Tweed Shire Council’s long-serving entomologist, Clive Easton, was honoured with a major award at the NSW Coastal Management Awards, announced recently at the NSW Coastal Conference at Tweed Heads.
In further good news for the Tweed, Fingal Head CoastCare received the Community Involve-ment Award for excellence in community involvement in coastal management.
Mr Easton received the Ruth Readford Award for Lifetime Achievement, which honours an individual who has dedicated significant energy, time and commitment to improving planning and/or management of the NSW coast.
His award was presented by Professor Bruce Thom, the President of the Australian Coastal Society and Chair of the Federal Government’s Coasts and Climate Change Council.
Tweed mayor, Councillor Barry Longland, said Mr Easton thoroughly deserved the honour.
“Clive’s interests and achievements have extended well beyond the field of entomology (the study of insects), and he has dedicated countless hours to finding ways to improve management practices on the NSW coast,” Councillor Longland said.
“Tweed Shire Council and the broader Tweed community have been privileged to have had such an inquisitive, highly respected and dedicated officer working here for so many years,” he said.
Mr Easton played a leading role in bringing to light one of Australia’s major environmental problems – acid sulfate soils. Following a major fish kill affecting 23 kilometres of the Tweed River in 1987, Clive instigated investigations that led to the identification of the role acid sulfate soils had played.
At the International Acid Sulfate Soils Conference held in Tweed Heads in 2002, Professor Mike Melville from the University of New South Wales stated Clive Easton’s seminal 1989 Fishing World paper which described the 1987 Tweed River fish kills – and was published at a time of virtual acid sulfate soil ignorance in Australia – had been the most important publication to influence the understanding of acid sulfate effects in the Australian environment.
Mr Easton also pioneered environmentally-focused salt marsh mosquito control in Tweed coastal wetlands, and developed much-copied techniques which reduced the need to use chemicals.
In addition, he was instrumental in the development and implemen-tation of control methods for the pandanus leaf hopper, which had the potential to decimate the Tweed’s iconic pandanus trees.
The award judges considered that Mr Easton’s work during the past 25 years had played a significant role in the Australian scientific community’s understanding of the coastal environment, development of coastal lowland protection and remediation practices, improved aquatic biodiversity, reduced degradation of potential acid sulfate soils, and improved public health.
