Nature NSW – Page 30 – National Parks Association of NSW

Rewilding: a review of risks and benefits

Posted by NPA NSWon August 31, 2021August 30, 2021in Spring 2021Leave a comment

Ross McDonnell, Treasurer, NPANSW

The NSW Government announced in February 2021 that a form of rewilding would be introduced into 4 NPWS reserves in addition to the 3 previously announced locations. What does it mean and should the community support the concept?

In the Winter 2021 edition of Nature NSW, NPA Executive Officer Gary Dunnett wrote about the NPWS plans for the identified 7 reserves and the contracted partners University of NSW (UNSW) and Australian Wildlife Conservancies (AWC). Additional new partners have been announced and include “local communities and Aboriginal groups, Rewilding Australia-WWF, universities, the Federal Government and other State Governments as part of an emerging national approach to rewilding”.

Sydney’s Great Walks

Posted by NPA NSWon August 31, 2021August 30, 2021in Spring 2021Leave a comment

Helen Wilson, NPA Illawarra Branch

The Great North Walk (GNW) is a 250km walk between Sydney and Newcastle that was opened in 1988. A 65km Great West Walk from Parramatta to Penrith was opened in 2019 and is a similar multi-agency and volunteer project passing through historic urban areas, parks and bushland remnants. The Great South Coast Walk is a plan for a 660km walk from Bundeena to Mallacoota.

Nature Book Week and Environment Award for Children’s Literature 2021 Shortlist

Posted by NPA NSWon August 31, 2021in Spring 2021Leave a comment

Nature Book Week starts on Monday 6 September.

The Wilderness Society will announce the winners of the 2021 Environment Award for Children’s Literature (EACL).

Nature, Gross National Wealth and the New Economics of Biodiversity

Posted by NPA NSWon August 31, 2021in Spring 2021Leave a comment

Dr Ross Jeffree, NPA Counsellor, Southern Sydney Branch

Gross National Product (GNP)! Its increases put a smile of re-elective optimism and triumphalism on the faces of Prime Ministers, State Premiers and Treasurers – although it regularly scales with increasing carbon emissions, environmental degradation and biodiversity losses. Economics always trumps ecology…and Australia gets the gold medal among nations for biodiversity loss in 2021. It’s hard to feel optimistic for the future, based on increasing GNP, when scientific consensus tells us the future is falling apart. Is there any way out of this impasse between seeming economic prosperity as defined by GNP and the demise of the Nature?

The Kosciuszko National Park Plan of Management is being amended to allow overhead transmission lines

Posted by NPA NSWon August 31, 2021August 31, 2021in Spring 2021Leave a comment

Ted Woodley, Member of NPANSW Executive

The Main Works for the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro station has been approved and work commenced a year ago. But the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the transmission connection was deliberately held back, presumably so it couldn’t be refused (as Snowy 2.0 would otherwise be stranded).

Quiet Parks

Posted by NPA NSWon August 31, 2021August 30, 2021in Spring 2021Leave a comment

Orlando Mason, Australian Representative, Quiet Parks International

Quiet Parks International is a non-profit organisation that strives to preserve natural quietness for the benefit of natural ecosystems and humans’ mental health in a world where industrialisation and noise pollution is ever-growing.