FAQs

Sometimes even degraded land can be home to a rare and endangered moth, or may provide a valuable buffer zone at the edge of a conservation reserve for managing weedy garden escapees or fuel loads, or perhaps a rare orchid or other threatened plant appears only seasonally and is not obvious to a person who doesn’t know what to look for. Sometimes a site is earmarked for a future restoration project connecting two valuable portions of habitat, and allowing large trucks, excavation or imported soil into the area has a high risk of bringing in Phytophthora (root rot fungus) or other invasive weeds that are costly to control, or could destroy the soil profile, compromising it’s present or future conservation value.

• Excessive and unauthorised impacts to/clearance of roadside and reserve native vegetation to facilitate:
  • Installation or maintenance of fences
  • Increasing residential property or garden size
  • Additional property access points for convenience or development
  • Fuel reduction / ‘cleaning up’ / burning off
  • New access tracks when serviceable tracks already exist 
  • Firewood harvesting & collection
  • Bike tracks and jumps
  • Replacing native vegetation with ornamental and sometimes weedy plants 
  • Extending residential views
• Rubbish dumping
• Unauthorised parking
• Stock piling of soil, building materials, garden waste
• Encroachment of buildings, domestic structures, paths, gardens, fences onto Council land
• Unauthorised stock grazing and horse-riding
• Redirection of stormwater or run off onto Council land causing erosion and dieback
• Alienation of Council land through fencing and access restrictions

The Policy seeks to address all forms of damage to native vegetation and conservation areas on Council land. Examples include preventing and responding to impacts from:

• Installation or maintenance of fences
• Increasing residential property or garden size
• Additional property access points for convenience or development
• Fuel reduction / ‘cleaning up’ / burning off
• New access tracks when serviceable tracks already exist 
• Firewood harvesting and collection
• Bike tracks and jumps
• Stock piling
• Rubbish dumping
• Unauthorised parking
• Alienation of Council land through fencing and access restrictions
• Replacing native vegetation with ornamental and sometimes weedy plants 
• Lease, license and permit applications to access Council land
• Exceeding conditions set on permits or leases

These activities will be assessed using an impact assessment tool. The tool determines a score which will guide Council’s decisions and responses consistently and transparently.

Council will assess these using an Impact Assessment Tool, described in more detail below.

The tool attributes an impact score of proposed or undertaken activities that affects Council land based on:

• whether the land affected by the activity is formally managed for conservation purposes
• the condition or value of native vegetation or scattered trees affected using Native Vegetation Council’s assessment tools 
• the total area impacted
• impacts to Tree Protection Zones                            
• to what level public land is alienated from the public
• whether there was an existing approval in place
• whether the activity was undertaken even after a permit was denied