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If
10,000 signatures are
gained, Premier O'Farrell has promised to raise this issue in
Parliament Please
e-sign 'n' click to submit letter below to protect the green wildlife
corridors between Sydney and the Illawarra.
(press Ctrl+ to view text larger & best viewed in Firefox)
The Premier
NSW Barry
O'Farrell
Federal
Environment Minister
Tony Burke
Federal
Shadow Minister Environment Minister Greg Hunt
NSW Minister for the Environment Robyn Parker
NSW
Planning Minister Brad Hazzard
Member for Heathcote MP Lee Evans
NSW Greens
MLC David Shoebridge
NSW Greens
MP Cate Faehrmann
Re: Protect our essential wildlife corridor to
Royal National Park and Dharawal
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Dear Premier O'Farrell,
Your
pre-election promise was to declare Dharawal SCA, a National Park . We
all look forward to that happening within your
current term
of office
However the future of our iconic Royal
National Park , Heathcote, Dharawal, Garawarra, and the Illawarra
Escarpment State Conservation Areas has been in doubt for over thirty
years due to the constant threat of over-development, urban sprawl and
extraction industries in the essential green wildlife
corridor
that connects them.
Already bisected by the F6
freeway, railway fencing and suburbia, the
remaining green
corridor from Heathcote to Bulli is heavily fragmented by development
and
increasingly so by unlawful deliberate degradation and tree clearing
that Wollongong City Council
ignores.
In
particular the 7D land zoning given to the Hacking River catchment
leading to the Royal National Park by the COI held in 1994 ,
was
downgraded by WCC and NSW Labor Planning Minister Tony Kelly
in
2010, to an E3 zoning. To the horror of the
community and
environment groups Minister Kelly 's press release declared
the
E3 zoning would expand development opportunities through the
region. This was no doubt also due to the pressure by the
then Department of Primary Industries
requesting that all the E2 (7D's equivalent) zoning in the Wollongong
LGA be downgraded to E3 or lower to facilitate mining and coal seam gas
mining infrastructure, and ignoring DECC's request that the E2 zoning
remain!
The
Royal National Park and its adjacent State Conservation Areas
will suffer greatly if the wildlife habitat
corridor
connecting them is eroded any further, and each parkland becomes a
remote 'island' bounded by concrete, cyclone
fencing and
moonscape clearing. Biodiversity relies on wildlife
migration for feeding, breeding and new sanctuary
areas in
times of bushfire and drought. A connecting canopy of trees
is
essential for many species from native insects to the much loved Koala.
Geographically
compared to the whole of NSW this southern wildlife
corridor is only small, but it is one of the most
essential
and unique on the East coast of
Australia.
Essential to
- the future and biodiversity of the national parks and state
conservation areas
- protection and repopulation of many endangered and
threatened species of native fauna & flora
- tourism of NSW and recreation of residents
- Aboriginal culture and heritage
- our drinking water and Port Hacking catchment
- clean naturally filtered air for Sydney & Wollongong
Premier O'Farrell, you and your cabinet now have the power to save this
'green
corridor' and create an amazing life long legacy for future
NSW
residents and millions of tourists. This would make yours, a government
to be remembered for
such a positive action towards conservation and tourism.
Please register my name, as one
of the signatures required by you to raise the
'protection of the NSW green corridor between our National Parks
&
SCAs' as an urgent issue in Parliament.
Yours faithfully,
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On
Submit, form letter will automatically be forwarded to the
email
addresses of the government heads above. Personal details
will not be passed on to any third party.
-Return to
Otfordeco homepage.
See www.Nearmap.com to
view current (December 2010) high resolution aerial photos of
the region
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