Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for December 15, 2010

City Deal That Led to Water Waste: Ross Tyson

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“AN ARCHAIC agreement hatched in the air-conditioned suites of a Sydney office block has exposed the kind of chronic mismanagement at government level that is driving local farmers to the point of despair.

“The revelation this week that Snowy Hydro is sending millions of litres of water downstream every day into overflowing dams and flood-affected towns along the Murrumbidgee River has left irrigators dumbfounded.

Read more at Area News.

  [Read more…] about City Deal That Led to Water Waste: Ross Tyson

Government to Finally Act on Bureaucratic Flooding

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FINALLY, last night, the NSW government agreed to change Snowy Hydro Licence conditions which required water to be released into the already swollen Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers –exacerbating the current flood crisis.  

The article in today’s The Australian newspaper (page 7), indicating licence conditions will be changed, quotes Terry Charlton, CEO of Snowy Hydro, denying that recent flooding was exacerbated by licence conditions.

This comment from Mr Charlton is disingenuous, contradicts comment he made to me in a telephone conversation yesterday, and also comment he made to former employees of Snowy Hydro at a meeting in Cooma on November 25, 2010, that even though Blowering and Hume dams were spilling, Snowy Hydro still had to release water from Lake Eucumbene because of licence conditions.

How Much Should One Frog Eat?

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THE green tree frog, with the white lip, that I fed last night is currently asleep outside my kitchen window.  

Last night she – I call her Emily – ate four grasshoppers, two moths, one bush cockroach, one click-beetle, but refused the squirming earthworm I held out for her.

I understand it is easy to overfed a frog.  

There are lots of grasshoppers in my veggie garden at the moment which I can easily collect during the day and keep alive in a container for Emily when she wakes up around 7pm.   But, how many should I feed her each night?  

Picture taken by Neil Hewett of a frog like Emily in the Daintree.

And please, spare me the response from the public servants – who for mostly just sitting on their bums each day get money regularly fed into their Sydney bank accounts – that Emily should actually go hunting for her own food in the wilds of the adjacent nature reserve.