Koala Craziness as Govt approve relocating them for development

Eric Frei

The species is threatened in SE Queensland as habitat is destroyed.

You are not allowed to touch these, you cannot get a cherry picker and grab one out of a tree if you are working on a job.

There's a push from Fed Govt down to councils to do something.

SE Queensland Koalas in danger| greenhouse effect causing tree toxicity to rise

And here we see council approving the development and the State Govt will relocate the koalas. The huge concern is that this may set a precedent for future re-locations.

The relocation idea doesn't work, every single wildlife person I have spoken with over the years says you relocate them into another koalas territory and you stress them out, bush survival rates is under 1 year.

Conservationist says Narangba koala relocation a death warrant | The Courier-Mail

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jmcg.insight.gardens

Here's the background of it.

both quoted from the following link
EDO Fact Sheet 2.1.5 LEPPS and SEPPS: State Environmental Planning Policies

This is where to make public comment

State planning policy (Department of Environment and Resource Management)


I for one will be making comment.

One would assume that this will affect your industry in some way? as these areas become High Priority areas

Save Mary St

We are new to the forum and are a community group trying to save koala habitat from State development - what's new?
3 large eucalypts on the boundary of a development are threatened. Their TPZs from our calculations are 7.8m; 5.8m and 7.8m. The site will be excavated possibly to a depth of 1m with a retaining wall only 4m fron these trees. We believe this will damage the health of the trees which are koala habitat.
State Govt landscaper reports it will be OK.
We need an arborist to provide professional opinion.
The stand of trees can be seen on our website
Mary Street campaign set to secure changes to plan - Local News - News - General - Bayside Bulletin / The Redland Times
We have a protest rally organised for Sat 13th March at Mary St BIRKDALE BRISBANE.
Any help to save these trees is appreciated.
Margaret
for Save Mary St Campaign Save Mary St.

Eric Frei

I have just found out about this hot potato.

It's at Mary Street Birkdale. Now funny how the state govt can do whatever it wants. I have covered this before where council cannot enforce it's vegetation protection orders on state land, for example, state schools.

Now the local folks have been working hard to have the site comply to local Redland City Council regulations, what a battle.

Mary Street campaign set to secure changes to plan - Local News - News - General - Bayside Bulletin / The Redland Times

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sueann

What are they thinking? that is just disgusting.

Eric Frei

Letting you know that I am writing the arborist report for 3 eucalyptus trees on council land beside this development site.

I was out there today and met with Margaret and a few of the neighbours. At first I must admit I was a little skeptical about koalas living around here as it's about as urban a setting you'll get, and knowing the poor koalas have to cross roads I wonder how many are left.

So to give the readers some perspective I have taken a Google Earth snapshot of the area and you can clearly see the koala corridors.



I'll also use this to show you how I go about it, what I'm thinking ... if you want to add to it please do, now is the time as I'll wrap this up in a few days.

The individual trees are large, we're talking 0.65m DBH, some 18m spread and 25m+ high.

In this picture there's actually two eucs close together, they both have trunks 0.65m DBH and are perhaps only 0.3m apart (trunk to trunk). Have a look at the condition, note there's no tip die back, good condition, the usual deadwood you'd expect in the interior due to shading out.



Now we have some measurements for the trees TPZs and SRZs

DBH is 0.65m for all 3 trees
Dia at base for SRZ is

0.8m for trees 1 and 2
0.73m for tree 3

Tree 1 and Tree 2 are very close and only approximately 0.3m between trunks, very similar to a multi-stemmed tree situation. The TPZ's are for each tree however they almost overlay each other identically, two trees of that size having to survive on the same area is not the same as each tree having it's own dedicated area. I would consider it viable to use the AS4970-2009 dual leader equation (Appendix A figure 6) and treat the tree as a dual leader-ed tree. This would provide a DBH of 0.92m ... another way of validating this assumed DBH for the two trees to be treated as one tree is using the cross sectional surface area at DBH.

0.65m DBH = 0.331m2 cross sectional surface area
0.92m DBH = 0.664m2 cross sectional surface area (close to double)

So this validates that the cross section surface area at DBH for the two trees is equivalent to (or very close to) one tree of 0.92m DBH, so I will refer to this as Amended DBH trees 1&2

We can apply the same for the SRZ calculations too.

0.8m just above basal flare = 0.50m2

1.13m just above basal flare = 1.00m2

So here we go using the online calculator.

1. Tree 1 TPZ is 7.80m (191m2) and the SRZ is 3.01m
2. Tree 2 TPZ is 7.80m (191m2) and the SRZ is 3.01m
   
3. Amended DBH Trees 1&2 is 0.92m TPZ is 11.04m (383m2) and based on combined diameters SRZ is 3.31m
   
4. Tree 3 TPZ is 7.80m (191m2) and the SRZ is 2.90m

But the trees are beside a concrete footpath and bitumen road, so they have root restriction in one direction, that hardly constitutes viable root zone. Have a look at the picture.

Distances from the centre of the trees to the concrete footpath as follows:-

Trees 1 & 2 is 2.2m
Tree 3 is 1.4m

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Eric Frei

Some calculations on the amended TPZ area due to the road.

Note that for Trees 1&2 there is a root area loss of 143m2 on the original TPZ of 383m2 road side. For tree 3 there is a 73m2 root area loss. To compensate a larger TPZ is required as anything road side is lost.

The following adjustments compensate for the loss of root system road side of the trees, the new larger green TPZ area provides approximately the same root area required.

The new TPZ radius is as follows.

Combined trees 1 & 2 is 14.3m
Tree 3 is 10.2m

This plan also shows the fenceline which does not run parallel and the proposed grade cut and retaining wall 4m away from the fence line. If that goes ahead then you can see on the scaled drawing the amount of root severence, now we need to calculate those semi circles of root loss. The existing house is a high set Queenslander on concrete poles, soil beneath house typical of area and moist. There is no edging or barrier to prevent roots going under the house, I could easily dig the soil so in my opinion it is not compacted.

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Eric Frei

The calculation is not straight forward however I have come to a reasonably accurate figure as follows. This is if the excavation goes ahead 4m away from fence line.

Root loss for trees 1 & 2 approximately 195m2 or 51%
Root loss for tree 3 approximately 75m2 or 39%

No matter how you look at this the trees need root zone especially when hemmed in against a road.

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Eric Frei

Here we take a closer look at the soil and topography.

To describe the site standing at Thorne Road looking south.

From the footpath to the fence line there is a culvert/swale style of drop off approximately 1m deep (perhaps 20% grade) covered with natural tree litter.

From the fence line of the property falling away to the southern boundary there's is approximately a 2% grade over 60m of flat land. The land also slopes away slightly to the west at perhaps 0.5%. To the western boundary is a natural waterway with heavy ground cover and large trees.

The land is grassed and flat. A high set house is in the north east corner 7.5m away from the northern boundary fence. The house is reasonably parallel with the fence line and that side of the house is 10m long.

4m away from the fence line, where the proposed 1m cut and retaining wall is planned to be built 2 large surface roots from trees 1 & 2 can easily be seen, they are approximately 120mm diameter.



At 7m away from the fence line close to the existing high set house a surface root can be seen which is approximately 100mm diameter.



At 6.1m away from the fence line I took a 50mm diameter soil core 350mm deep. The top humus layer is approximately 100mm deep, many woody tree roots were visible. The next 200mm consisted of medium clay and small gravel 3mm to 10mm in size, it was perhaps a 50/50 mix of soil and gravel. This area had the highest concentration of tree roots, many fine hairy roots and woody roots perhaps 1-2mm diameter. There was a distinct horizon at 300mm deep where the soil was a heavy clay easily moulded into long strips. That horizon separated from the gravelly horizon with ease, there were very little tree roots in that heavy clay horizon.

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Eric Frei

Now lets talk about experience, it's a strange thing.

Often some fat cat in an office gives itself a big pat on the back for a job well done saving a tree, the big green tick. But in my job I see a lot of those big green ticks turn to ugly red crosses down the track.

It takes years for trees to die unless of course something really bad happens but for most parts some ecologist or landscaper that's there today seldom deals with the back end of their decisions in many years time.

In this next set of pictures you'll see the state of this protected tree. The estate was carved up around 2004 and house built around 2005, the tree has the highest level of protection upon it. The tree is a grey gum maybe only 0.5m DBH, height 16m and spread 12m ... not as big as the trees in this report. The tree now has lots of deadwood and sparse foliage, perhaps 25% of the foliage density of a healthy specimen.... it's dying.

You do not have to be an arborist to see from these pictures what is going on. Remember, they had to make the roads, put in the underground services, cut the block and build houses. The tree was protected before any of those things happened. By the way, this is just one of hundreds we deal with, you know, those green ticks which turn into red crosses.... some fool bragging they saved a tree when in fact they expedited it's demise and often putting people and property at risk.

Here comes the pictures.











Still not convinced?

Well how many trees have been already cut down due to the road widening of Beaudesert Rd between Hellawell road and Compton road Sunnybank Hills? I even watched them get a bobcat and scrape the topsoil off around the trees in the medium strip and roadsides @ 2003

The off ramp at Paradise Road Springwood North bound was widened to two lanes and the embankment scraped, I watched the iron-bark some 7m away from the top of the embankment die over 7 years, that lowering of the water table really knocks the roots around, it's totally dead this year but the works were made back around 2002.

How about the big iron-bark in Carina Leagues Club, they made the car-park bigger and went right up to the trunk, stone dead now within a year and most other trees in that car park are not far off, dont park under them.

The thing is, you don't see the dead ones because people like me come along and cut them down, and it takes so long for them to die that everyone forgets why and not long after we cut it down most forget there was even a tree there .... so little changes and the ignorant green tickers are still thinking they're doing a good job saving trees today.

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Eric Frei

Attached is the Arboricultural Impact Assessment report.

Also it was discovered from the meeting yesterday that the State Govt has appointed a consulting arborist to report on the trees for them, would be interesting to see if they are prepared to make that report public.

Attached Files

savemaryst-v5.pdf (1.02 MB, 64 views)

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Garry Brockley

The only time they will make it public is if it fits into thier plan and suits them without causing a potential embarassment, but it would be good to see the reports, who have they got to do the job?

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Eric Frei

Well, I reckon I could guess it no worries.

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Davo The Terrible

Its also happening on the Gold Coast on a grand scale - check out these photos of the East Coomera Koala Area - broad scale clearing of remnant vegetation late last year to make way for houses. They are using a similar approach with regard to the koalas, they are apparently relocating them, even though this is not a preferred option for the reasons stated by others in previous posts.

Once again, the State Government is to blame - they designated this whole area for development in the SEQ Regional Plan. Apparently it was all decided a long time ago, when the environmental side of things was valued even less than it is today.
I was reading in the paper late last year that it is quite likely that the Koala population of the "koala coast" (area encompassing parts of Redlands shire and north-eastern Gold Coast) will be extinct in the near future because of this.

Quite strange when you think of it - there are already so many cleared areas down here on the coast where we could fit new development. I would love to hear the reasons why this area was chosen instead.

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Eric Frei

First thing of course is no pet cats or dogs. Koala friendly fencing they can climb, koala proof fencing where they cannot enter busier roads etc.

If thought out corridors to the rear or side roads of developments are linked there's a chance. Money is all to some people so those in possession of or restricted from developing koala designated corridors will have to be appropriately reimburse for market value and the property perhaps acquired by govt or leased back. This gets ugly where say a person owns 50 acres now designated koala land and can only develop 30% of it. He can choose to sell the 70% or sit on it but have ownership and use of it ...his choice.

You know the Bunnings site around Ashmore area, where about 10 years ago they built an estate and left those tooth pick gum trees?

There was koalas in those trees and no-one gave a crap.

Whole point is money talks and bullshit walks, you have to put your money where your mouth is, and if the govt thinks it can wipe people's dreams and opportunities without paying for it then it's delusional. There's a long road ahead but preservation of koala habitat will cost.

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jmcg.insight.gardens

Nice report Eric,

anyone could clearly see that the proposed retaining wall at 4 metres would seriously impact on these trees.

Well done.......

I note that these trees are in a critical zone linking two corridors. It's amazing to see that the koalas have managed to survive there with so many busy roads.

Koalas in general are doing it pretty tough if you look at the bigger picture.

regards Julie

Save Mary St

The State Govt report will have to be released to Redland Council as they requested it and then onto us if they want to contest our report. As soon as we get it, it will be made public.
Margaret
Save mary ST Campaign

Eric Frei

Koalas die after Gold Coast move Local Gold Coast News | goldcoast.com.au | Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

Also, regarding the Narangba Koalas this was int he Sunday Mail.

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Garry Brockley

I am personally appalled by this, these people just make up the rules as they go along, any everyday person trying to get a project with just trees on thier land faces a long and hard battle with local Gov't, but when it comes to big business it seems anything goes, a well placed backhander here and there and you can destroy prime habitat for an animal that even the gov't says is becoming endangered.
alot of the experts said that you will struggle to relocate these animals because they grew up elsewhere and dont know where the best trees are or where to avoid like roads, parks, dingo territory. talking to the guys in alma park zoo who deal with these all the time had thier doubts about relocating 100+ successfully.
how many more will die and how many more wont be reported.
ok off my soap box now

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Eric Frei

I have attached a copy of Landzone's report.

I will bring to your attention an immediate issue. From thier report look at this.



They have given the area under the road the exact same value as the roots down hill in the yard, without evidence.

They have not combined the two trees as I did and given TPZ's that overlap each other.

Their hydrology assumptions are that the roots down hill are no better off than those under the road (if there's anything much under there).

They have assumed that tenure to a bitumin roadside and concrete footpath means that soil under those surfaces will have roots, but have no evidence.

Also note, page 13, "All tree work for this project must be performed by a company having membership with the QAA or ISA" So more closed shop dealings and writing specs for the boys clubs.

Interesting to note that the authors were members of said organisations. I draw your attention to the unethical behaviour of the QAA.

Lies|QAA|Queensland Arboricultural Association

Chatswood Hills State School Tree Issues| NT school tree kills boy and were advised!

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Landzone Arborist Report.pdf (589.0 KB, 59 views)

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Save Mary St

Here is another Landzone report, produced by the same arborist involving a Eucalyptus tereticornis situated right beside a road and footpath (just like the trees in the above report). But in this report apparently the footpath and road HAVE damaged the rootzone of the tree!

Attached Files

100BirkdaleRoad Arborist Report.pdf (441.7 KB, 139 views)

Save Mary St

Here's some nice images of what the QLD State Government koala policies achieve.

Construction fencing was placed around the block, around council-owned trees, one of which contained a koala. The fence effectively locked the koala into the block.

No wildlife spotters were present when the fence went up and it was only due to local residents that the koala was spotted and the fence broken up to allow the koala to exit safely.

Eric Frei

Now that is interesting.

The trees are the same size (860mm DBH and 24m tall), same species and he mentions the road was constructed some 40 years ago but discounts the value of roots beneath the road heavily.

Also, consistent to his current report he speaks of "soil volume" not TPZ surface area. These are two different things and vary due to the fact that volume is 3 dimensional and considers a depth where as area is 2 dimensional.

I have some information about this concept.
Soil| Volume| Area| Shape| Mature Trees

I bring your attention to the large tree that was felled on the north side.
Landmark Tree Felled| Brisbane Council Blunder

In the report for that tree soil volume was also considered. The thing is that soil volume models assume a lot, like depth, which will vary according to site conditions. Contrary to the myth that gum trees have large tap roots most roots are in the top 300mm (1') of the soil profile. That model assume a consistent rooting depth of 3' (almost 1000mm). In my experience, and in that video of the large tree that was felled, you will see how the tree roots go out not down. Now that tree in the video was double the size of this one and it was the same species, so have a look at the roots in the video when the excavator pushed it over.

Also it is interesting to note that whilst there was large surface roots close to the old house I noted none going under the footpath, and their report doesn't discuss any of this but they give the same value to roots in all directions.

From my report:-

There is also a poinciana tree closeby, I am unsure if that will remain or not however it is within the TPZ so if removed how are they dealing with the stump? Excavating or stump grinding deep is not on, should be ground flush to existing grade and mulched over (you can poison it to stop regrowth).

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Eric Frei

I also forgot to mention what the ISA Australian Chapter is up too. That's here.

ISAAC renaming and NAAA merger

Regarding Landzone Regional Ecosystem Services Pty Ltd and Redland Tree Service ... yes, Andrew Stovell is involved in both. Does this affect things? Is there a potential conflict of interest? Who is the contractor doing the site works?

http://www.abr.business.gov.au/%282p...53bstart%253d0

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Save Mary St

In this case, having the same arborist performing the pruning and tree removal on the site does affect things.

When we first requested the State to get an arborist report, our State representative, Michael Choi, went to great lengths to ensure the arborist was independent so the report had some credibility.

So Michael went to the local council, Redland City, and got them to provide a list of arborists that they often use. The State Government was then to choose one of those to perform the assessment on the trees.

However, it appears that the project manager (belonging to a company called Tershan Pty Ltd) chose the arborist but is also employing him to perform the pruning and tree removal.

This now throws doubt onto the credibility of the report. Just how independent can this arborist be? The arborist (that should've been hired directly by state) must not have any future monetary gain from the project. This is a conflict of interest.

Garry Brockley

This whole situation needs an independent report doing by someone who isn't connected to ISA, QAA, NAA, Council or local tree business and has the punch to have a big say in what goes on.
this just makes me laugh how anyone on the outside can look at the evidence of cronyism going on and see it plain as day yet they deny this fact on a daily basis.
recommending that the contractor is a isa or qaa member is like eric writing at the end of his report " i recommend that only people that have read the treeworld forum be allowed to carry out this work" it means the same, there is no guarantee of quality of work but gives the leaders of the forum or org a big " look what i can do for you" because my mate, brother, sister, mother, ect works for the allocating section.
companies should be assessed on thier knowledge and abilities not who they drink with.

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jmcg.insight.gardens

interesting that the format at the end of the report is formalised to appear as a contract, heavy use of copying standards and promoting their training to appear more knowledgeable, without actually backing it up with actual information on their volume percentage calculations, what depth the soil profile is, what the soil type is, actual hydrology reports or findings per local are, no mention of the actual duration of time that the trees have been insitu beside the road. In other words a whole lot of jargon without actual scientific correlation.

Any way to find the depth of profile at that site to make your own calculations of volume to dispute, taking into account the soil type and associate fertility?


This sort of thing really gives me the pips, always has, it's just not right that they recommend only their own to carry out the works. It's an outright case of compromised independant reporting, and guess who get's the next job with that developer.

I note that no formal survey has been undertaken for the building envelope, so what survey has been undertaken for the retaining wall, have the pegs been placed? How much weight can this report have if no formalisation has occured in form of survey? Would a further report be required once the pegs are placed? One could hope.

I find it odd that mention of you personally Eric, was included in the report, in such a way, I personally do not think it very professional.

Can the Mary Street people go to the Ombudsman regarding any of the above, to try to gain a truly independant report. http://www.ombudsman.gov.au/

regards Julie

Eric Frei

I have for years spoke of the "boys club".

This is just another typical example in public view of the rubbish that goes on.

Councils must not recommend anyone, that is not their job and can only lead to corruption, mates deals and kick backs. On a project this sensitive it ended up like this.

Going head to head in public, away from the boys clubs who batted up some methodology? I did. What did you receive from them? Hogwash, and an exposed back-flip on previous reporting with a similar tree next to a road.

Is the government and RCC that naive that they actually believe they will get superior performance when engaging an organisation member? Delusional if they believe so. Play ball out in the public for a few years and see how that sharpens you up quick smart.

The QAA Code of Ethics has this written to protect their members.

Imagine, if I were a member right now i would be shunned for discussing this in public. It appears they have pulled the code of ethics from view on their website. I also will say it was Adam Tom who wrote explicit lies to RCC about me, very ethical, and if RCC are recommending their "boys club" members then that should be dealt with like any other restrictive trade practice and corruption.

So much for a free market place, and see for yourself in these reports the hogwash. There's no soil test, no soil profile, no hydrology report and denial of topographic fact. A koala got fenced in to the site, how incompetent, a disgrace and shame on the naive powers that be trusting a club of clowns.

On a recent site Adam Tom of the QAA insisted on cemented in TPZ fences around trees .... PRIOR TO CLEARING. Obviously been a long time since he cleared a site, talk about no idea but hey, RCC's expert he was, and mandating his QAA buddies was also in his report.

Wake up Queenslanders, restricted market places seldom drive strong competition and innovation .... you end up like Russia, broke.

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Jeff Darby

I second the call for the presence of the ombudsman, there has definitely been enough precedence presented in the above posts.

A major intrusion into the TPZ is considered to be 10% and you have to give back what you take..this appears not be an issue here..?? arb 101 Trees need oxygen in the soil to survive, not much oxygen under that road.

Does this standard only have to be adhered to if you are not in the "club" what a farce !

Has Mr Frei's report been put to one side because it's not what they wanted to hear?.. and please explain why the new consulting arborist seems to have two bites of the pie, seems to me this arborist needs to recuse himself from one contract or the other if he is to stay truly independent, to keep his integrity intact.

Some thing seems to smell here.....

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© Jeffrey J Darby 2011

sueann

It seems to be a definite conflict of interest scenario. And how rude to diss Ekka's findings like that! they are sly dogs for sure.