Dear birders,
I do not deny the experience of others, but in this matter mine is at stark
variance with many of the contributors.
I am less concerned by the level of knowledge of children than by the lack
of knowledge of their parents.
If new housing estates and the selection of TV gardening programs on offer
are any indication, these folks prefer plane trees, lawns, camellias,
agapanthus, box and the like to anything that might be of interest to
native wildlife.
I am hopeful that the skills and knowledge learned by many children will
translate into action in the near future. If birdwatching and other nature
studies were so keenly pursued in the past, why do we have such problems
today? I do not recall any creek revegetation projects in my childhood (we
planted pines), but can cite many, many spectacular examples through the
90s.
A bloke at Delfin, the company that creates new housing estates, stated
recently that their new development on the western edge of Melbourne was
taking a 'green approach' that had 'gone down well with new home buyers'.
'Let's face it' he said, 'it's pretty barren out here.' So much for the
western basalt grasslands then - they're just not green enough for their
own good.
Greg Pyers
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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