Page 1556 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 31 March 2009
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The ACT has a good recent history of policy making for kangaroo management but until now we have lacked a comprehensive and strategic approach to managing kangaroos across the territory as a whole. The former ACT kangaroo advisory committee produced a number of informative reports that raise important issues that are addressed in the plan as well as other contemporary issues.
Much has changed over the past decade. Most notable is the number of kangaroos that now inhabit the urban areas of Canberra. Canberra populations have grown and so has the urban footprint of Canberra. In fact, kangaroos are now so abundant in the city that mobs of roos are commonly seen grazing on ovals, golf courses, urban open space and even front and back yards.
Another major change that has occurred is our knowledge and appreciation of the native grassy ecosystems of the limestone plains. It is clearly understood that the native grasslands and the grassy box gum lands of the ACT are nationally endangered and critically endangered respectively. There are several components of species of grasslands and woodlands that are also endangered. These include the grassland earless dragon, the striped legless lizard, the golden sun moth and several species of woodland birds.
The ACT has acted responsibly and made considerable sacrifices by putting aside substantial areas of grassland and woodland for nature conservation by adding them to our protected area system. The Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment makes further recommendations to expand the reserve system. The ACT is diligently managing the valuable ecosystems under its care and, as our knowledge of these ecosystems and the threatening processes that impact upon them expands, we will adapt our management strategies in response.
The commissioner’s report adds to this knowledge and identifies specific areas where extra attention is required in the short term, and in some cases in the longer term, to preserve our grasslands. Perhaps the most urgent message from the report is the need to act to relieve grazing pressure from an over-abundance of kangaroos in some areas.
A key change that has far-reaching consequences for kangaroos in the ACT has been the removal of predators such as the dingo, and more recently the cessation of kangaroo hunting by people. This has, over time, led to kangaroos building up in large numbers in the grassy ecosystems and it is likely that there are more kangaroos in the territory today than there were 100 years ago.
There is general agreement among scientists and in the community at large that there are too many kangaroos and that the scientific evidence exists to support this. Eastern grey kangaroos have a central and even vital place in the ecology of grassy ecosystems but without natural controls on kangaroo population growth eventually the kangaroos will eat themselves out. In doing so, they will decimate the ground cover of the woodlands and grasslands and potentially drive other grassland or woodland dependent species to extinction.
Any doubt that this government’s assessment on the heavy grazing by kangaroos is having an important environmental impact in the lowland grasslands and woodlands is
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