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COUTTS CROSSING CEMETERY February 27, 2007
The elected members of Clarence Valley Council last week voted unanimously (one
member, Cr. Terry Flannagan was absent) to remove a fence protecting a threatened
herb species, the Swamp Foxglove, at the Coutts Crossing cemetery near Grafton. In
doing so they have conveyed their collective lack of concern for threatened species,
biodiversity, and the environment.
Following the discovery of the Foxglove some years ago, a concerned council
worker erected the fence to protect the plant from regular mowing. Unfortunately,
some community members took exception to the fence, claiming it somehow
desecrated sacred ground, seemingly ignoring a long established practice of erecting
all manner of fences around individual grave sites, ranging from wrought iron
structures to wooden pickets.
It is hard for many of us to comprehend how a fence can be considered desecration,
when motor vehicles, pedestrian traffic, and ride on mowers apparently are not, and
we have to question the motives for the complaint, and the councillors' decision.
What the decision does do, is put council in a position where it could well be forced
to prepare a management plan for the site at considerable expense to ratepayers.
The Clarence Environment Centre will monitor the site for any evidence of on-going
destruction of the threatened plant by either mowing or trampling.
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