It’s gone to the Minister
A giant step forward in the rehabilitation of the Corridor occurred this week when the draft rehabilitation plan was presented to the Transport Minister Rita Saffioti, accompanied by the letter below. Congratulations to all involved in working towards this goal.
Dear Minister
It is with pleasure that I forward you the draft Rehabilitation Management Plan for the Roe 8 Corridor for your consideration and approval.
The Rehabilitating Roe 8 Working Group, formed in May 2017, has worked with environmental and community engagement consultants to prepare the plan to rehabilitate the 18 hectares of land, which stretches from the Kwinana Freeway, past Bibra Lake to Stock Road.
‘Rehabilitating Roe 8’ project arose out of the community capacity stimulated during opposition to the construction of Roe 8 and the newly elected State Labor Government’s commitment to rehabilitation of the cleared areas. Essentially, Rehabilitating Roe 8 aims to restore local native vegetation and fauna habitat to the cleared areas along the proposed Roe 8 alignment. However, Rehabilitating Roe 8 is not a typical restoration project. Due to the publicity and controversy surrounding the construction of Roe 8, the restoration of the cleared areas is a uniquely high profile endeavour for Perth and Western Australia, with a correspondingly high level of community and stakeholder engagement.
We now invite you to approve the plan and release it publicly.
This will allow it to be implemented by the appropriate land use manager and shared with the hundreds of people who contributed to its formulation.
Importantly, this 10-year plan gives equal weight to the ecological and community needs of the Corridor.
It has been drafted with input from the general community, the scientific community, various levels of government and community groups, making it a unique collaboration for a once-in-Australia opportunity to rehabilitate cleared land.
It is based on the principles and guidance provided in The National Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration in Australia (Standards Reference Group SERA 2017), with input from the Perth Urban Restoration Scientific Advisory Committee.
Thank you for the opportunity to chair the Working Group with such a unique interaction of people on such a complex project.
Yours sincerely
Lisa O’Malley MLA
State Member for Bicton
Chair of Rehabilitating Roe 8 Working Group