Attachment 1 to Item 53 - Roadside Vegetation Management Plan

H AW K E S B U R Y C IT Y C O U N C IL R O AD S ID E V E G E T AT IO N M AN AG E M E N T P L AN
Managing Roadside Environments within
the Hawkesbury Local Government Area
(LGA).
Importance of Roadside Environments: Why
Protect Roadside Environments?
Roadside environments comprise a diverse
range of environmental, economic, social and
heritage values, and perform a range of
beneficial environmental and ecosystem
services. In NSW, they comprise around 5 %
of the total land area, which, when combined
with travelling stock routes and reserves, is
almost equivalent to the total area of National
Parks in NSW (NSW Roadside Environment
Committee).
Specifically, roadside environments can:
• Provide links for animal movement;
• Provide locations for service assets;
• Support wildlife habitat;
• Support biological diversity, and
contain native seed sources;
• Provide foundations for landscape
connectivity and restoration;
• Contain important historic, cultural and
natural landscape values;
• Support aesthetic and amenity values;
• Perform ecosystem services (assist
with the control of land degradation,
and water and catchment health);
• Provide windbreaks and shelter belts;
• Support areas for recreation; and
• Provide opportunities for education in
botany and ecology.
It is important that both the functional roles
and conservation values of road environments
be protected, both for the present and the
future.
Roadside Environments in the Hawkesbury
LGA. Do They Support Any Values or Perform
Important Roles?
Many roadside environments within the
Hawkesbury LGA support Endangered
Ecological Communities (EECs) and
threatened plant and animal species. Further,
many roadside environments support intact
vegetation, and thus provide ecosystem
services, habitat for wildlife, biological
diversity, and aesthetic, amenity and
recreational values. Given the position of
many of the roads in the Hawkesbury LGA,
roadside vegetation also acts as corridors for
wildlife to move through the landscape.
Who is Responsible for Managing Roadside
Environments in the Hawkesbury LGA?
The NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) is
the road authority responsible for freeways
within the Hawkesbury LGA.
However, for all other public roads within the
Hawkesbury LGA, Hawkesbury City Council
(HCC) is the road authority responsible for the
management of roads.
Some public authorities may work within
roadside environments e.g. electricity and
communication providers. These public
authorities have a legal obligation to ensure
that their activities do not significantly impact
on the environment.
Road users and landholders adjacent to
roadside environments are not responsible for
managing roadside environments. Therefore,
management activities by road users and
landholders should not be undertaken, except
where approval is given for specific activities
by HCC.
How are Roadside Environments Being
Managed in the Hawkesbury LGA?
Roadside Vegetation Management Plan
Given that HCC is responsible for managing
the majority of roads within the Hawkesbury
LGA, HCC has recently completed a Roadside
Vegetation Management Plan (RVMP) for the
management of vegetation along rural roads in
the Hawkesbury LGA. Rural roads were the
focus of the plan as these contain the most
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