Biodiversity Strategy - Gosford City Council - NSW Government

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invertebrate community assemblages. As development of Gosford's catchments continues, it is expected that water quality will deteriorate. A - 7.11 Authorised and Unauthorised Landuse Impacts There is a range of authorised and unauthorised landuses that have the potential to impact on biodiversity. These include agriculture, rural and residential housing development and associated infrastructure, forestry. Unauthorised works include clearing, filling, foreshore modification, dredging, disturbance acid sulphate soils. Issues include non compliance with conditions, extending into other area, ineffective sediment controls, settling sediment ponds, lack rehabilitation. The extent of unauthorised works and landuses in Gosford City is not known but some studies have been undertaken. Council initiated a program to investigate extractive industries in 1991 and identified almost 80 extractive industries in the LGA. Council continues to monitor these sites under the conditions of consent for their approval. Council has commenced investigations of unauthorised illegal fill. This has been an ongoing issue for Council with truck operators illegally dumping fill on lands particularly west of the F3 Freeway. In many cases the dumped material comes from building sites in Sydney. This issue is exacerbated by the high costs of waste disposal and the requirement for contaminated material to be disposed of at special authorised waste facilities. Council’s State of Environment reports describe these trends over a five year period. Grazing cattle and horses in saltmarsh and wetland areas cause degradation of these areas and occurs in some parts of the LGA. Other grazing such as by goats on Conservation 7(a) zoned lands continues although it is not permitted under the landuse zoning except with consent. Another important issue for riparian and estuarine biodiversity is the proliferation of seawalls. Seawalls are generally constructed to armor foreshores against the erosive action of wave activity. However, seawalls displace natural intertidal habitats and interrupt their natural ecosystem function. Wherever seawalls are found, the adjacent intertidal invertebrate community is usually relatively poorly represented. Therefore, seawalls should only be constructed in wave impacted shores that are too narrow to return to a more natural state. A - 7.12 Recreational and Commercial Use of Natural Resources The Gosford area provides a rich diversity of recreational opportunities that involve the use and appreciation of the area's natural features. Activities such as swimming, surfing, fishing, sailing and bushwalking are reliant on these resources, especially in a healthy functioning state. Some recreational activities have the potential to impact on natural areas. Examples include trail bikes in bushland that can damage vegetation, erode tracks and disturb wildlife and can cause bushfire. Others such as horse riding in COSS reserves have not posed a significant issue at this stage. Mooring of boats in sensitive areas such as seagrass beds causes damage to marine vegetation and rocky habitats that are important parts of the aquatic ecosystem. Also the disposal of bilge water, raw sewage and grey water from vessels is largely unregulated and is potentially highly damaging to aquatic systems, particularly in waterways such as Brisbane Water that have limited tidal flushing. Wakes from vessels can damage foreshore areas and infrastructure associated with boating can also pose environmental issues such as marinas, boat ramps and jetties. Biodiversity - Technical Report Page 165
Increased needs for active recreation areas such as playing fields also places pressure on natural areas, particularly as these are often located on low-lying flat land that may support remnant endangered ecological communities. Commercial and recreational fishing have the potential to also impact on native fish as well as habitats, particularly when the methods used are highly damaging such as prawn trawling. Many of these impacts can however be addressed through appropriate controls, innovative technological solutions and increase community awareness. A - 7.13 Climate Change The world’s climate is changing as a result of greenhouse gas emissions and this issue is emerging as the most serious global threat facing biodiversity. Despite past argument and scientific uncertainties, there is now scientific consensus that climate change is a reality and is caused by human activity, as demonstrated by the Joint Science Academies’ statement signed by twelve national scientific academies and presented to the G8 Summit in July 2005 (http://www.g8.gov.uk). On average, global temperatures rose 0.6° Celsius in the 20th Century. The ten warmest years on record worldwide occurred from 1990. In Australia, there is also compelling evidence of climate change impacts. 2005 was the hottest year on record for Australia. In a study of snow depth at Spencer’s Creek near Mt Kosciusko, a decrease of 40% since 1962 was recorded which was attributed to temperature rise (Nicolls et al. 2003). Over the 21st Century, global temperatures are predicted to rise by between 1.4 and 5.8° Celsius (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ref). In Australia, predictions are for an increase of between 0.4 to more than 2° Celsius by 2030 and possibly up to 6° Celsius increase (Whetton 2003). For south east Australia, predictions are for lower overall rainfall with more frequent hot days and droughts. There is a predicted increase in the frequency and intensity of bushfire. Increased incidence of bushfires will have associated impacts such as increased soil erosion and loss soil nutrients. Sea level rise is predicted to be between 0.1 and 0.9 metres between 1990 and 2100 (Walsh 2003). This is likely to impact on low relief areas in Gosford City such as the Woy Woy Peninsular, Bensville, Saratoga and St Hubert’s Island. Also increased strong winds and higher storm tides are predicted that will result in more coastal inundation, with serious impacts for coastal areas of the LGA. Although important habitat such as saltmarsh is now listed as Endangered Ecological Community, legislation will not protect them from climate change. Saltmarsh in Gosford generally abut urban developments or steep escarpments. As sea levels rise these habitats may be squeezed out of existence. Climate change, and associated smallscale changes in tidal range, may also be responsible for the encroachment of mangroves into saltmarsh. Some species will increase their current distribution but others will contract their distribution, for example cane toads are expected to be favoured by warmer temperatures and this will enable them to expand their range even further south than the current Port Macquarie limit and are expected to reach the Central Coast. Some change will be directly as a result of climate change, while others will be due to predation, impacts on breeding cycles, flow regimes. As a result of climate change more algal blooms are also predicted. Increased incidence and spread of disease, such as mosquito borne viruses, is also likely. A conference in 2003 sponsored by the Commonwealth Standing Committee on Natural Resource Management examined the impacts on natural resources as a result of climate impacts. In examining how species will respond to accelerating biological changes associated with warming, Hughes (2003) predicted that there would be the following changes in the relatively short term: Biodiversity - Technical Report Page 166
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Gosford City Council BIODIVERSITY S
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CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION............
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A - 4.5 Climate ...................
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1 INTRODUCTION In accordance with C
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• Local interest groups such as B
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GOSFORD VISION 2025 INTERNATIONAL C
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Council is placing the information
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2 EXISTING SITUATION 2.1 Biodiversi
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ackdrop to areas of the City, conse
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Table 2: Statistics on Gosford's wa
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example, of the approximately 83 di
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• Biodiversity is best conserved
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6 Council to consider the developme
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Actions • Enhancing community edu
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5 Develop and implement strategies
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Appendix Gosford City Council BIODI
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CONTENTS APPENDIX GOSFORD CITY COUN
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A - 7.7 Human Interactions with Nat
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Genetic diversity is the variety of
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Biodiversity - Technical Report Pag
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A - 2.0 LEGISLATIVE CONTEXT The dev
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Amendment Act 2004 Standard Instrum
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areas within the Greater Metropolit
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A - 2.3.2 Council Corporate Reporti
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Biodiversity Toolbox The Commonweal
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A - 2.4 Discussion of Comparable Pl
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A - 2.6 References Australian Local
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• Bushcare Program - ongoing •
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A - 3.2 Appraisal of biodiversity p
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Officer Table 3.2. Area of properti
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and sub-communities and to provide
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the Central Coast. The returned sur
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Council received funding for develo
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Council commissioned the Bush Stone
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education and training opportunitie
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of urban development applications w
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Unmanaged cattle grazing can impact
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Three public schools in the catchme
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Milestone 5 - Monitoring and Report
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A - 3.4 References Australian Museu
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(see Figure 4. 3) which accounts fo
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Newcastle and forms a major barrier
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Mooney Mooney and Mangrove Creeks.
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Aeolian Landscapes Beach Landscapes
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A - 4.5 Climate Generally the clima
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Kangaroo, possums, flying squirrels
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A - 4.9 Current Landuse Since the 1
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State government is also preparing
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A - 5.0 TERRESTRIAL BIODIVERSITY Th
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Lily) was once relatively widesprea
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Figure 5.1 Native vegetation commun
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There have been few quantitative st
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• Rainforest • Wetlands • Dun
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Figure 5.5 Endangered ecological co
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of streams for water quality purpos
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Figures 5.5 - 5.7 Waratah (Telopea
Page 117 and 118: A - 5.4 A - 5.4.1 Terrestrial Fauna
Page 119 and 120: A - 5.4.3 Invertebrates There conti
Page 121 and 122: A draft Recovery Plan has been prep
Page 123 and 124: assumption that occupancy of a site
Page 125 and 126: Variables such as ‘proportion of
Page 127 and 128: Mount Kincumba to Bouddi NP and Cop
Page 129 and 130: A - 5.7 References Anon (1996) 'Sev
Page 131 and 132: Scotts D (1991) “Old-growth fores
Page 133 and 134: A - 6.2 Aquatic Habitats A - 6.2.1
Page 135 and 136: considered. This is true for all ri
Page 137 and 138: this zone are isolated Casuarina gl
Page 139 and 140: The Hawkesbury River The Hawkesbury
Page 141 and 142: Gulls (Larus novaehollandiae); Pied
Page 143 and 144: Patonga Creek Little information is
Page 145 and 146: A particular objective of the above
Page 147 and 148: northeast lies the suburb of North
Page 149 and 150: Figure 6.11 Weedy Seadragon (Phyllo
Page 151 and 152: Lisarow Wetland Lisarow Wetland is
Page 153 and 154: • appropriately timed collection
Page 155 and 156: A - 6.3 References ANZECC (1992) Au
Page 157 and 158: Almost thirty key threatening proce
Page 159 and 160: Whilst these two species appear mor
Page 161 and 162: Low (1999) surmised that this fungu
Page 163 and 164: A - 7.8 Fire Management Fire manage
Page 165 and 166: 1. Salinity mediated processes - Sa
Page 167: • Structural flood mitigation wor
Page 171 and 172: A - 7.14 References Anderson, C (20
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Biodiversity Strategy - Gosford City Council - NSW Government

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