.
Native gardens are rare. Many seem to be hoarding pets that keep the Australian animals at bay. Pet owners are voting with their feet. Dogs are yapping through the night silencing any frog cacophony. The unwillingness to share the space with native flora and fauna makes the town like any other NSW non-place suburbia.



In the Valla Nature Reserve
In coastal Brush Box groves among flowering Christmas Orchids one finds dog dropping wrapped in plastic bags or pure. Cement drain pipes funnel suburban 'run off' into the little dry creeks. A labyrinth of paths leads to backyards.

Valla Nature Reserve shaved for human use

Restoration
The Ngurrala Aboriginal Green Team are attempting to stem the tide by restoring bushland at Valla Beach. As in most North Coast beaches and nature reserves there seems to be zero enforcement by National Parks and Wildlife Service and Nambucca Shire Council to see that the nature reserves continue to be a refuge for biodiversity in a sea of monoculture.




Hungry Head Beach Going to the Dogs

The hills around Bellingen could burn for a year...

NSW Forestry Corporation will log, bulldoze and burn Tarkeeth State Forest. “Residents have been told by Forestry Corporation that waste vegetation would be bulldozed into windrows and burnt over a period of a year or more...Imagine the smoke pollution right across the Valley." (source)

Study indicates 'biomass burning' may play larger role in climate change than previously realized. "Based on aircraft observations, satellite data and models, the findings indicate 'biomass burning' may need to be addressed with future regulations. Following closely after COP21, the results could suggest a need to look at other sources of greenhouse gas emissions, in addition to industrial activities and fossil fuel combustion in industrialized nations." (source)

Smoke - "Globally around 340,000 deaths per year are thought to be attributable to the additional pollution from landscape fires. Ending deforestation by burning would have many benefits, not only for global climate and biodiversity but for human health too." (source)

Measuring air quality/ NSW clean air legislation EPA NSW

Smoke and dust sensors. Open source technology for citizens:
Low-cost sensors to measure air quality. Monitor the air you breathe. Nature 09.01.2015


Links:
The hills around Bellingen could 'burn for a year', Bellingen Courier, 22.02.2016

University of Maryland. "Fires burning in Africa, Asia cause high ozone in tropical Pacific: Study indicates 'biomass burning' may play larger role in climate change than previously realized." ScienceDaily, 13.01.2016. 

World Pollutionwatch: Wildfires can kill – far from the flames, Guardian, 31.08.2015

 Hazard reduction burning kills 

Updates:
Tracking forest degradation regarding carbon emissions. Amazon Satellite alerts track deforestation in real time, nature 23.02.2016 

How Forest Loss Is Leading To a Rise in Human Disease, Yale Environment 360, 23.02.2016

Land-clearing surge in Queensland set to wipe out Direct Action gains – report Guardian 29.02.2016

'Like a scene from a doomsday sci-fi movie': Flames burn through Tarkeeth Forest, Bellingen Courier, 24.04.2017

Image:
Eugene von Guérard, Bush fire between Mount Elephant and Timboon, 1857

Freshwater Ecosystems and Cattle

"Today it's simply socially unacceptable to let stock in rivers; people view it in the same way as it's unacceptable to smoke in restaurants"  Conservation group raises alarm over river protection, 22.02.2016  

Image:
Bellingen graffiti: Cattle standing in the Bellinger river

Livestock grazing of riparian vegetation #1

The Control of Fire by Birds

Early humans are seen as inventors of fire technology. Now birds of prey such as the the Brown Falcon (Falco berigora) and the Black Kite (Milvus migrans) join the list of those propagating fires deliberately in the Australian savanna woodlands.

Many birds benefit from anthropogenic fires or lightning fires, but narratives of ornithogenic fires have for a long time survived in legends and ceremony in many places around the world.

"Fire provides the opportunity for pyrophilic behaviour by some birds. Brown Falcons, Falco berigora, perch at the fire-front waiting for grasshoppers, frogs, snakes, lizards and small mammals.

Local Aboriginal people believe that Black Kites set fires by carrying burning sticks to new locations and drop them into dry grass on unburnt grounds...I have seen a hawk pick up a smouldering stick in its claws and drop it in a fresh patch of dry grass half a mile away, then wait with its mates for the mad exodus of scorched and frightened rodents and reptiles.

“When that area was burnt out the process was repeated elsewhere. We call these fires Jarulan.”

There is an extensive body of recorded material – some over 100 years old – of Aboriginal myths and legends relating to birds and fire from across Australia." (Source)

 
Sources:
Ornithogenic Fire: Raptors as Propagators of Fire in the Australian Savanna, Bob Gosford, Crikey
Ethnoornithology focuses on the intersection of birds & human cultural diversity.


Image:
Kalila and Dimna, The Fables of Bidpai,  The owls are burned to death by the crows. Syrian unknown master, 1310.
- The animal fables Panchatantra were originally composed in Sanskrit around the 3rd century BCE
- Ramsay Wood believes that these fables provide one of the earliest secular examples of what Lawrence Lessig calls Remix Culture.