Logan and Albert Conservation Association
Where are our WILD KOALAS?
In order to draw greater public awareness to the plight of the wild koala a special day is being promoted amongst many wildlife rescue and care groups to celebrate Australia's national icon - the wild koala - one who lives in natural bushland areas, is able to move freely across his or her home range and if a young male move out to find a mate.
May 3 is international Wild Koala Day #WildKoalaDay
2017 is the second year only for this event with many wildlife rescue and care groups holding events and walks in bushland.
Wherever you are around the world you can participate in this event!
Koalas need much greater attention to have general public understand that koalas need trees to survive.
In addition to the specialized diet of gum leaves - with only a small number among the 700 species of eucalypt trees being eaten - the myth that they do not drink water is being challenged regularly as many photos are posted in online media showing koalas drinking from bottles, hoses, bowls, pools etc. It seems that the gum leaves may no longer provide enough moisture to allow digestion of the highly toxic gum leaves. Research has shown toxicity is increased by increased levels of carbon dioxide.
Logan and Albert Conservation Association LACA 25 years and still strong - we're celebrating. Sunday 26 October 2014 from 12 noon at Mt Barney Lodge.
Foundation president Richard Zoomers will be attending as will be other foundation executive and members. LACA has had the guidance of several presidents during the years: Richard Zoomers, Andy Grodecki, John Mann, Anne Page. We are looking forward to celebrating the wonderful achievements of our organisation and strenghtening our resolve to continue active citizenship to protect what we value and love.
Many environmental issues that motivated caring concerned citizens to network together to not only protest against environmental harm and injustice but also to inform and educate the wider community about those issues still challenge us today. We still have quarries, inappropriate industry location, planning and development concerns, catchment and water quality problems, biodiversity and wildlife issues.
Since its inception in 1989, LACA has worked with community, council, industry, and government to develop understanding, commitment and actions for more sustainable living.
LACA aims...
Eating - if we are fortunate - is a healthy enjoyable activity we each do three times a day. And in Austalia that is mostly true - but not for all. We believe too that as the world's population increases we need to grow more food. However while there are many people who do not have access - or have little access to enough safe healthy food some of us are hungry.
In addition to quantity there are other issues as the world's peoples grow fatter and eat inapproriate foods obesity and diabetes have become two of the biggest heath issues in Australia and globally.
Worryingly the food currently produced would feed the current global population and more but our distribution processes let us down.
What we eat and how and where our food is produced are complex issues that most of us are totally unaware of. Being a conscious consumer is an important part of living a responsible and sustainable lifestyle.
The theme for this year's World Environment Day celebrations is Think.Eat.Save. Think.Eat.Save is an anti-food waste and food loss campaign that encourages you to reduce your foodprint. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted. This is equivalent to the same amount produced in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of 5 die daily from hunger.
Given this enormous imbalance in lifestyles and the resultant devastating effects on the environment, this year's theme – Think.Eat.Save – encourages you to become more aware of the environmental impact of the food choices you make and empowers you to make informed decisions.
A great collaborative effort from the community has removed unsightly rubbish from a section of the Logan River. Logan Village Scouts got together with Logan and Albert Conservation Association (LACA), VETO Energex Towers Organisation (VETO) on Sunday 24 March 2013 to clean-up the Logan River and Larry Storey Park at Waterford. Our cleanup was supported by Healthy Waterways, Logan City Council and Clean-up Australia. The Clean-up Australia activity had to be postponed from earlier 3 March because the Logan River experienced a minor flood and safety for our rubbish collectors was a first priority.
Boat owners Greg Lord, Gary Hastings and Denis Higgins assisted us with the Clean-up on the river while the land team scouted the Larey Storey Park area for litter.
Regular river boaties and those who enjoyed their first time on the river are keener than ever to have wider community appreciation and enjoyment from Logan's greatest natural water asset.
World Wetlands Day 2 February 2013
Wetlands and Water Management.
Wetlands are not wastelands.
The key objective of World Wetlands Day 2013 is to raise people's awareness of the interdependence between water and wetlands, to highlight ways to ensure the equitable sharing of water between different stakeholder groups and to understand that without wetlands there will be no water.
Cartoon by Seppo - Finnish environmentalist.
The importance of wetlands to the world has been recognized in the international Ramsar Convention signed in 1971. Wetlands include lakes and rivers, swamps and marshes, wet grasslands and peatlands, oases, estuaries, deltas and tidal flats, near-shore marine areas, mangroves and coral reefs, and human-made sites such as fish ponds, rice paddies, reservoirs, and salt pans. There are 163 contracting countries and area governed by wise use protocol is 197,347,539 hectares.
Moreton Bay in SEQ south east Queensland is number 631 joined since 22 October 1993. See complete site list here.
This makes the health of Logan and Albert Rivers doubly significant as they contribute to the health or otherwise of Moreton Bay. Unfortunately the Healthy Waterways Report Card for these waterways is lower than acceptable ie not healthy.
Despite the number of horrendous unsustainable development or infrastructure processses being proposed in Logan, Gold Coast, Scenic Rim and Ipswich, community strength and energy to defend the natural assets of the region remain strong and continue to strengthen. SEQ has significant biodiversity values that are appreciated by longterm residents in the region and we are determined to protect them despite the unreasonable economic pressures and expectations that big business, state government and corporations want to impose.
Pre-election promises of the Campbell Newman led LNP government have been broken and the local members must also feel our disappointment. A platform based on the four pillars of economy, construction, tourism and agriculture leaves both natural and built environment out of the equation.
Click on image to read article.
Disinformation is also challenging to deal with - especially when government changes the rules to suit its 'development at any cost' agenda - cost being only dollars for construction. Follow detailed history at VETO's website for analysis of issues an alternatives. Queensland Minister McArdle's approval of the second Loganlea to Jimboomba 110kV powerline allows Energex to continue to "Gold Plate" their network with more "poles & wires" when other alternatives are available.
Santa has been a regular visitor to the privately owned Berrinba Sanctuary over the years but this year he is celebrating with the owners opening its gates to the wider community.
Visitors on the day will be treated to a range of activities and children will receive a free gift from Santa. Read about the festivities on WEEKEND NOTES. Read article here.
This an open day but not official opening day - that is yet to be planned and will be a very very special day for wildlife caring community.
Lots of fun, buy your lunch, listen to the singers, enjoy the natural bushland setting and maybe see a koala snoozing in nearby tree.
You will an Australian carnivorous marsupial even rarer than our vulnerable koala - a captive bred Dasyurus maculatus - the Australian native cat - or spotted-tailed QUOLL, Tiger quoll, tiger cat, yarri (in Herbert River District), burrumbil (Mulgrave River and Atherton Tablelands, north Queensland). Wildlife Queensland provide information about the quoll here.
Animal tracks and scats provide information about wildlife around as do the unique sounds produced by animals and birds. Listen to the sound made by a quoll on this page where you can also see its tracks and scats.
You will meet many people who care about Australia's unique wildlife and the essential habitat needed for them to survive. Berrinba Sanctuary - on the edge of Logan not far from Karawatha Forest which is part the recently gazetted wildlife corridor Flinders Karawatha Corridor - is home to many such flora and fauna.
Deborah Tabart OAM, CEO of Australian Koala Foundation will spend the morning of Save the Koala Day, this Friday 28 September visiting Ms Barbara Robinson, a local Berrinba resident concerned about the potential loss of Koala habitat around her property - as a result of a new road.
Ms Robinson will be presented with a Koala Habitat Atlas Map of her surrounding area. Deborah believes the map will justify Ms Robinson's argument in her bid to not only protect her personal property from fragmentation but to protect the immense amount of Koala habitat in surrounding areas which are under considerable threat from powerlines and urban expansion. Ms. Tabart – The Koala Woman – says this is a classic example of where Government maps are wrong and the developers are just allowed to bulldoze their way though sensitive habitats.
"Government maps say the land is not worth protecting, but I challenge Minister for the Environment; Andrew Powell, to show me why this road should go ahead" said Ms. Tabart.
Read AKF media release here. 
save_the_koala_day_deborahs_footsteps26-09-2012.pdf
Read more about Deborah Tabart – The Koala Woman
Sign on tree above indicates that this particular tree is favoured by resident koalas and is marked by scats and tracks ie koala poo under and many scratch marks on tree trunk. Book Tracks, Scats and Other Traces is an indispensable tool for bushwalkers, naturalists, students, zoologists, and anyone wanting a better understanding of Australia's unique mammal fauna. Details here.
Protecting and preserving our habitats and ecosystems is essential to the survival of all wildlife. Every acre left unexploited safeguards wildlife that desperately needs our help to survive. The role of private lands has now become an integral part of the solution, and private landholders with a concern for wildlife and habitat protection are in the unique and important position to make a very real contribution to conservation efforts across the country. Read more about donating your land here.
It is unfortunate that planning for Logan and South East Queensland has happened - and is still happening - before sufficient data is known about biodiversity values. What is worse is that an imaginary line drawn on a map such as in SEQ Reginal Plan 2009-2031 and Connecting SEQ 2031 could lead to such extreme fragmentation of the landscape sliced and diced by roads without provision for wildlife that local extinction of many species will be inevitable.
LACA is a member of the Great Eastern Ranges Initiative a landscape-scale conservation corridor that stretches from the Grampians in Victoria to far north Queensland.
The first Earth Day was 22 April 1970 when 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values. Earth Day founder was then U.S. Senator from Wisconsin Gaylord Nelson. Still now, as then 42 years later, our planet, our home is being neglected. Climate change continues unabated. It seems there's a new ecological disaster happening almost daily. This Earth Day it's time to mobilize the planet from the ground up to send a message that the Earth won't wait! Online social media makes it easier to connect with and mobilise across the globe.
As individuals we all have the power to do something to reduce our impact on the ecosystems of our home the planet. Whether you make a public pledge here to turn off unused appliances, plant trees, stop using plastic bags, become more informed about issues, eat local food, use only non toxic products for cleaning and gardening - all are some examples that will help the planet and ourselves.
Convincing our leaders and politicians to grow the political will necessary is the greatest challenge we face. We in Queensland I believe have the highest moral or ethical responsibilty to take action as our per person emissions are highest in the world.
