Council will focus on community education and identifying areas for flying-fox roosts that don’t conflict with residential areas, following the adoption of a voluntary flying-fox statement of management intent today.
Redland City Mayor Karen Williams said the statement of management intent took steps to separate urban communities from flying-fox roosts in the long-term, while recognising the important environmental role flying-foxes played.
“Flying-foxes can be a complex issue to manage. While they play an important role in the ecological health of local forests, roosts situated near local communities can also present some temporary unrest for residents during certain seasons,” she said.
“Council’s statement of intent shows our commitment to lessening the impact of flying-foxes on residents by undertaking pest and fire management on roosts, while committing to not dispersing flying-foxes or destroying their roosts.
“Council will also undertake work to identify locations for future flying-fox roosts away from residential areas, as well as revegetating previously used roosts that don’t conflict with the community.
“This proactive approach will help flying-foxes continue to play a crucial role in the local ecosystem, while having minimal impact on residents.
“Through our statement of intent, Council will also continue to advocate on behalf of the community to the State Government to assist with flying-fox management.”
Council’s environmental spokesperson Cr Lance Hewlett said while traditionally flying-foxes were managed by the State Government, changes in 2013 provided the opportunity for Councils to make their own decisions about how to manage individual roosts in urban areas.
“Historically flying-foxes have been managed by the State Government, but this new process provides the opportunity for Councils to develop a clear position with regard to flying-fox management on Council owned land,” he said.
“Given this, Council felt it was important to voluntarily develop a statement of intent so the community had a consistent message about flying-foxes, allowing clarity when it came to planning and ongoing management practices.
“Council’s statement of intent also states that we will continue to monitor and map roost sites in partnership with the State Government and liaise closely with other Councils and researches to about best practices.”
Congratulations on taking an informed stand on this issue. Too often we see Councils taking inappropriate actions, which often costs Council (and ratepayers) far more than originally intended. A few of these do work, but a paper produced a few years ago show that the majority of flying-fox dispersals do not achieve the intended outcome. As you know, many dispersals force the bats to take residence elsewhere – sometimes in far worse situations. Even when that is not the case, all that has been achieved is a temporary reprieve at one location.
I believe that because of your approach, Council will be able to more easily engage with flying-fox specialists, who may be more willing to work with you in order to help you to find a sustainable, effective long term approach.
You may already be going down this path but if not, please contact me if you would like to discuss this option further.
So, in other words, the council’s intent is to continue to do pretty much nothing?
Can someone please explain the point of “identifying locations for future flying-fox roosts away from residential areas”……“while committing to not dispersing flying-foxes or destroying their roosts”?
I’m thoroughly sick of the bleeding hearts who are more concerned for the welfare of the flying foxes than they are of the health and safety of the residents forced to live beside their stench and squalor.
And for those uninformed opinion giving keyboard warriors who suggest we “suck it up since we bought properties next to a bat colony”, I’ve been living in the area since 1985 and the bats didn’t move in behind Lawn Terrace until about 5 or 6 years ago. It is NOT a decades-old roost, as some are suggesting.