Back to the block again, this time to meet the people doing the environmental assessment which will form part of the planning application for our new house. The architect had marked out the
huge area that will be affected by tree clearing to meet the bushfire regulations. If you enlarge this picture you might be able to tell how far away the rest of the tape marker is:
But you have to be there to see how shocking it looks. Having to clear (or at least drastically thin) the trees for 50 metres to the north, and 40 metres to all other sides of the house, makes a big hole in a block 100 metres across. It looks like we will have to remove about 90-odd trees.
There is a strange contradiction that you
have to clear the trees to meet the bushfire regulations, but if you
do clear any you have to pay for offset areas somewhere else to compensate for the environmental damage you are doing. The bigger the trees you remove, the more the offset will cost. Unfortunately the thousands of trees I've grown for TreeProject over the years don't count towards the offset.
5 comments:
That's bureaucracy for you! You deserve credits for all your seedings!
Sounds like they love to "take" but don't like to "give back". You deserve something for all that you do.
To be fair, all those trees I've grown could well have been part of other people's offsets already. So it's reasonable that they can't be counted twice.
Vireya - it does seem harsh but it will be a challenge to regrow suitable flora for all that space.
Do you have to offset with indigenous species or will any native trees do?
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