NSW Ecological Consultants Association | Non-governmental organisation (NGO)

NSW Ecological Consultants Association

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24.01.2022 Interesting interview with a traditional owner about cultural burning practices

24.01.2022 The Digital White Card is now available A digital version of the SafeWork NSW general construction induction card (White Card) is now available through the Service NSW app. The digital white card is the first of many trade licences to be made available digitally in 2021. ... The NSW Government plans to digitise licence cards and application and renewal processes for more than 30 home building and SafeWork licence categories. The digital white card can be shown when entering construction zones to prove completion of general construction induction training in NSW. The digital white card is a free, optional alternative that’s available to all White Card holders. It won’t replace the physical card that is issued by SafeWork NSW and there’s no requirement to use the digital card. The digital white card has many benefits, including real-time updates that mean licence holders won't have to wait for a new plastic card to be posted if their card needs to be replaced or updated with new details. It has multiple features that confirm it is authentic and current, providing site supervisors and other card checkers with a convenient way to check the card’s details. These features include an animated NSW Government logo, auto-refreshing date and time, QR code that expires and reloads, and a Waratah hologram. Site supervisors and checkers can find information on checking and verifying a digital white card on the Service NSW website. Find out more at service.nsw.gov.au or download the Service NSW app to get your digital white card.

24.01.2022 A report by the Invasive Species Council on the environmental benefits and adverse impacts of glyphosate use in vegetation restoration. Link provided by Ian Colvin, ECA NSW Council Member. https://www.theguardian.com//war-of-the-weedkiller-why-env https://invasives.org.au//glyphosate-a-chemical-to-unders/

23.01.2022 Possibly relevant to future assessments of impacts of proposed developments or activities on the listed Endangered Population of Little Penguins at Manly, as well as other breeding and roosting colonies in NSW.

21.01.2022 Something for ecological consultants to consider when advising landscape planners about what to plant in relation to a proposed development: An interesting study by researchers at RMIT into the incidence of blue flowers and insect pollination. Blue flowers are found more commonly in plant species that rely on insect pollination, but are still rare in nature and more prevalent as cultivars in urban gardens. The researchers suggest that it is difficult for plants to produce blue colours and it may be a valuable marker of plant-pollinator fitness in an environment.

20.01.2022 At the Annual General Meeting of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW on 2 September 2020, Professor Chris Dickman of the University of Sydney updated the latest estimates of animal mortality from bushfires across the continent during the 2019/20 bushfire season. The figures are staggering: About 3 billion vertebrates, including: * 2.46 billion reptiles. * 181 million birds.... * 144 million mammals. * 51 million frogs. About 240 trillion invertebrates (estimated by Dr Chris Reid, Australian Museum, Sydney).

20.01.2022 METAL CONTAMINATION IN WETLANDS Researchers from Curtin University have demonstrated that some of Perth's urban wetlands are highly contaminated with metals (e.g. arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury) that have accumulated in sediments over hundreds of years. Urban growth and landscape modification (e.g. mining, landfill, waste dumps. vehicles, roadworks and agriculture) often introduce these metals into the surrounding environment. When the metals eventually reach wetlands the...y are stored in the aquatic sediment. If a wetland’s natural water levels are lowered (e.g. agricultural draining, prolonged drought, urban use of groundwater or benching artesian water) sediments can become exposed and erode. The metals they’ve been storing are then released into the ecosystem, accumulating in the tissues of animals that are dependent on these wetlands. In turn, that can potentially affect the health of these animals and the status of their populations See more

20.01.2022 The Commonwealth Threatened Species Recovery Hub will be running a webinar session on 8 December 2020 about the Threatened Plant Index Tool which will help record the distribution and abundance of threatened plant taxa.

18.01.2022 This is a growing and significant threat as more beaches along the Australian coastline are opened up to 4WD vehicles and dog-walking. Ecological consultants can play an important role in lobbying local and state governments to effectively police impacts of human and human-related activities on beach-nesting birds. It is also important for ecological consultants to be involved in design, implementation and monitoring of the effectiveness of ecological management plans aimed at reducing this threat.

16.01.2022 Encouraging news about the release of captive-bred Regent Honeyeaters, a critically-endangered species.

15.01.2022 Copy of a LinkedIn post by John Seidel (posted 1 February 2021): "The vegetation integrity metric is a key component of the Biodiversity Assessment Method, which is widely used across NSW as part of the Biodiversity Offsets Scheme. For anyone interested to read more about how the metric is constructed, here is a new article; 'A new Vegetation Integrity metric for trading losses and gains in terrestrial biodiversity value' that has just been published in the Ecological Indicators journal."

15.01.2022 Interested to hear your thoughts ....

14.01.2022 Researchers at the Australian National University have shown that the critically-endangered Regent Honeyeater is so rare that it is forgetting its own song, because there are fewer conspecifics to reinforce the song structure, and is increasing its song mimicry of other species. This could be resulting in fewer pair-bonds and lower breeding sucess in Regent Honeyeaters, and thus contributing to the decline in the abundance of this species.

13.01.2022 A welcome consequence of reduced human activity on beaches in south-eastern Australia.

13.01.2022 An interesting fish species that I never knew existed before now.

12.01.2022 The State Environmental Planning Policy (Koala Habitat Protection) 2021 was made and commences on 17 March 2021. The Koala SEPP 2021 reinstates the policy framework of SEPP Koala Habitat Protection 2019 to 83 Local Government Areas (LGA) in NSW. At this stage: In nine of these LGAs Metropolitan Sydney (Blue Mountains, Campbelltown, Hawkesbury, Ku-Ring-Gai, Liverpool, Northern Beaches, Hornsby, Wollondilly) and the Central Coast LGA Koala SEPP 2021 applies to all zones.... In all other identified LGAs, Koala SEPP 2021 does not apply to land zoned RU1 Primary Production, RU2 Rural Landscape or RU3 Forestry. For all RU1, RU2 and RU3 zoned land outside of the Sydney Metropolitan Area and the Central Coast, Koala SEPP 2020 continues to apply. This is an interim measure while new land management and private native forestry codes are developed in line with the NSW Government’s announcement on 8 March 2021. The principles of the Koala SEPP 2021 are to: Help reverse the decline of koala populations by ensuring koala habitat is properly considered during the development assessment process. Provide a process for councils to strategically manage koala habitat through the development of koala plans of management. To see where Koala SEPP 2020 and Koala SEPP 2021 apply, visit the Koala SEPP LGA list webpage. https://www.planning.nsw.gov.au//Koala-Habitat-Protection-

10.01.2022 An open access app for recent sattelite photography in various spectrums, with paid access for GIS application. https://apps.sentinel-hub.com/sentinel-playground/

10.01.2022 https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au//pub/hygiene-guidelines

07.01.2022 There may be some ecological consultants and their families and friends out there who can assist researchers at Macquarie Uni, Sydney Uni and the Taronga Conservation Society study antibiotic-resistant bacteria in wildlife (especially possums). All you need to do is join the Scoop A Poop Project.

06.01.2022 The estimated animal death or displacement toll from the 2019/20 bushfires has been upped from 1 billion to 3 billion.

06.01.2022 Former ECA NSW Councillor, current ECA member and current ECA research grant recipient, Chantelle Doyle, encountered a Great White Shark at Port Macquarie on 15 August 2020. Chantelle sustained significant injuries to her right leg and is on a long journey to recovery. Typically, she and partner, Mark, are using this experience to help protect and better understand the marine environment, including sharks. They have launched a crowdfunding campaign for the Australian Marine Conservation Society, which relies on science and conservation to promote ocean health. You can donate to this campaign via the following link: https://give.everydayhero.com/au/shark

04.01.2022 The Australian Bushfire Climate Plan produced from last month's National Bushfire and Climate Summit can be accessed at the following link.

04.01.2022 A new and handy guide when doing DA assessments adjoining or indirectly impacting NPWS estate: https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au//parks-reserves-and-pro

04.01.2022 https://www.bct.nsw.gov.au//BCT_Artificial%20Hollow%20Guid

04.01.2022 Researchers from the Australian National University describe a simple, but very effective, technique for reducing the risk of Forty-spotted Pardalote chicks in Tasmania becoming fly-blown.

03.01.2022 Researchers at the University of WA have created a new chromosome-length sequence of the koala genome, which will allow them to study its three-dimensional structure and understand its evolution. It also has the potential help in the development of Koala vaccines and other medicines and improve Koala conservation management.

01.01.2022 Notification of public consultation on two threatened ecological communities The national Threatened Species Scientific Committee invites your submissions on the proposed listings for two nationally threatened ecological communities under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act): The Coastal swamp sclerophyll forests of south-eastern Australia - submissions due 12 May 2021... The Lowland Tropical Rainforest of the Wet Tropics Bioregion - submissions due 19 May 2021 See more