Solid Energy HQ Christmas Protest

About 30 people turned up to a Christmas protest outside Solid Energy's headquarters in Christchurch on 18th December. Santa and his face-painted elves turned up and told Solid Energy how bad they had been again this year. The action went for about an hour and a half with dancing elves and a black santa dancing the morning away. The christmas themed banners - "Its a silent night without kiwi" and "We dont want your 'presents' in Happy Valley" - greeted morning commuters. As usual, Solid Energy security guards issued preemptive trespass notices.

http://www.savehappyvalley.org.nz

The Save Happy Valley Coalition has had a small win in relation to the imminent extinction by Solid Energy of the Powelliphanta Augustus snail!

Solid Energy had in place plans to mine the Mt. Augustus ridgeline as part of its Stockton Mine, not far from Happy Valley. Similar mining had already destroyed most of the snail's habitat before Forest and Bird stepped in and took the miner to court, eventually winning.

As the Forest and Bird press release says,

“The High Court has today determined that the state coalminer, Solid Energy, must apply to both the Ministers of Conservation and Energy for permission to clear and mine the only remaining habitat of the endangered giant land snail Powelliphanta ‘Augustus’ on the Stockton Plateau, north east of Westport.

“Now it will be the Ministers, rather than the coalminer, that will decide the future of this endangered snail,” he said. “The Ministers can decide not to..."

Right now is a crucial time when the Ministers of Conservation and Energy are deciding whether or not to grant Solid Energy permission to shift the Powelliphanta "Augustus" snails. The Save Happy Valley (West Coast group) has decided against protesting on the ridgeline again and instead thinks it is best to ask everyone to put political pressure on the ministers by writing letters.

Thus, what we need to do for Augustus at present is put pressure on the ministers. It would be ridiculous if the Ministers did just decide to grant consent anyway. Please spend 10 minutes writing a letter, urging them not to. Or better still, get everyone you know to write a letter! If 50 people write a letter that’s 50 letters! And if 50 people get 10 people to write a letter, that’s 500 letters!!

Please find below letters to the Minister of Conservation, Energy, and the Prime Minister, that you are most welcome to use, or rework. If this mining proceeds, augustus will become extinct: thus, the consent must not be granted.

Addresses:

Chris Carter (ccarter@ministers.govt.nz)
Minister of Conservation
Parliament Buildings
Wellington

AND

David Parker (dparker@ministers.govt.nz)
Minister of Energy
Parliament Buildings
Wellington

AND

Helen Clark (pm@ministers.govt.nz)
Prime Minister
Parliament Buildings
Wellington

Letter:

I am writing in regard to the fate of the giant land snail, Powelliphanta augustus. This absolutely protected species is under threat of extinction from Solid Energy.

At the beginning of the year, the State Owned Enterprise had already destroyed about half of the snails’ habitat. In April they destroyed another substantial chunk. It is estimated that there are 800-1000 snails left, though Department of Conservation scientists state that the
population is likely to be smaller than this. Solid Energy now intends to mine the last remaining snail habitat - I urge you not to allow them to proceed.

It is clearly stated in both Solid Energy and Department of Conservation expert advice that the ONLY way to save this species from extinction is to not mine. Some reasons why this is so include:
• Solid Energy only intends to move 100 snails.
• They are unlikely to shift even that many, since:
• Powelliphanta are very hard to find
• The survey may only be for 10 days.
• The habitat will be mined as soon as the transfer and translocation are done, so there is no back-up population, or time to see if the population survives the interference.
• Moving the habitat with a digger and a dump truck to another location is an unreasonable proposal. Snails are likely to be killed and maimed in the process, and then the ‘habitat’ is dumped on top of other vegetation. • No such translocation has been attempted before; it is not at all certain snails would successfully re-establish.
• The proposed site, although only 800m from the source population, has different altitude, aspect, exposure, soil chemistry and diversity of vegetation sites.
• The site the snails would be moved too is not protected either
physically or legally.

As declared by the High Court on Friday 16th December, 2005, Solid Energy must apply to the Ministers of Conservation and Energy to get consent to shift the snails. If Solid Energy is granted permission, it would lead to the first state-sanctioned species extinction. It will also mean to destruction of the iconic Mt Augustus ridgeline. Please do not let these atrocities occur.

Yours sincerely

(your name)

Related

http://www.savehappyvalley.org.nz