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.
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.
Biodiversity corridors have already been mapped by Sunshine Coast Council and SCEC. An essential corridor goes across Steve Irwin Way in to Ferny Forest.
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
