500 YEAR OLD GIANTS AWAIT WOOD CHIPPER?

20 October 2009 500 YEAR OLD GIANTS AWAIT WOOD CHIPPER?

It has been discovered that dozens of giant fig trees, targeted for destruction by the Queensland Government to make way for Traveston Dam, are estimated to be 500 years old, with several having been missed by surveys for the projects EIS.

Owner of one of the trees, and Mary Valley Farmer Doug Haigh said "Leonardo Da Vinci painted The Last Supper in 1498 depicting the last meal of Christ. That's roughly when the fig on my property began its life. I hope the Federal Government stops this project as to destroy a tree of this size and age would be a tragedy. I hate to think that my special tree may soon to have its last supper."

An arborist and climbing team are heading from Brisbane to the Mary Valley on Tuesday to study the giant fig trees in order to accurately determine their age, height, and value. "Very few people will ever see trees of this size and age" said arborist Bill Wilcock. " In Brisbane there are some very large figs in the CBD, Davies Park in West End and along Kelvin Grove Rd. These are of immense value, priceless in may peoples eyes, however they are barely half the age and size of these Mary Valley giants, which from the initial photos I received, look to be 50 to 60m tall."

Steve Burgess from STMRCG has also revealed that the Governments flora surveys, conducted for the EIS have missed a significant number of these forest giants and not even counted other smaller native fig species which are equally important sources of food and habitat.. "We decided to check the accuracy of the surveys conducted for the EIS. After ground-truthing approximately 40 Ha, which is about one percent of the total EIS survey area, we discovered just how dense the populations of native sandpaper figs along the creeks in the dam footprint are. More worrying is that in the small area surveyed we also found many individuals of the large strangler fig species which were not reported in the EIS. All these figs form critical habitat for many species of animals especially the endangered Coxons Fig-Parrot. How can the Federal Government make informed judgements when such glaring errors exist in the reports supplied to them by the Queensland Government", said Mr Burgess.

"It is concerning to the future of Queensland, that the Coordinator General believes that in a few short years QWI will replicate this riverine habitat on the edge of a lake". said David Kreutz of the Save The Mary River Coordinating Group." The habitat offset experiment is unproven and risky, not only to the unique species of the Mary Valley and ecosystem, it also risks SEQ's water security"

Federal Environment Minister is expected to make a decision on the fate of the Mary Valley and the Traveston Dam Project within weeks.

Graphic to the right: Mary Valley Farmer Doug Haigh stands in front of his giant fig tree, recently discovered to be around 500 years old. This fig tree, and countless others in the Mary Valley, is destined to become woodchip if Peter Garrett approves the Queensland Governments Traveston Dam. Photo by David Patrick

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Publish Date: 20 Oct 09