There are many ICOLLs along the coast and the best thing councils can do is rely on scientific analysis and expertise in managing them. It was also good to Sam point out the National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines, the NSW Coastal Management Act and the commonsense and intelligent response from Mayor Amanda Findley.

We have too many ignorant councillors and state government ministers ready to ignore expert advice in a hurry to appease constituents, the reason we have disastrous logging practices along our coast and the protection of feral horses and deer in our national parks.

I am writing in response to the front page of the Milton Ulladulla Times on November 7 which shows NSW Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton and South Coast MP Shelley Hancock with Robert Miller planting trees as part of the Milton Ulladulla Rainforest Revival project. This is a great initiative to protect subtropical rainforest, a threatened ecological community. I applaud this project and Robert Miller and think the Saving Our Species grant to help fund this initiative is absolutely wonderful. What I find hard to applaud is the political aggrandisement of Shelley Hancock and Gabrielle Upton.

They have come to the area, ostensibly to announce much needed and overdue funding for Shoalhaven Hospital, then decided to obtain some kudos in the environmental sector by being shown planting trees. We must be heading towards an election. Or is that just the cynical me?

What has really annoyed me is that these politicians appear as caring environmentalists preserving trees while since 2003 they have continued to allow the government of the area, Shoalhaven City Council, and in particular Shoalhaven Independents councillors, to encourage unchecked, unmonitored tree removal on residential land across the Shoalhaven. 

It is called the 45-degree rule. Shoalhaven City Council has no record of how many trees, what species, what location, or whether a habitat tree, have been removed from residential blocks since December 2003, when the rule was introduced. That’s right, no council permission is required for lopping or removal of trees that qualify under this exemption rule. The council also has no record of whether a tree even qualifies for removal because no photographic evidence of the tree, no documentary evidence from a qualified arborist or habitat expert is required before or after the tree is required to be submitted either before or after the tree is removed. 

By allowing an exemption like the 45-degree rule, council is failing to adequately protect the urban canopy, failing to adequately protect the area from habitat loss and failing to ensure the health, diversity and productivity of the environment are maintained or enhanced for the benefit of future generations across the Shoalhaven.

I complained to the navy about low flying helicopters on December 3rd 2014 and have been constantly harassed by the navy for the last four years. I am writing this letter in the hope that others who have been harassed annoyed or had a low flying helicopter shake their home or any other event and would like to show their disgust at the navy harassment and annoyance in our area as they do have an area to the west of Ulladulla where they can practice. I would like to get together a petition from the public to stop this disturbing increase of helicopters over this area. So if you have had trouble please let me know and I will try and do something about it.