ecologist

Ecological Constraints Assessment on the Northern Beaches

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Narla Ecologists have recently conducted an Ecological Constraints Assessment (ECA), also known as a Pre-construction Constraints Assessment, within the Northern Beaches Area in New South Wales. An ECA provides land owners with a detailed report outlining all the potential ecological and environmental constraints associated with their property. This report is then used in the planning process when purchasing a property or submitting a development application for property subdivision, dwelling alterations, demolition or construction. By conducting an ECA early in the planning process, our clients are able to save extensive amounts of time and money by helping them navigate around Environmental Legislation they might not have been previously aware of.

Spiked Rice-Flower

Narla Environmental’s ecologists recently led large-scale, targeted surveys for threatened flora species throughout Western Sydney. Narla’s Ecologists were fortunate enough to encounter multiple populations of Pimelea spicata (Spiked Rice-Flower).

Spiked Rice-Flower is listed as Endangered under the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (BC Act) and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).

Spiked Rice-Flower is a cryptic herb, which is difficult to detect whilst not in flower and may not be apparent aboveground during drought conditions. Pimelea spicata flowers sporadically throughout the year, with flowering likely to depend upon climatic conditions, particularly rainfall (DEC 2006).

Fortunately, with recent rainfall across Western Sydney, flowering populations were easily detected by Narla Environmental’s ecologists.