Monthly update from Friends of the Bluff

     Calling your Bluff.. .

Reasons to keep off the dunes #1. It's a sand dune.

I recently saw a rare bird in a dead tree. Now the yellow tufted honeyeater is not universally rare but it is a bit of an oddity in Barwon Heads, its range confined to the eastern sea board and across central Victoria with the Brisbane Ranges being as close as they usually get to us. While I was enthralled at the brief spectral glimpse of this vagrant honeyeater and while I appreciate the intrinsic value of decaying vegetation to the habitat, I could not help but hope that the image of a rare bird in a dead tree was symbolic rather than symptomatic.

The Demilitarized Zone twixt North and South Korea is an area the breadth of the Korean Peninsula, 250 km long and 4 km wide where humans are actively discouraged. Forget the guns, mines and barbed wire; it is a miserable and desolate reminder of man's folly actively policed by regime paranoia. Given the size of the country; rapid economic development, urbanisation and past military operations have laid waste to the majority of Korea's natural environment. But as no-one has had any great desire to venture into the DMZ for 50 years, forests have regenerated, grasslands have reclaimed farms and wetlands have been restored. The DMZ is now home to over 50 mammals many extinct elsewhere, dozens of critically endangered birds and over 1000 species of plants. The Asiatic black bear survives here where it is extinct elsewhere due to the medicinal qualities of its paws. Apart from the odd mule deer tripping a land mine the DMZ is now a safe haven for thousands of species ravaged by the demands of humans. In fact the thing that most threatens the survival of this extraordinary environment is....well...peace. The pressure for land for housing, industry and, apparently, a Disneyworld style amusement venture threaten this final vestige of Korea's natural heritage. The economic whims will surely over-ride the environmental desire to have the area declared a wild life preserve and peace park.

According to the Australian Academy of Science's sliding scale of species fragility, 41 bird and animal species and more than 100 plants have become extinct since Sir Joseph Banks initial foray into Australian species identification. Currently the list of endangered species at risk of extinction includes 10 species of fish, 13 reptiles, 32 birds, 33 mammals and 209 plants. There are hundreds of other species on the rare and threatened species list that are at a critical juncture of the existence due to on-going land clearance, pest plant and animal invasion and general habitat disturbance. A goodly number of those species live in Barwon Heads. They are neither immune to the pressures that threaten their survival or afforded the level of protection that will ensure it.

 Nor can the general decline in species numbers be off-set by marine biologists finding 700 new species in the deep water around Antarctica. These discoveries have come as a bit of a surprise. While the shallower reaches have been fairly well scoped, the deeper waters of the Weddell Sea was believed to be "a featureless abyss, devoid of life" But no matter how remarkable the finding of a whole new batch of carnivorous sponges, free swimming worms and dinner plate sized sea spiders, it is no compensation for the unpardonable on-going loss of known species. If anything it adds to the body of evidence showing how little we actually do know about and understand complex environments.

If management of our bit of the coast is about finding the balance between the requirements for species survival and the perceived need of our community then we need to look closer at the way the scales are tipped, Our strip of DMZ is narrowing very quickly.

Reasons to keep off the dunes #2. It's a sand dune.

Friends of The Bluff next working bee is Sunday June 17th at 10.00am. Meet in the car park. Our AGM will be held on June 21st. All enquiries to Jon on 52542626

Jon Duthie