BREAKING NEWS: THE TASMANIAN GOVERNMENT HAS LODGED THE TARKINE ROAD PROJECT WITH THE COMMONWEALTH FOR ASSESSMENT UNDER THE ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AND BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION ACT 1999.
"Impact on the Tasmanian devil is considered to be potentially significant for the following reasons:
There is considerable potential for increased roadkill rates following completion of the road.
Animals with large movement ranges, low reproductive rates and low natural densities (such as devils) tend to be negatively affected by roads and traffic (Fahrig and Rytwinski 2009).
The increase in Arthur River crossing sites may lead to the spread of DFTD into new areas south of the Arthur River. "
- Excerpt from the Tasmanian Government's Tarkine Road EPBC referral lodged 28 October 2009
The public comment period has now closed.
The full referral document and attached reports can be downloaded here: http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/epbc/epbc_ap.pl?name=current_referral_detail&proposal_id=5169
The Tasmanian government's logging agency, Forestry Tasmania, has recently produced a proposal to carve a road right through the pristine rainforest in the heart of the Tarkine.
The proposed road is clearly destructive from an environmental point of view - as, in its current form, it would involve bulldozing over twenty kilometres of new road into remote, virgin rainforest. It would also dramatically increase the risk of catastrophic wildfire, invasion from weeds and feral species, along with exacerbating myrtle wilt disease in the heart of the Tarkine Rainforest.
It will also compromise the last wild refuge of disease free Tasmanian devils - a move described by scientists as condemning the Devil to exctintion in the wild. Even the government's own report aknowledges that the road will likely introduce the facial tumor disease into this isolated healthy population.
The proposal also diverts $23 million of the Tasmanian government's money away from a strategic tourism plan for the Tarkine region towards this road proposal. The road will aim to 'capture' all of the tourists visiting the Tarkine region, divert them away from ugly logging operations, and direct them on a sanitised Forestry Tasmania controlled drive channelling visitors to Forestry Tasmania's failing'Dismal swamp' visitor centre. In doing so, - this road proposal would involve bulldozing several sections of road through pristine rainforest, including in globally significant rainforest reserves in the heart of the Tarkine.
It is critically important that a strategic rather than piecemeal approach to public investment in the Tarkine is taken. It is also critically important that government puts public money towards infrastructure and projects that don't harm the environment, are good value for money, and deliver benefits to the broader community. The Tarkine already has hundreds of kilometres of sealed and unsealed roads, extensive infrastructure, and extensive accessibility for tourists to world-class natural attractions. It already has several accessible and popular 'loop' roads showcasing its extraordinary values. However, it doesn't have the basic signage, promotion, visitor entry points and other basic tourist infrastructure needed to really help put the region on the map.
When weighed up against the dozens of exciting projects in the Tarkine region that could and should be funded - along with the desperate need for development of the most basic infrastructure such as visitor signs and entry points to the Tarkine - this would be a very poor way for government to spend taxpayers' dollars.
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