Council should finish UCSW plan, says ACF branch

Gosford Council should complete a preservation plan for rare bushland on the Woy Woy Peninsula, according to the Australian Conservation Foundation's Central Coast branch.

This should be done before Council finalises plans for a regional playground at Umina oval, the branch has stated.

Branch president Mr Mark Snell said he was pleased to hear that Council staff had started work on a formal plan of management for reserves containing rare bushland, known as the Umina Coastal Sandplain Woodland (UCSW) endangered ecological community.

However, he was concerned that no date was set for the plan's completion.

He was also concerned that building could proceed on the regional recreation precinct at Umina oval without adequate measures to protect, restore and maintain the UCSW surrounding it.

"The predicted increase in patronage of the area can only be expected to put added pressure on bushland that is already struggling to survive."

Mr Snell said a formal plan of management would identify threats to the survival of the bushland, identify measures to address them and have the legal strength to enforce them.

"I understand that up to $70,000 may be spent on bush regeneration at Umina oval, as part of the $4.3 million recreation project.

"However, this bush regeneration may prove wasteful and ineffective, if threats to the bushland are not adequately addressed.

"It is now over two years since the council received a report from the Department of Environment and Climate Change, with a number of recommendations for council action to protect the rare bush.

"It is disappointing that the council is only now starting to address the issue, and that it does not have a plan in place ahead of the Umina oval development.

"It seems it has only just started mapping the rare bushland into its computer system."

Mr Snell said that, with an extent of around 13 hectares - mostly in small fragments on council reserves, the bushland is thought to be the smallest of all endangered bushland communities in the State gazetted under the Threatened Species Conservation Act.

Without a plan in place, it was quite probable that this rare bushland could become extinct, he said.

"Gosford Council would then have the dubious distinction of being responsible for the State's first extinction of a gazetted endangered ecological community."

Media release, 16 Oct 2009 Mark Snell, ACF Central Coast