The Valley’s Environment in Good Hands

One of the Valley’s oldest environment groups, the Clarence Environment Centre, held its 33rd AGM last month, with the honorary secretary reporting some impressive results.

From its beginnings in 1989, the Centre has maintained a presence, firstly in Grafton and later South Grafton, delivering numerous projects and advocating strongly for the environment.

In 2014, the Centre partnered with the NSW Nature Conservation Council in delivering the Upper Coldstream Biodiversity Project, which saw weed eradication take place across more than 40 properties at Pillar Valley.

Since then, the Centre’s professional team has continued to grow, with the secretary reporting bush regeneration works this last financial year worth some $227,000, sourced by way of grants and contracts, that allowed weed eradication across 17 sites.

Another long-running endeavour has been the delivery of the Land for Wildlife (LfW) program across the Clarence Valley. The retiring coordinator, after 13 years, proudly reported the addition of 13 new members to the LfW family, which now numbers 160 in our local government area.

Ongoing projects in which the Centre is involved includes the Glossy Black Cockatoo initiative, part of the NSW Saving our Species program. The species, listed as threatened at both state and national levels, was hard hit by the Black Summer bushfires which killed vast numbers of Allocasuarina trees, the seeds of which form the cockatoos’ sole diet.

As part of that project, the Centre is collecting and propagating the seed from the individual trees that the birds feed on. To date, 4,000 seedlings have been established and are being nurtured at the Townsend Landcare nursery until ready to plant out across the valley.

On the downside, the secretary reported on the failure of the Centre’s campaign to protect part of Gibberagee State Forest and its resident koalas. That section of forest has now been heavily logged, and the fate of its koalas is unknown.

However, with the Centre vowing to continue its work, the valley’s environment will ultimately be the beneficiary.

John Edwards