Council 'may destroy endangered species'

KINGSCOTE, S.A. — The nationally endangered dwarf bush, Kangaroo Island phebalium, is under threat from unnecessary clearance of roadside vegetation by the Kingscote Council, according to the Nature Conservation Society of South Australia and the Kangaroo Island conservation group, EcoAction.

Both groups call for withdrawal of the Kingscote Council's exemption under the Native Vegetation Act. This exemption allows councils to clear roadside vegetation without applying for permission from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

"Bulldozing by the council has just resulted in two-thirds of the width of the roadside vegetation on Moores Road being destroyed, including an area of Kangaroo Island phebalium, claims EcoAction spokesperson Prue Coulls.

Coulls described the council's action as unnecessary and harmful to the island's fledgling eco-tourism industry. "The chain sawing of overhanging branches on this road, rather than bulldozing, would have been a cheaper and much more acceptable way of keeping this road safe", she said.

Nature Conservation Society spokesperson Rick Davies said that the Council is ignoring a report produced for the Kangaroo Island Roadside Vegetation Steering Group which describes this and many other roads in the area as containing roadside vegetation of "very high conservation value".

Two publications produced by the Conservation Council of South Australia clearly map this and other threatened plant species populations on this and other roadsides on Kangaroo Island.

Davies, a botanist, describes this area of Kangaroo Island as renowned for its unique vegetation, which contains many extremely rare and restricted plant species. Only last year a new species of bush-pea was discovered which occurs only between Kingscote and American River.

"Undiscovered species could be made extinct before they are discovered if the council keeps permitting the unnecessary bulldozing of roadside vegetation", Davies claims.

From GLW issue 119