Great news for the Red Gum forests but more water needed
February 2009
In the quiet days between Christmas and New Year, the Brumby government announced a very welcome decision to protect northern Victoria’s River Red Gum forests and wetlands in national parks along the Murray, Goulburn and Ovens Rivers.
The decision to create the River Red Gum national parks follows more than four years of independent investigations and public consultation, and a lengthy campaign lead by the Victorian National Parks Association and Friends of the Earth with staunch support from Environment Victoria and its members. The creation of the parks will see a significant reduction in ecologically damaging logging and grazing, while continuing to provide much valued opportunities for camping and other forms of recreation. The decision to create joint boards of management for parks at Barmah and Nyah Vinifera, with majority indigenous representation, is farsighted and historic, and recognizes the long struggle of the Yorta Yorta people and other groups for a role in the management of their traditional land. Overall, the creation of the new national parks will be good for the environment, the sustainability of the regional economy and the aspirations of the indigenous people of the region.
In their final report to government, the Victorian Environment Assessment Council (VEAC) recommended that appropriate allocations of water to maintain flood dependent natural assets be identified and delivered through ‘existing or new national and state water programs’. This is the key missing element in the government’s plan, as has been pointed out repeatedly by both those in favour of the establishment of national parks and those opposed. Red Gum forests are flood dependent ecosystems and national park status alone will not ensure their survival. Environment Victoria will continue to keep the pressure on the state government to work with the Commonwealth government to create an environmental entitlement for watering the new national parks.
You can help by writing to the Premier, congratulating him on his decision to create the national parks, but reminding him that existing entitlements will not be enough to keep the forests alive in a drying climate. Without adequate water the River Red Gum forests will not get the full benefit of the new national parks and will continue their increasingly alarming decline.
