Orange City Council's (OCC) plan for a mountain biking centre in the Mount Canobolas State Conservation Area (SCA) is a brazen assault on nature conservation.
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In the midst of the Sixth Great Extinction of life on Earth, OCC sees no issue with taking over for mountain biking an area legally dedicated to nature conservation.
The nature conservation estate in NSW has been painstakingly assembled over the last 120 years as a safe refuge for the flora and fauna emblematic of Australia.
More biodiversity has gone extinct in Australia than on any other continent; conservation reserves are a bulwark against further losses.
It is ludicrous that, while Governments spend hundreds of millions of dollars on nature conservation in some places, they should wilfully sanction its destruction in others.
The very survival of our flora and fauna depends on maintaining the integrity of all reserves.
- Dr Colin Bower
The irony extends to Orange City Council itself.
Existing native trees are rigorously protected in all new subdivisions, yet they are happy to damage the most important refuge for flora and fauna in the district.
A very important principle is at stake here.
If nature conservation areas are not protected from all developments their dedication becomes pointless.
The very survival of our flora and fauna depends on maintaining the integrity of all reserves. The mountain biking proposal is the thin end of the wedge.
Once a few tracks are established, there will be demands for more tracks and more infrastructure until the SCA is no longer a safe place for many of its unique life forms.
No other conservation reserve in Australia is subject to an official assault of this magnitude by mountain biking interests.
Orange City Council and others have been peddling a great deal of misinformation about mountain bike tracks in world heritage areas, sensitive alpine areas and the like, when the reality is the tracks are usually located near, but not within these areas, and mostly on disturbed sites.
It will set a dangerous precedent if a network of tracks is allowed in undisturbed parts of the SCA, ratcheting up the threat to other conservation reserves.
The most galling aspect of this proposal is that it is not necessary. Alternative locations abound.
Orange can have an exciting mountain biking industry, it already does in fact, without destroying our iconic mountain.
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