Dear Echo News,
What pleasure to find a perfect nest by a tiny bird in a tall tree!
Weebills are Australia’s tiniest birds that flit through the treetops.
In Kalamunda they love marri trees and build dangling nests shaped like balloons with a neat single entrance.
I just found a nest hidden among the white marri blossom in a mature tree in my backyard. It held chicks swaying in the wind.
The nest and bird – and the future of the weebill species - relies on keeping habitat.
Recently a dozen mature marri trees were cut down in local residents’ backyards – now there’ll be no bird, no nest, no tree.
The City of Kalamunda so far refuses to follow other councils in protecting trees, having abolished their own previously good policy.
Time to act, councillors, for all our sakes.
V Laurie
Gooseberry Hill
Dear Echo News,
The annual electors meeting in the City of Kalamunda has a long record of electors asking for more environmental action, and the city completely failing to deliver.
This year’s meeting was no different - five of the nine residents who spoke expressed concern about the city’s inaction on tree protection.
They asked when the city would provide the results of the Future Forest policy public consultation, which closed nearly four months ago.
They asked for the provision of annual canopy data, as stipulated in the 2023 urban forest strategy.
And there were questions about the city’s commitment to mandating best practice tree protection measures on development sites - remembering that a 300+ year-old marri tree standing on the development site on the corner of Canning and Heath Roads depends on that protection.
We still have no current tree protection policy in place, so the chainsaws keep running and blocks continue to be razed from front to back.
It even appears that street trees on council verges can be cut down at residents’ discretion - with the city apparently powerless to control this.
This at a time when the state government is telling councils to introduce their own tree protection policies to address a poor 22 per cent cover – Perth has the nation’s lowest tree canopy.
Having attended yet another electors’ meeting, many of us can only conclude that in the City of Kalamunda’s case, greed, convenience and the interests of developers are being prioritised over the voices of ratepayers and voters.
H Lill
Kalamunda Tree Canopy Advocates
Dear Echo News,
Considering how many decades it took for the timber industry to wake up and realise that clearfelling native timber forests was a losing game, and start rehabilitation/replanting of the denuded ground, I’d suggest that the fishing industry take a leaf from the pages of history, and rather than just indiscriminately strip mining the ocean, it should look to its own future, and the future of the ocean generally, and attempt to replenish the vanishing fish stocks.
I feel that they would garner more sympathy that way.
KG Blake
Lesmurdie
Dear Echo News,
Like many in our area, I have seen the media coverage promoting the Midland station as a modern, state-of-the-art facility that represents progress and investment in our community.
It certainly looks impressive.
However, appearance means very little when safety and accessibility are not adequately addressed.
Last week, my 16-year-old daughter was indecently assaulted at the Midland train station.
At the time of the incident, there was not a single transit guard present. We immediately reported it to the Midland police.
My daughter is neurodivergent and vulnerable. I made the decision - in good faith - to allow her to use public transport, trusting that a newly built, heavily promoted station would have appropriate safeguards in place to protect young people.
That trust has been deeply shaken.
If this station is being showcased as a flagship development for Midland, then it must also be held to flagship standards of safety.
This includes visible and consistently present transit officers, active monitoring and rapid response capability, clear reporting pathways for vulnerable passengers and demonstrable safety planning for young people and people with disability.
A station can look modern and polished, but without a strong and visible security presence, it is not safe.
And when it is not safe, it is not accessible - particularly for young, neurodivergent, elderly, or otherwise vulnerable members of our community.
Name withheld
Red Hill
Dear Echo News,
I absolutely support the letter in last week’s edition Kalamunda AGM focus on trees (Letters, Feb 13) about our council not reading the room when it comes to trees.
I was appalled recently, to see yet another bush block near us completely stripped of all its trees within one day.
It’s the second such case in our neighbourhood within a period of about six months.
Where is our council in this?
Missing in action, apparently.
This wanton destruction is happening on their watch.
The beautiful trees that characterise our city are vanishing before our eyes and with them our birds and other creatures whose lives depend on those trees.
Our home in the forest is being destroyed by human stupidity and greed.
Apparently, our tree policy was scrapped because of ‘perverse outcomes’.
I will put to you that this is a perverse outcome of not having a proper tree policy.
J Gerber
Kalamunda
