Hello Julie,
Welcome to the list. Your letter was most interesting and welcome as
there are very few contributions from ?the bush?. As one who seldom
contributes but usually observes I find it refresing to hear an opinion
from ?the other side?.
As you said you have only been subscribing for a week so you haven?t
seen half yet. There are a number of subscribers who have quite extreme
opinions, and this is their right, even though most of us may not agree
and may even be upset by them. However this does not mean we should
exclude their opinions.
The list is political as politics is part of life. While we may not
agree with all sides of the debate the writers have the right to express
those opinions on the list even if they are extremist ratbags, I?m not
suggesting the writer who upset you is a ratbag nor am I suggesting he
is right or wrong but he has a right to express his opinion.
I have responded to a political call by Lloyd Nielsen a year or two ago
to contact the Mareba Shire Council re the clearing of some trees in a
park which were the home of barn owls and other specied I cannot
remember. I like to think my little contribution helped them rethink
their plans with the result the owls still nest there, people can enjoy
seeing them and the shire benefits from the tourists who visit it to see
the birdlife. This is just as political and Brian? s request.
Regards tree clearing in Quensland. Its a problem and far to big and
issue to even start to cover in one email but it is extensive, generally
it is badly planned, oftern it is poorly done with the result that in a
few years the cleared land is chocked with suckers and regrowth - often
with rubbish weeds which are of no use to stock or wildlife and I could
go on.
In July a group of us did a 7000km trip through western Queensland
(Atlassing) and saw some examples of the worst types of clearing - and a
few that could be called planned for the benefit of the grazier, the
environment and the wildlife. These were areas were large areas were
left uncleared, where corridoors more than fifty metres wide were left
but also where large areas were cleared. This gives the grazier areas
for his stock to graze and provides shade for them. It provides
sufficient bushland for birds and native animals, vegetation to help
control runoff and erosion, both water and wind and seems a fair
compromise between total clearing and turning the state into a large
national park.
We also saw large areas that haven?t been cleared to any extent but have
been grazed for many years. The results on our atlassing sheets here
varied acording to the extent of grazing, the heavily grazed areas
usually produced only a few species while the areas which were bushy and
obviously lightly grazed had far mor species - often two to three times
the number of species. Those areas which had been clear felled with NO
shubbery or trees were the most barren. On two occasions in such
grassed areas we could find NO birds in half and hour and in many more
areas the results were only a little better.
Clearing, as it is mostly done, is a problem for all of us. The only
way to solve this problem is by the political process even if some don?t
agree. The problem is that in this process we will always get more
extreme opinions (from both extremes) that moderate solutions. This
doesn?t mean that we should not discuss the matter it simply means we
should listen to all opinions and filter out the extreme and the
impractical.
Julie, I don?t doubt that you and your family DO as much as you can to
protect the bushland and the needs of the wildlife in your area and for
this I congratulate you but your small holding is tiny when we look at
the problem. Sadly when things like this are discussed all are jumbled
in together - the few areas like yours that are well cared for and the
many that are not.
We city people do care about the rest of our country and for the people
who live there, the problem of land clearing, salinity, erosion, loss of
vegetation, extinction of wildlife, etc is our concern too. No one wants
to deprive you or others of viable grazing or agricultural areas but we
want these areas to be better managed that they have been for the last
150 or so years and certainly better managed than they generally are
now.
The solutions to these problems are political. they can only be solved
by governments assisting people like yourselves to do it better. What
that asistance is or how you can do it better and still run a viable
business I certainly don?t know but I do know that improvement must be
made and that we must all call on the politicians to find solutions.
Don?t give up on the list because a few of us don?t agree with your
views or write things that you find disagreeable. We need voices like
yours because there aren?t many from rural areas. I?d love to visit your
property to see your birds sometime in 2001 when I will again be in SW
Qld.
Regards
Peter.
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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