Mike, Would you mind if I forwarded your email to our Minister for Tourism, Adam Giles and a few others? Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow PO Box 71 Darwin River, NT, Australia 0841 043 8650 835 PhD candidate, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW. Founding Member: Ecotourism Australia Nominated by Earthfoot for Condé Nast’s International Ecotourism Award, 2004. With every introduction of a plant or animal that goes feral this continent becomes a little less unique, a little less Australian. On 19 Mar 2015, at 10:02 am, Mark Carter <mark@desertlife.com.au> wrote: > Hi All, > Bad news folks. Many of you will know the classic “Tyre-in-the-pole” Rufous-crowned Emu-wren site on the Santa Teresa Rd south of Alice Springs. The eastern half of the site was burnt out in a huge wildfire in 2011, and sadly I can report that the western half of the site now appears to be on the route for a new stretch of road that is being constructed. I was on the site on Monday as part of my normal bird tour route and witnessed an excavator clearing old-growth spinifex and demolishing the rocky ridges pretty much in the centre of the resident Emu-wren’s home range. As the vegetation is dry and temperatures are high I wouldn’t be surprised if a spark from a excavator blade didn’t start a fire in the remaining spinifex. Work is already progressed so the time to influence the route has long gone. We local birders are all flat out with our own projects, jobs and lives (!) and somehow missed the plans to re-route the Santa Teresa Rd right through this important birding location. The Emu-wren occurs at many other locations in the region, I have some good alternative sites to take birders for this species but it breaks my heart to think that I won’t see the sun rise from that hill while Emu-wrens and Grasswrens frolic at our feet ever again. Should the spinifex stands to the west escape being burnt or cleared during this construction, in time the site will be usable again for birding but I think in the meantime its effectively finished. > The moral of the story is if you have a place you love birding never assume its safe- we have to do what we can to safeguard these places both for the birds and ourselves or we’ll be left with nothing. > > Regards > > Mark Carter > > Birding and Wildlife.com > T ++61 (0) 447358045 > mark@desertlife.com.au > http://www.birdingandwildlife.com > ABN 31234450010 > > > > >
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