ALARMING RAINFALL TREND
Attached is a graph that may be of interest to your readers. It’s Ararat’s annual rainfall totals from 1905 to 2014 with a polynomial average trend line extended to 2050. While not an accurate prediction of future rainfall and it’s unlikely to be as bad as the graph suggests, it does indicate the average annual rainfall for Ararat is declining at an increasing rate. If current trends continue our annual rainfall could be around 300mm by 2050; similar to that currently received at Ouyen. The message from the graph is simple; climate change is real and it’s already affecting us. We need to start preparing for a hotter, drier future. Councils and water authorities need to future proof our water supplies by develop storm water capture and reuse schemes and by linking existing water schemes to form a water grid. This would allow water to be sourced from areas with higher rainfall, even interstate. Power and gas lines connect Victoria and Tasmania, so why not water pipes. Unfortunately our local native vegetation will be devastated by the declining rainfall. Unless it also grows around Ouyen it won’t continue to grow around Ararat. Anyone undertaking tree planting should use species from low rainfall areas rather than local species. It would give our wildlife some hope of survival. Government agencies responsible for our native plants and animals need to begin active management of critical habitats, possibly including artificial irrigation, to maintain viable native flora and fauna populations. At present they appear to be either in denial of climate change or are content to count our native species into extinction. Fire agencies need to adapt to a greater bushfire threat with fewer personnel and less funding. They need to adopt more cost effective method of hazard reduction and fire suppression rather than trying to follow the high cost, high tech, high risk approach of the US. Strategic fuel management around population centres including harvesting the fire hazards as heating fuel could provide better protection for communities, reduce management costs and create employment. More effective methods of detection and initial attack would keep fires small reducing the risk and cost. Using ground applied retardant with tracked carriers is one option that has the potential to reduce the average size of bushfires by up to 98% and suppression costs by up to 80%. Climate change is going to create challenges and perhaps some opportunities. We need to think outside the square to find solutions. Denial is no longer an option.
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- Daryl Scherger, Ararat
CONSIDER THE ENVIRONMENT
No-one is questioning the need to upgrade the Western Highway, but the issue is with the design of the project and the massive footprint of the section from Beaufort to Popes Road (west of Buangor) including the Buangor by-pass. Work in this section has resulted in catastrophic losses of significant remnant vegetation. The loss of hundreds of ancient trees in itself is a tragedy, but even more important is to understand that these trees are a rare and precious remnant of the vegetation existing before European settlement. We have lost not just these ancient trees, but whole ecosystems of which they are a part. This includes many small trees, shrubs and ground cover plants, as well as the many species of bats, birds reptiles and other animals who depend on this vegetation for food and shelter. Many of the trees destroyed were hundreds of years old and contained many hollows, homes for a myriad of species. It takes up to 200 years to create hollows for habitat. This loss will impact severely on species reliant on old growth hollow trees for nesting and breeding. It is now apparent that the EES prepared for this project has provided a very serious underestimate of the large and very large old trees lost. In light of this revelation and the obvious massive over-design of the road duplication so far, it is imperative that the whole project for the rest of the route to Stawell be redesigned with environmental concerns given full consideration.
- Una Allender, Lake Bolac