Responding
to Tree Vandalism on the Foreshore Reserve
Beaumaris
Conservation Society Inc. recognizes the serious and deplorable
vandalism of foreshore trees over recent years, and the need for more
effective ways of dealing with the threat to the treed foreshore of
Port Phillip, but it considers that a more effective, fairer, less
unsightly and less provocative means of discouraging such actions
than the erection of very high, expensive, screens as has been
proposed would be to instead concentrate on the positive approach of
always replanting vandalized areas, using indigenous
coastal species that would grow to a similar size to those destroyed,
although preferably with more trees than those that were destroyed if
practicable, and protecting the newly-planted trees by:
providing thoroughly effective
purpose-built heavy-gauge hardened steel mesh cages around
them with thoroughly secure mountings,
installing an
extensive system of automatic security cameras and sensors
able to provide radio transmission of images and data to a security
firm for monitoring purposes, possibly including a Web cam
viewable on the Council Web site,
increasing the reward money
to the proposed level of $20,000 or greater,
asking the Minister for
Environment to move for an increase in the present maximum
penalty of 40 penalty units in Section 37 of the Coastal
Management Act 1995 to at least 100 penalty units, and
maintaining the present size of
Tree Vandalism Signs, but replacing the phrase “at work” with a more
disapproving phrase and adding, in smaller print, information about the
date of the vandalism, the species and number of trees harmed, and a
statement that the protective cages and the sign would stay until the
replacement trees grew to the estimated size of those damaged.
