Page 1102 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 28 March 2017
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particular interest in ensuring that a balance is struck between recreational opportunity and the need to preserve water quality.
I have taken a particular interest in progressing towards implementing recommendation 9, which calls for the management of pine regrowth in and around the lower Cotter catchment. You may recall, Madam Speaker, that I addressed the Assembly on progress thus far in managing the fire fuel risk posed by pine regrowth in the Blue Range section of the catchment in December of last year, and I can report considerable progress since that time.
A successful trial of removal methods has resulted in work commencing on removal of 68 hectares of unmanaged pines in the catchment. To date, 10 hectares have been cleared, with work on track to remove the remaining 58 hectares before June 2017. I should stress that the Blue Range rehabilitation plan outlines a three-year program of works of which we are, of course, in the first year. A further 87 hectares is scheduled to be removed in 2017-18 and the final 70.5 hectares in 2018-19.
It was particularly pleasing to note that works have been able to be delivered with no detectable soil run-off, and the level of works precision is able to retain pockets of native vegetation which might assist with re-seeding cleared areas with native vegetation. Both the Emergency Services Agency and Icon Water have been involved in reviewing the work on the ground, and I can report that all objectives of this important operation are on track to be met.
Madam Speaker, recommendation 10 deals with the need to review the network of fire trails within the lower Cotter catchment. Actioning this recommendation has been particularly challenging for the working group, with a requirement for emergency access needing to be balanced with minimising the work and the network of trails which might in turn contribute to sediment run-off into the catchment.
The network group is currently finalising a lower Cotter catchment road network plan. The plan relies on a road matrix which evaluates each section of road against five criteria, including safety, quality, soil stability, fire operations and land management utility. A score is derived that ranks each road and assists with a decision to retain or close. Once again, both Icon Water and the Emergency Services Agency have been active participants. I expect the plan to be completed in April this year.
Madam Speaker, finally I turn to recommendation 12, which called on the Commissioner for Sustainability and Environment to evaluate restoration efforts at the lower Cotter catchment. The commissioner put to the then-minister for the environment Mr Corbell, as she has since to Minister Rattenbury, that in light of the work continuing through 2017 on a statutory management plan, the value of undertaking an evaluation prior to the adoption of a management plan would be less than ideal.
As minister for the environment I have agreed on a 12-month extension for the due date of the evaluation. In the intervening period, evaluation methodology will be clarified and sampling work will be able to be carried out over an autumn and spring, and then tested against the aims of the management plan.
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