Friends of Grasslands
supporting native grassy ecosystems
PO Box 987
Civic Square ACT 2608
Phone: 02 62.. ....
Approvals and
Wildlife Division
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
GPO Box 787
Canberra ACT 2601
email:
epbc.referrals@environment.gov.au
Dear Sir/Madam
Yass Valley Wind Farm
Reference number: 2013/6809
Friends of Grasslands (FOG) is a community group dedicated to the conservation of natural temperate grassy ecosystems in south-eastern Australia. FOG advocates, educates and advises on matters to do with the conservation of grassy ecosystems, and carries out surveys and other on-ground work. FOG is based in Canberra but has many members from surrounding areas of New South Wales. Its members include professional scientists, landowners, land managers and interested members of the public.
FOG notes that, through the process of developing this proposal, turbines and access tracks have, where possible, been located away from threatened box-gum woodland and species such as the Yass daisy, and that other measures such as narrower tracks through high quality box-gum woodland areas will be taken.
FOG supports the proposed mitigation measures, including those proposed for the cable trench line such as weed control and revegetation with local native grasses. However, there is no timeframe mentioned over which the revegetation is to occur. FOG’s view is that such weed control and revegetation activities need to continue until independent ecological monitoring has ascertained that any areas containing remnant native vegetation or habitat in which degradation caused by construction activities has occurred have been restored to a defined level of ecological integrity, particularly where the cable passes close to Yass daisy populations or through high quality native vegetation. From other projects it has become clear that such restoration activities need to be done well and continue for some time if they are to be successful. Ongoing measures to prevent the spread of weeds into high quality areas traversed by the access tracks are also necessary if these areas are to maintain their value. Prevention is likely to be much more cost effective than restoration.
Yours sincerely
Sarah Sharp
President
10 April 2013