[Forum] The Central Coast was hit with an East Coast low in April 2015 with thousands of trees being lost in parks, reserves, National Parks and COSS lands along with private properties.
As a result, more trees were cut down due to their proximity to homes and the perceived danger which may occur.
From there we have had the removal of in excess of 68 trees at Koolewong for car parking for boat trailers and trees also lost at Fagans Park.
We had the date palms removed from Leagues Club Field in Gosford, where we were told they had a fungus and needed to be removed.
In Green Point, along Avoca Dve we had numerous trees removed along the road buffer for the convenience of the neighbouring developer.
We now have a proposal for a regional park in Green Point where around 10 trees are proposed to be removed.
Nearby trees have been removed for road widening – they were planted by local students and residents in the Year Of The Tree.
Excessive tree removal continues with another play space proposal at Susan Fahey Park Copacabana, where more than 30 naturally-seeded casuarinas are to be removed from a beautiful grove next to an Endangered Ecological Community.
Only recently in Copacabana’s Winney Bay we had more than 60 trees removed to enable concreting for a ‘nature walk’.
Plus, we had what appeared to be hundreds of trees reduced to mulch for a road widening in Oceano St, Copacabana.
Yet another example of excessive tree removal occurred in the wetlands of Ourimbah to make way for the Central Coast Hwy road widening between Ourimbah and Lisarow.
Our Community plan for the Central Coast, One Central Coast, has ‘Green’ as a focus area with ‘Cherished and Protected Natural Beauty’ as one of the headings.
This document had huge community consultation and took many, many hours to create with multiple ways of consulting the community and gaining feedback.
After all the consulting it is my understanding that the environment was clearly the most important thing for residents who live here.
So how can the objective to ‘Educate the community on the value and importance of natural areas and biodiversity’ possibly reflect the actions of the Central Coast Council?
How can this be when we have the same people who are to implement this plan removing all these trees with gay abandon?
Another objective of One Central Coast is ‘Protect our rich environmental heritage by conserving beaches, waterways, bushland, wildlife corridors and inland areas and the diversity of local native species.’
This surely isn’t happening with so many trees in public spaces being ripped out.
The final ‘objective’ I wish to highlight is ‘Promote greening and ensure the wellbeing of communities through the protection of local bushland, urban trees, tree canopies and expansion of the Coastal Open Space System (COSS).’
How can this possibly be an objective, when we have so many trees being removed and ever more proposed to be removed?
As they say, action speak much louder than words, and it is clear the One Central Coast is mere lip service to the residents.
Possibly a more suitable name is One Concrete Coast.
Email, Jun 18
Joy Cooper, Green Point