Military training areas and Conservation – Unexploded Reality

The current contributions on the significance of military training areas to conservation prompted me to: (a) Check my memory as to a fairly clear recollection that the Australian Army Training Area at Shoalwater Bay, near Rockhampton, in my home Australian State of Queensland, was of great importance from a conservation perspective. My recollection was that, despite its use for tank and armoured vehicle training it had considerable botanical significance as well as being top birding habitat. A quick Google check shows that it currently has a designation of IBA (Important Birding Area) from Birdlife International which includes the following passage in the entry: “Summary The IBA supports more than 1% of the global populations of the congregatory Pied Oystercatcher, Eastern Curlew and Grey-tailed Tattler; significant numbers of the near threatened Beach Stone-curlew; a population of the restricted-range Mangrove Honeyeater; and more than 1% of the East Asian-Australasian flyway populations of the congregratory Bar-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel and Terek Sandpiper.Site description Shoalwater Bay is located 93 km north of Rockhampton and comprises a complex continuous wetland aggregation that is formed in a large shallow marine embayment. It is a good example of shallow marine and estuarine wetland, and various freshwater wetland types on coastal sands. The site is part of the Shoalwater Bay Training Area, which is 453,700 ha of mainland, islands and intervening marine areas, owned by the Department of Defence (Australian Government) and managed equally for the purposes of military training and nature conservation. The IBA covers all wetland habitat suitable for migratory shorebirds, including all intertidal mud flats, extending from Broome Head in the north to the southern boundary of the Shoalwater Bay Training Area, including Akens Island, Pelican Rock and Corio Bay to the south and including the north-eastern beaches, which have limited intertidal areas for migratory shorebirds but support Beach Stone-curlews.” Apart from that, the adjacent marine habitat is a major dugong habitat. (b) Recall that in my present occupational location in the UK, there are multiple examples that military training areas provide very important repositories of habitat and species that are rare and declining – including botanical, invertebrate and bird species. London’s latest and biggest Bird reserve at Rainham on the edge of East London occupies former Army Rifle ranges. A major tank training military area on the Salisbury Plains is the location of an attempt to reintroduce the great Bustard to the UK – to the area that was its’ last toehold in the country. (c) Also that a couple of years ago, with fellow volunteers from the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust’s London Wetland Centre, by special arrangement and with appropriate clearances, we visited the lands of the British Government’s military scientific research establishment at Porton Down (where tests were conducted in the First World War on the gasses used in that War). Here we saw extensive chalk down land with rare plants, rare butterflies and rare nesting Stone Curlews (Thick-knees). We also saw beautifully produced magazines, annually by the MoD, on the wildlife of its bases and training areas. What is the pattern? It appears to be the need by the military for large areas for war games, combined with the general habit of securing the boundaries of any military area and the accompanying prohibition of general access, plus fears and/or duty of care obligations that go with un-exploded ordnance, are a combination of factors which combine to provide nature with exceptionally valuable, if occasionally noisy, refuges from the relentless depredations of mankind at peace. Angus Innes. =============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au http://birding-aus.org ===============================