Numbat Task Force claims a victory in WA landfill site wrangle
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Version 0 of 1. A group of numbat enthusiasts in Western Australia have successfully appealed against a decision not to subject a planned landfill site to assessment by the Environmental Protection Authority by claiming that feral cats attracted to the tip could wreak havoc on the highly endangered marsupial. The landfill site is proposed for 64 hectares between Cuballing and Narrogin, about 160km south of Perth. It would carry the waste of seven local governments, estimated to be about 7,000 tonnes a year for the next 60 years, and has been pitched as a way to consolidate the shires’ waste management needs. But the risk that feral predators including cats and foxes would be attracted to the tip was too great for a group calling themselves the Numbat Task Force, who have established themselves as voluntary protectors of native fauna in the nearby Dryandra Woodlands. Related: Numbats at risk from proposed Western Australia rubbish tip – conservationists The Woodlands are 10km from the proposed site and home to populations of highly endangered species including numbats and woylies, as well as other native animals. Both woylies and numbats have suffered significant hits from feral cat predation – woylie numbers are estimated to be down 80% in the past two decades, while the wild numbat population has fallen 90%. Six people, including the entire four-man Numbat Task Force and thee state Greens MP Lynn MacLaren, appealed against the EPA’s ruling that the threat to those species was “not so significant as to require assessment”. The appeal was successful and on Thursday the state’s environment minister, Albert Jacob, wrote to MacLaren and the taskforce informing them the proposal would be referred to the EPA. Jacob, who committed $1.7m to feral cat and fox baiting in the area as part of the Western Shield program to protect native marsupial lifeboats such as Dryandra, said uncertainty about the potential impact of the proposed landfill site on threatened species necessitated a full assessment. “Nothing in my decision on the appeals should be taken to imply that I have formed a view about the environmental acceptability of the proposal,” he said. “Rather, my decision reflects the view that there is sufficient uncertainty with respect to the environmental factor terrestrial fauna that it is appropriate for the proposal to be assessed more fully.” Robert MacLean, from the Numbat Task Force, said the decision was “just a step, but at least we are walking in the right direction”. MacLean and other taskforce members make the trip out to Dryandra to observe numbats every second weekend, and plan to be out there again on Saturday. He said the numbats were already rare enough – the taskforce had spotted just three since he first spoke to Guardian Australia in March. They fare a little better with woylies but only because they have found a popular campground for the foot-long macropod. “We have actually got a little spot where we can go and sit down with a small woylie population,” MacLean said. “We can go and sit down and the woylies come feed around us – it’s amazing, it’s pretty much one of the best experiences I have ever had.” Advice from the Department of Parks and Wildlife, cited in the report by the EPA’s appeals convener, said there was “insufficient evidence” that the plan by the Wagin Voluntary Group of Councils to build a two-metre-high fence and lay baits around the tip would be enough to stop increased numbers of feral cats slipping over to the woodlands. It said an increase in cat numbers would represent a “major risk” to threatened fauna at Dryandra, particularly numbats and woylies because they are already “highly threatened, are very susceptible to predation by cats and foxes, and have a significant proportion of their remaining wild populations in close proximity to the proposal”. A 2015 study listed feral cats as the cause of death of 65% of tagged woylies that died in the woodlands. Foxes took out a further 21% of the woylie population. The department also said Dryandra was “one of the highest priority sites for fauna conservation across the state under the Western Shield program” and any significant increase in the number of feral cats and foxes would make existing baiting programs less effective. MacLaren, the biodiversity spokeswoman for the WA Greens, said agreeing to a full EPA assessment was a “sensible decision”. “I look forward to a proper assessment of this proposal by the EPA and, given the fact that numbats, woylies and other species known to exist in the vicinity of the tip site are listed protected species under federal legislation, I expect the federal Department of Environment to also properly assess whether this proposal constitutes a controlled action under the Federal Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act,” she said. Jacob said the federal department would be automatically notified of the proposal and could choose to take it up. |