Meeting papers

Private recreation areas
Private recreation areas are cleared areas away from the boundary, often on top of the dunes or
near the back of the beach and are generally accessible from private beach accesses and private
property rather than public accesses. Some of them are planted with garden plants, turfed or
furnished with tables and chairs. Many of the issues associated with vegetation damage and yard
extensions apply.

Garden plant escapees
Most environmental weeds start out as ornamental plants, and many garden plants easily spread
in bushland by seed, suckers and runners, from gardens on private property, garden rubbish
ordumps or are deliberately planted in bushland.

Garden rubbish dumping
Dumping garden rubbish in community bushland can introduce weeds and replace diverse mixes
of native plants with infestations of just a few weeds. Rubbish dumps are an attractive ignition point
for arsonists, can cause a fire to flare and block emergency and management access.

Dogs and cats in dunes
Dogs in dunes can cause erosion on steep slopes and fragile front dunes and scare or attack
wildlife. Their droppings can discourage wildlife, spread disease and make working in the dunes
very unpleasant for our bush regenerators and Bushcare volunteers. Cats can scare and attack
wildlife and their droppings introduce and spread deadly diseases like toxoplasmosis to wildlife.
Paths and edge effects

Paths into foreshore reserves fragment the bush. Each one of these path edges has
accompanying ‘edge-effect- area, a strip of degraded bush, which usually has more weeds and
more sunlight, wind and salt intrusion, degrading the health and diversity of the ecosystems.
Weeds are often carried along the paths by maintenance and users. Having many more paths into
the foreshore means that much more of the retained bush is this degraded edge effect area, with
reduced environmental values and increased management costs. East-west orientated paths in the
long, narrow north-south orientated foreshore reserves have a particular impact on the movement
of wildlife down the length of the reserves25.

Paths, especially in quieter areas, allow introduced predators to freely move across more of the
dune and beaches. This appears to particularly apply to foxes accessing the quieter, darker parts
of the beach that turtles are likely to use for nesting.



EBFMPEBFRMP Management actions
The following actions are identified for implementation:
Prioritisation:
• Immediate: < 1 year
• Medium:1 year – 3 years
• Long: 3 years – 5 years
• Continuing: Commenced and ongoing.




25
   Ballantyne. M, Gudes. O, Pickering. C.M. 2014. Recreational trails are an important cause of
fragmentation in endangered urban forests: A case-study from Australia. Landscape and Urban Planning,
130, pgs 112-124. ISSN 0169-2046

Eastern Beaches Foreshore Reserves Management Plan 2023                                         Page 78


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