News

The Practical Ecology GIS department baked a special cake to celebrate International GIS Day, November 16th 2011. For more information go to the official GIS Day website: http://www.gisday.com

To find out more about the GIS services we offer, please navigate to our Mapping & Geographic Information Systems (GIS) page

Still a core and ongoing aspect of PE is our planning and advice service offered for landholders on the rural/urban fringe, who wish to build their dream home on a bushblock, or even a relatively cleared block with just one or two remnant trees.

We help navigate the complex planning issues relating to the presence of planning scheme overlays and other ecological and wildfire considerations.  Extensive experience with such projects means that issues such as positioning of the dwelling, driveway, utilities, septic system and other infrastructure can be considered in the context of the ecological values of the site and fuel management requirements, while meeting individual council expectations.

Balancing potentially conflicting issues on bush blocks can often be much more complicated than owners expect. We have become very skilled at helping clients acquire the permits they need while keeping their families and the bush safe.
We are well respected and often referred to landholders struggling with the requirements of the planning permit by numerous local Councils, including Nillumbik, Manningham, Hume and the Yarra Ranges.

Practical Ecology has been busy with many fire related projects over the past few months. These have included those aimed at helping clients attain permits to build or subdivide, or to assist councils and other organisations to better manage bushland, thus continuing our long history of integrating fire management considerations and ecological management.  We have also had several clients come to us recently who have initially failed to attain planning permits involving house proposals and subdivisions because fire management conditions related to Wildfire Management Overlays (WMO) and Bushfire Attack Levels (BAL) have not been considered in conjunction with ecological and net gain issues. Consequently we have had to revisit the Net Gain Analyses done elsewhere and incorporate fire management issues to satisfy planning authorities.

At Practical Ecology we are able to undertake the ecological and fire assessment process together, ensuring both issues are covered in detail and are not in conflict with each other.  As we are able to deal with these issues in an integrated manner we can save clients the time and expense it would take two separate consultants and avoid any costly conflicts between the two assessments ensuring neither need to be redone.  We are told new guidelines for the WMO are soon to be released by the CFA and we look forward to continuing helping clients deal with these issues in an integrated process.

Keep an eye out when you are wandering through your local bushland reserve for the many indigenous orchids that will be flowering over the next few months. This Pink Fingers Caladenia carnea was spotted in Nillumbik Shire.

Practical Ecology staff are gearing up for Ride to Work Day on Wednesday 12th October. Inspired by Cadel Evans and in an effort to lower our ecological footprint we are aiming for all staff to ride to work on this day. Our hungry cyclists will enjoy a breakfast of pancakes on the morning of the ride!

For more information and to register for the ride visit the Bicycle Victoria website