Koalas need more than sympathy---- they need real habitat planning
ABC story on
Koala deaths in SW Victoria plantations http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2013/s3808542.htm
The
liquidation of these assets demonstrates just how careless our Governments have
become . These long term timber
assets, purchased with public money, are
being liquidated early and the consequence is uneccasary carelessness and harm all around
To highlight
another piece of heart driven( cf head ) shallow government logic, Koalas are choosing the unnatural native tree
plantations to live in because the select young trees and sites have more
nutritious leaves than the forests the government think they are
protecting
So its not accurate to say the Koalas are going to
plantations because the native habiatat /forests are so rare and degraded.We are deliberately and ignorantly ignoring their needs - for a bit of flawed and shallow logic.
More and more
Native forest areas are not feeding grounds for koalas because Shires DSE and
CMAS are not supporting regeneration of the forests - a process that would help
feed them ( you heard it first on blogger July 23rd 2013)
Native forest
areas are getting older and less productive feeding grounds for certain species
.
While it
seems possible to greatly reduce the deaths on harvesting by more care by
Australian Eucalyptus Plantations, the problem highlights the need to encourage
much more natural regeneration in native forests . Current policy here is to
try and preserve the old mature and over mature stages .Clearly a more diverse
age forest would avoid the current nonsense of letting let the forest die and
rot away with adverse consequences for site regeneration ability. As often happens in environment policy
actions, finding a better balance is not
as simple as sometimes portrayed .Depopulating plantations may be one option.
Political
correctness flows fast but not deep
The idea that
things won't die is greatly limiting our societies willingness to reinforce
real resilience planning For example ,much more acceptable death patterns (older
trees) could be matched to regeneration or relocation commitments ( younger
trees) but the option is NOT widely advanced because the very idea death
operates as a roadblock - its denied .
seeing and acting in the big picture is not happening until denial
becomes acceptance , feeling becomes understanding . The problem highlights the
skewed anthropomorphic and myopic views many have of the big picture of nature
. Why do we favor fungi and ants and ignore the decomposition cycle when carbon
sequestration is such a priority - because such natural processes are not
easily seen and do not generate emotional responses
A
Labels: australain eucalyptus plantations, habitat planning., koala habitat, koalas sw Victoria, plantations
posted by Little John at 10:05 AM
3 Comments:
Notice Professor Gummage has a positive piece about patch harvesting/ burning in his latest book on Aborigines. some good historical accounts worth noting.
BE pleased if some respect was also shown to the European trained foresters who were ONCE allowed to do that too.They are not now .
You should not listen to media tripe on conservation because its never simple. "what scientists say" is usually used to say what some simpleton wants to say to justify some unbalanced argument of his/her own .
Its clear that young leaves are what most Koala communities need. Koalas are more common near the Otways coast where salt and wind pruning of leaves means new leaves develop .
It is no surprise, of course, that there are very few koalas living in Reserves on Phillip Island simply because the forest is a mature to over mature one.
Unfortunately we haven't trained our young graduates in native vegetation management to think past the simplicities of preservation ( and simple tree worship ) perpetuated by Green groups.
Clearly politicians are so scared of the sacred talk they haven't asked why old growth forests aren't the final word on life in the forest - let alone the Savannah.
I wrote over ten years ago to Vic and Fed parliament to get them to change the retention focus in the original planning legislation in Victoria to a regeneration focus .
Such is the incompetence, scientific ignorance and naivety in Victorian departments that no proper review of the highly distracted and largely useless NVR legislation has happened . see comments on proper biodiversity protection legislatio.
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