WHY DO ANIMALS NEED WILDLIFE BRIDGES?
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to enable them to escape danger such as predators and fire
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so food can be found during different seasons
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so they can breed with animals not closely related to them
ARE WILDLIFE BRIDGES SUCCESSFUL?
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The Brisbane Compton Road Wildlife Bridge (BCRWB) is so fantastic; it is being used by many different native species (wallabies, lizards, monitors, phascogales, birds, microbats and gliders etc) and this includes different individual animals; even the koalas are using the bridge, culvert and rope crossings.
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Prior to building the BCRWB, each month 6 animals were killed on Compton Rd, now only 6 have been killed in total since bridge was built in 2004.
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Night tracking of microbats shows the whole bridge heat map 'lit up red' by the movement of microbats.
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Lots of bird species need wildlife bridges to enable them to cross roads
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Europe and the US have thousands of wildlife bridges, whereas Queensland has only three!
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Stories of one koala or feral animal sitting on the bridge acting like a troll are so far removed from the reality.
ARE THESE BRIDGES COSTLY TO BUILD?
They can be built using the BEBO arch system.
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They do not need to support motor vehicles and are therefore a tiny percentage of the cost of building a road.
WHERE SHOULD WILDLIFE BRIDGES BE BUILT?
Over roads and infrastructure that severs native animal habitat eg highways and roads that cut through remnant native forest.
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Biodiversity corridors have already been mapped by Sunshine Coast Council and SCEC. An essential corridor goes across Steve Irwin Way in to Ferny Forest.
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The following links and maps show the location of these corridors around the Save Ferny Forest area.
Save Ferny Forest forms a major part of the biodiversity corridor connecting Mooloolah River National Park - Meridan Hills section and Dularcha National Park.
2017 Sunshine Coast Council Environment & Liveability strategy - Part C Network Plan
On page 125 a biodiversity corridor has been identified that crosses Steve Irwin Way connecting Beerwah State Forest (aka Ferny Forest) and Mooloolah River National Park- Meridan Hills Section.
22 years ago, in the year 2000, Sunshine Coast Environment Council supported by Caloundra City Council and others, produced a report identifying and ground-truthing where wildlife corridors were needed for conservation of fauna and flora in this area.
On pages 20 to 21, of this SCEC report, there is a map of these ground-truthed wildlife corridors in Caloundra City Council.
Zoom in on the MAP 3 in the report or refer to the map below, which has the SCEC identified corridor superimposed over a google earth photo.
At least two overpasses need to be built to link Mooloolah River NP - Meridan Hills Section AND Ferny Forest: one to span the Bruce Highway and one to span Steve Irwin Way.
EXAMPLE OF A SUCCESSFUL CORRIDOR
