The business has been involved in assessments for new or redeveloped religious facilities, and preparation of vegetation management plans and advice associated with those facilities. This has included the Vipassana Meditation Centre at Blackheath in the Blue Mountains; the Baha’i Temple in northern Sydney; Shanti Mission Harmony Centres facilities at Canyonleigh (Southern Highlands) and Cooranbong (Lake Macquarie district); and a Buddhist retreat centre in the Canberra region. Sometimes the work includes assessing vegetation proposed to be removed or managed for bushfire safety, other regulatory compliance, and for construction.
This process reveals why it is important to co-ordinate the bushfire risk assessment and the ecological assessment to avoid duplication of effort and conflicting reports. Bushfire risk assessors are often unaware of ecological consultant constraints, so conduct their assessment as though any vegetation can be cleared. If they are briefed by the ecological prior to commencement, this can ensure that time and money is not wasted on proposals to remove habitat that authorities will not allow to be cleared. It is far more strategic to design the project with ecological input as early in the process as possible.
