FAMILIES will have to pay to stay at more than 100 of Victoria’s national park campgrounds for the first time, under a Napthine Government plan. And the cost of camping at premium sites where fees already apply will be hiked from an average $37 a night to about $59 a night. The Government is proposing …
by Claudine Ryan It’s not just those living in areas directly affected by bushfires who need to be aware of the dangers of bushfire smoke. Living nowhere near bush does not make you immune from the health impacts of bushfires. As smoke can travel considerable distances, people living hundreds of kilometres away from a bushfire …
The early start to the bushfire season in NSW – 80 fires were burning yesterday across the state – will prompt many rural residents and the fire authorities to worry about whether this summer will see a repeat of last season’s drama in NSW or the terrifying ferocity of the 2009 Victorian bushfires. Predicting bad …
Australia is already feeling the effects of climate change, with record-breaking temperatures not just over summer, but over the past 12 months as well. Research suggests that such events are many times more likely thanks to climate change. The IPCC fifth assessment report on climate science found evidence for climate change is unequivocal. The impacts …
Why must it take a tiny environment group to force a government to obey its own laws on threatened species? Jill Redwood wonders what happened to the Victorian Government’s morals. AS I WRITE, the bulldozers and chainsaws are brutalising another superb stand of ancient forest not far from where I am just out of Orbost, …
Despite once being described as common, mammals have been lost across the Australian landscape over the last 200 years. The impact has been particularly severe on Australia’s digging mammals, including iconic species like echidnas, bilbies and bandicoots. New research shows that the decline is not just bad for mammals, but for Australia’s ecosystems too. Through …
MARK COLVIN: Last night we ran an interview with the leading expert on Victoria’s faunal emblem the Leadbeater’s possum who warned of the creature’s likely extinction. Professor David Lindenmayer of the ANU draws on more than 30 years of work in the Victorian Ash forests studying the possum. He argued among other things that a …
Regional Forests Agreements drafted years ago have shown that ‘one stop shops’ for environmental approvals don’t work. So why are they being considered? IF A TREE FALLS IN A FOREST and no government wants to hear about it, does it make a sound? The magnificent wedge-tailed eagles who nest in it will hear it fall. …
Green groups looking at legal challenge to Regional Forest Agreements they blame for pushing species towards extinction A coalition of environment groups has urged the federal government to tear up its “failed” forestry deal with states, which they blame for unsustainable logging and pushing species such as the Leadbeater’s possum and numbat to the brink …
Disturbing numbers of koalas are being killed and injured by loggers in timber plantations across south-east Australia. Thousands of koalas have taken refuge in the vast timber plantations that have emerged across the region, which are increasingly maturing for harvest. But koala experts and wildlife refuge staff say many koalas are being wiped out during the logging process. …
