This morning I visited
the dam on Callum Brae, nearest Mugga Lane. Regular visitors will remember the many
superb fairy wrens that used to frequent the blackberry clumps just upstream
from the dam. Those blackberries
are now well and truly dead.
Also, much to my
surprise - since the rest of Callum Brae appears to be in the pink - the
saplings close to the dam appear to be struggling, if not dead. Worse than that, the old trees also
appear to be dying. I must be a bit
slow, but it finally dawned on me that it was no coincidence that the eucalypts
within 40 metres of the, now dead, blackberries are 60-70% defoliated.
One has to wonder
sometimes if the zeal with which the custodians of our nature reserves attack
their job does more harm than good.
Oh, the rabbits are
busy opening up all the ploughed-in warrens, showing that this technique is as
effective now as it was around 1950, when my father used to plough them in with
a dam-sinking plough. That was
before Larvicide, Myxomatosis and 1080 were used.
Margaret Leggoe
