Flying-fox strategy to help residents and bats
Central Coast Council's draft Flying-fox Management Strategy includes more than 20 actions to help residents living near the Everglades flying-fox camp and the bats themselves.
The strategy will be placed on exhibition for public comment before adoption, but the dates for submissions have yet to be announced.
The first three actions outlined in the strategy involve direct resident assistance.
The first is the provision of care, clothes line and swimming pool covers based on selection criteria during times of high camp occupancy for residents within 500 metres of the camp that has more than 20,000 flying-foxes.
Residents within 500 metres of the camp, when inhabited by more than 50,000 flying-foxes would be given access to pressurised water cleaners to remove bat excrement.
Subsidy support could also be provided for residents to install double glazed windows or air conditioners for residents within 500 metres of the camp when it has more than 50,000 flying-foxes.
All three forms of assistance would be subject to the availability of grants or other funding in the Central Coast Council budget.
A community education and engagement commitment is also included in the strategy including an online survey and the development of a kit to assist residents to understand flying-fox movement patterns and reduce conflicts with camps.
Council staff may also hold face-to-face consultation sessions to answer questions and listen to community concerns.
Landcare groups would be given advice about the legislative requirements for working near flying-fox camps.
Another group of management actions in the strategy are called "restoration and rehabilitation" and may include the creation of buffers between residents and the flying-fox camp, triggered by a site assessment that identifies such a buffer is needed.
This could be achieved by improving the condition of vegetation in the core of the site, by planting casuarina glauca, for example, to make the boundary less attractive.
A site assessment would also be used to determine whether or not removal of high-priority noxious weeds should be carried out to improve roosting habitat.
Planting of suitable roosting habitat in cleared or highly disturbed areas was another action included in the strategy.
Interpretive signage could also be used and artificial roosts to encourage roosting in certain locations and away from residences.
Other actions involve routine maintenance of the camp via weed control, dealing with dangerous trees and using high pressure water cleaners to remove faecal matter from surrounding areas.
Quarterly census would be conducted to monitor Flying-fox population.
Governance measures included in the strategy were land use planning, a vegetation management plan for the site, fire and heat stress protocols.
The plan, once implemented, will be reviewed in four years.
The strategy's management options were taken from the NSW Flying-fox Camp Management Policy of 2015 and the Camp Management Plan Template of 2016.
The strategy gives an assessment of the options that would be appropriate for the local camp and derives at strategic management priorities.
The public exhibition of the strategy will be via the Your Voice Our Coast website.
SOURCE:
Agenda item 4.1, 26 Mar 2018
Central Coast Council ordinary meeting