A GAWLER councillor is hoping to use his experience of travelling through climate change affected parts of North America to inform Gawler Council’s new Climate Emergency Action Plan Working Group.

Cr Ian Tooley recently returned from a two-month holiday through parts of the United States and Canada, where he saw some of the subtle, yet devastating, effects climate change has had on local flora and fauna.

According to Cr Tooley, in California’s Yosemite National Park, the western pine beetle has spread to plague proportions, with a detrimental effect on the park’s famous large pine trees.

The beetles, which kill pine trees by eating away at them, have historically been kept in check by the area’s bitterly cold winters, but warmer winter temperatures have allowed the beetle to live longer and reproduce more.

A growing number of dead trees, he said, has resulted in the park becoming a potential fire hazard, with frequent dry lightning strikes during summer setting fire to dry, dead wood.

Cr Tooley said it is one example of how the effects of climate change aren’t only warmer temperatures.

“There were millions of acres of brown forest where we should have seen pristine, green forest,” he said.

“We also saw acre after acre of burnt forest from a series of fires last year.”

Gawler Council became the first in South Australia to declare it is in a climate emergency, in January.

It has since established a Climate Emergency Action Plan Working Group, comprising councillors and members of the public, to guide its future climate policy.

The group will meet for the first time tonight, August 21.

Mr Tooley plans to use the knowledge he gained from locals in North America to help guide the decisions made by the working group.

“You don’t get anything done if you don’t get governments involved, you can do an awful lot as individuals, but you really get traction when governments design policy and get it right,” he said.

“There’s the political move of declaring an emergency, but the next part is to develop a plan.

“This must not be simple words for Gawler, it’s got to be action, and this action plan will have to drive our practice if we are to have any hope in Gawler.

“If you think of the Biodiversity Management Plan (Gawler Council) just invested over $100,000 in, it’ll be pointless if everything dies because of a warming planet.”