On Tue, 25 Mar 1997, Lorne Johnson wrote:
> Many birds and mammals, frogs, insects ETC.ETC. have suffered as a
> consequence of this eight lane shitheap. Death, pain, dispersal, loss of
> habitat for feeding and nesting. Crested Hawks, Gang Gangs, King Parrots,
> Rufous Fantails and some 80 other bird species have some how been affected
> because of the M2.
However bad the M2 is, this sort of argument really annoys me.
The implication is that the M2 has large negative conservation impacts
and an uninformed reader might well infer this from the statements.
King Parrots and Rufous Fantails are widespead well-conserved species,
Gang-gangs are less widespread but well-conserved and if breeding
records are an indication, northern Sydney is not prime habitat
and Crested Hawks were (last I heard) only vagrants to Sydney with
a handful of records this century.
In the end, such deliberate or accidental inaccuracy makes it harder to
defend species like Orange-Bellied Parrots whose conservation is of grave
and immediate concern.
Again, the M2 may be a disaster and it may affect other less secure taxa
adversely, but this sort of argument in the end is bad for conservation.
Andrew Taylor
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