The next AG meeting is due on September 13. Each member received copies of the Fire Operations Plan and the new Fire Management Zones to examine and respond to before this meeting. Remember that if people have any questions they wish to raise with Parks Management they can do so via the Advisory Group. You don’t have to be a member of any particular group. The aim is for the AG to be a two way communication: people bringing ideas and suggestions to the Park, and park staff explaining what is happening, so we on the AG can bring that out to the public. In some ways the modern tools of web pages, facebook and the like are changing the way PV communicates with the public, so the role of the AG may need to change. However direct personal contact beats the mass produced content on the internet every time. … Read the rest
Category: Meeting Report
GRAMPIANS NATIONAL PARK AND SURROUNDS STAKEHOLDER ROUNDTABLE. Wendy Bedggood
The Grampians region is the first of the regions to set up this forum. It has been intiated by DSE and Parks as a forum where stakeholder groups can come together and exchange concerns and ideas in a manner not currently available to them. Many user groups have interactions with DSE and Parks to varying degrees already, but don’t always have the opportunity to hear the concerns of other user groups. This forum has tried to bring together people representing, CFA, winegrowers, Field Naturalists, apiarists, CMAs, Landcare, Grampians Health, farmers, tourism, aboriginal groups and I went representing FOGGs. Of course some people wear several hats as they are involved in many groups in their community. Prue Pyke was on the planning group to get the roundtable up and running but I have taken over from her to represent FOGGs.
The first meeting was held at the beginning of July Graham … Read the rest
Response to The Fire Operations Plan 2011-2014 Proo Pyke
Friends of the Grampians Gariwerd wish to make the following points in response to the Fire Operations Plan.
We would like to support the effort that has been made to use the information gained from the Fire Ecology Strategy plan “Biophysical Units for Fire Management” (prepared by the Centre for Environmental Management at the University of Ballarat) to underpin the determination of the areas planned to be burned over the next three years. For many years now FOGGS has stressed the need for science to be the guiding factor in planning for proposed burns and are pleased to learn that Parks Staff are now in a much better position to ensure they understand the potential ecological consequences of their decisions.
For this reason we are very concerned that sufficient money is provided to ensure that the burns proposed can be properly monitored both pre and post burn so that our … Read the rest
FOGG COMMITTEE NEWS AUGUST 2011 Wendy Bedggood
Dave Roberts gave us a very interesting session on August 12th and we are now well informed about the Fire operations plans for the next three years and the reasons behind those proposals. We were also updated on the North South walk. Only Proo, Margo and Wendy were able to stay on after the Dave Roberts talk, so we couldn’t really have a proper committee meeting. We did however discuss several issues and followed these up with an email roundup with the rest of the committee. One item is that we have been handed the money (around $1300) which was in the ‘Friends of Zumsteins’ as they have now folded. We sincerely thank them for this donation. Proo has been involved in discussions about the alterations to the Zumsteins picnic area and we felt that we would like to offer to Parks that we spend this money on something for … Read the rest
Grampians National Park Roundtable
FOGGS have been invited to be part of this group, and Wendy Bedggood will be our representative. The first meeting will be in July when these draft ideas will be discussed and membership confirmed.
Below are parts of the draft aims and objectives.
A roundtable is an independently facilitated meeting that allows groups with an interest in a topic to come together and collectively consider the issues. It helps participants build an understanding of each other’s perspective and where possible identify solutions or pathways forward on challenging and contentious issues.
The Grampians National Park roundtable has been formed to provide a forum for dialogue between land management agencies and the community.
The geographical area that the roundtable will cover is the Grampians National Park and its surrounds, including the Black Range State Park and contiguous areas of public land and state forest in the Greater Grampians and public land areas … Read the rest
THREATENED SPECIES GROUP MEETING.
The TSG held a most interesting planning meeting recently. Volunteers from FOGG and Stawell Field Naturalists met together with Pauline Rudolph, Dave Pitts and Noushke Reiter and two new recruits from DSE, Neville Walsh from the Melbourne Botanic Gardens, Dave Handscombe from GNP’s fire team (also wearing his plant knowledge cap), Neil Marriott (Australian Plant Society and botanist), Jacinta Williamson also from GNP, with Ryan Duffy and Dave Roberts there too for part of the day. We discussed the status and known locations of the plants we’ve been monitoring ( Daviesia laevis, Pimelea pagophila, Senecio macrocarpus, Eriocaulon australascium, Asterolasia phebalioides , Borya mirabilis, and Callistemon wimmerensis), the threats each is facing, what research is taking place and what actions should be taken. With Dave Roberts we also discussed the new fire zones, and the recommendations that came out of the Royal Commission into Black Saturday. (I won’t go into the … Read the rest
ADVISORY GROUP REPORT
The AG met in April. Once again much of our time was spent on discussion of the flood and landslides. As well as the obvious work needed on tracks, bridges, roads and other infrastructure, there’s going to be a lot of work needed on the environmental impacts. For instance, weeds have just loved this weather – blackberry seedlings are everywhere. And as you’ll read elsewhere, fox numbers have exploded, with serious results. Fox baiting had to be suspended while roads were closed, then there has been plenty of food around, but unfortunately they seem to prefer our fauna to the rabbits! On the positive side, funding for the Grampians Ark project is now ongoing, rather than needing to be reapplied for each four years and fox control will be able to be extended to more of the Park.
We also discussed the first stage of the long distance Grampians Peak … Read the rest
ADVISORY GROUP REPORT
The Advisory Group met in February and, not surprisingly, the flood damage was the major agenda item. Before we went out to inspect a little of the damage, Dave explained some of the complexities involved in establishing priorities for recovery work. For example: some roads are Parks responsibility, some are shire responsibilities – and there are 4 shires involved – , and three are VicRoads. The road to Mt William is a PV road, but is needed for access to the communication towers. So that access was very high priority (via Redman Rd,as the bridges on the Vicroads Dunkeld road were so badly damaged). Roses Gap Rd is a Northern Grampians Shire Rd, so the parking for the Beehive Falls walk is their responsibility. Halls Gap to Mt Zero Rd (Bolte Highway) is a PV responsibility, so although the shires would love to see it upgraded, all the costs would … Read the rest
LETTERS TO POLITICIANS
Letter emailed in March:
The Grampians experienced severe and extensive damage to its infrastructure during the unseasonal rain event on January 13 and much of this damage will not be repaired or replaced for years and in some cases will never be repaired. It took the park over four years to have infrastructure replaced and repaired after the bushfire of 2006 (which burnt 48% of the park). The difference between 2006 and this event, is that in 2006 the fire was an isolated event, whereas this event has been only one of a large number of flood events vying for government money to repair its infrastructure. We are concerned the recovery from this event will take a lot longer than the 2006 bushfire and the effects this will have on local businesses and the natural values of the park.
The local business people relying on tourism may struggle to keep … Read the rest
General Meeting Friday February 11 & Committee meeting April 8.
Twelve members were able to attend a weekday meeting at Halls Gap. Before lunch we had a presentation from some of the parks staff on the damage inflicted on the parks infrastructure during the rain event of the 13th January. The pictures and descriptions of the task ahead for VicRoads and Parks staff can only be described as mind boggling. Dave Roberts the new Ranger in Charge joined the meeting towards the end and answered many questions and discussed issues that lie ahead. At this point in time he could not think of any specific things FOGGS can do to help, but as further assessments are made and the tasks ahead are clearer, there may be things we can assist with. We then made our way to Brambuk for lunch and discussion.
The FOGG committee met again on April 8 to follow up on the ideas, and other business.
Business:… Read the rest