Pittwater Life March 2018 Issue
Bayview Bust-Up. Running with the Rat Pack. Tom Burlinson. Check out our new website!
Bayview Bust-Up. Running with the Rat Pack. Tom Burlinson. Check out our new website!
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News<br />
Bayview bust-up over seniors site Continued from page 21<br />
fairway strips with top-dressed<br />
and mown turf.”<br />
Dr Clements said opponents<br />
had incorrectly interpreted the<br />
referenced 1995 Habitat and<br />
wildlife corridors conservation<br />
strategy – maintaining it actually<br />
identified the extensively<br />
cleared golf course land as a<br />
fauna movement barrier to the<br />
peninsula from Ku-ring-gai<br />
Chase National Park, Katandra<br />
Sanctuary and Bayview.<br />
She agreed that thickening<br />
of vegetation was needed to<br />
increase the bushland connectivity<br />
– but said the submitted<br />
landscaping plan provided for<br />
that.<br />
“The conservation component<br />
of the proposal is to<br />
increase the environmental<br />
sustainability of the land, as<br />
well as increasing the flora and<br />
fauna connectivity consistent<br />
with the <strong>Pittwater</strong> 21 Development<br />
Control Plan,” Dr Clements<br />
said.<br />
“The strategy includes<br />
retention and enhancement of<br />
avifauna and microbat habitats<br />
– including retaining tree<br />
hollows, planting feed tree for<br />
prey for the Powerful Owl and<br />
for native insects for bats.”<br />
One of the main areas of<br />
residents’ objections involves<br />
the impact on animals including<br />
Powerful Owls around the<br />
development site – Dr Clements<br />
said that although owls had<br />
been observed in trees within<br />
the proposed construction<br />
zone that was not where they<br />
lived.<br />
“We have identified fledglings<br />
at the northern course<br />
boundary and that’s where<br />
they nest,” she said. “But planting<br />
feed tree for prey for the<br />
owls will encourage the adults<br />
to hunt for food and return it<br />
to their young.”<br />
Dr Clements said the plan<br />
was to stabilise at least 1ha<br />
of erodible slopes by excavating<br />
and relocating sandstone<br />
slabs to provide flora and<br />
fauna habitat and encourage<br />
the re-establishment of ferns<br />
and rainforest. Moist rocky<br />
outcrops on the slopes were<br />
designed to provide habitat for<br />
native fauna, especially frogs.<br />
The placed sandstone slabs<br />
would also form and channel<br />
a water course that would run<br />
from the top of the land parcel<br />
across a fairway and down<br />
the periphery of the building<br />
site. The water is existing, but<br />
currently dissipates across the<br />
broad area of the slope.<br />
22 MARCH <strong>2018</strong><br />
The Local Voice Since 1991
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