The Canobolas Conservation Alliance has released a new report by environmental consultant, Dr Colin Bower, on the outstanding biodiversity values of the Mt Canobolas State Conservation Area (SCA).
The report has been released to Orange City Council and its consultants following Council’s mountain biking forum last Thursday at which Council concluded there was plenty of room in the SCA for mountain biking tracks.
The new study finds rare, threatened and endemic plant communities and species occur throughout the reserve and that significant harm to biodiversity by a mountain bike park is unavoidable.
The report compiles the results of decades of exploration by scientists and members of the Orange Field Naturalist and Conservation Society.
Thirteen maps show the distributions of sensitive biodiversity, highlighting the importance of the entire reserve for nature conservation.
‘This reserve was dedicated for the conservation of nature and that should remain its principal purpose’, Dr Bower said.
‘We believe it should not be too much to ask that this small area of the vast Orange region be set aside in perpetuity for the protection of the one thousand or more species whose lineages go back millions of years on the mountain’, he said.
‘The purpose of this report is to make available a large amount of unpublished information so that the people of Orange and the Council gain a better understanding of the natural treasure on our doorstep’, Dr Bower said.
‘We hope that Council will heed the growing calls to abandon plans for a mountain bike complex in the SCA and instead use one of the many alternative options available’.
For more information contact:
Dr Colin Bower, CCA President – 0428 263 274
CCA - Save Mt Canobolas 