Development brings employment, economic growth and better living standards to a community. But sometimes it brings environmental damage and destruction with it. An important part of the Enviro-Trust’s work is to evaluate the environmental impacts of proposed developments.
Developments we have scrutinised range from the proposed nuclear power plant at Thyspunt, to the increasing number of wind farms in the district, to proposed residential complexes and many more. Mandatory environmental impact assessments can run to thousands of pages, all of which must be read and evaluated. We become involved in the regulated process and interact with developers to mitigate damaging environmental impacts. Where we believe it is necessary we put objections forward to the government department and we lodge appeals against environmental authorisations that we believe to be misjudged.
We also keep a watching brief for environmentally-damaging practices on a smaller scale, such as bush-clearing of vacant plots. While this is important as fire-prevention practice, it can lead to the destruction of threatened trees and plants if it is done irresponsibly.