Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Weeds & Ferals

Aboriginal Elder Remembers Grassland Not Forest

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Another media release from the new Regional Community Survival Group in western New South Wales (Australia):

“Aboriginal Elder, Mr Keith (Tommy) Ryan, is demanding that the NSW Government change native vegetation laws so that Aboriginals in the Bogan Shire of western NSW can locate and access ancestral sites that have become overrun with infestations of scrub.

“Infestations of invasive scrub are so thick in places on the Western Plains that Aboriginals are finding it impossible to locate and access traditional sites,” said Mr Ryan.

Invasive scrub is the term used to describe native shrubs and woody weeds that have infested formerly open woodlands and grasslands of western NSW.

“It saddens me to see the landscape of my forefathers being destroyed by the unnatural growth of these weeds.

“I remember as a boy walking on the plains and seeing a mixture of open woodlands and grasslands not a landscape dominated by woody weeds. In those days, you could see kangaroos moving across the open country and you could easily find your way to rivers and creeks.

“The city-based green groups are wrong when they say that dense stands of woody weeds are a natural feature of the Western Plains, Mr Ryan said.

Mr Ryan said that woody weeds grow so thick and fast that they smother-out native grasslands making the country prone to erosion. They also rob the soil of limited nutrients and moisture.

“The old tribal elders used to control woody weed infestations by regularly putting a fire stick to the country.

“Today, the woody weeds have become so thick in places that native grasslands have been completely eradicated and there is not enough grass cover to carry a fire hot enough to suppress the weeds,” said Mr Ryan.

It has been estimated that up to 20 million hectares (an area the size of Nebraska) of western NSW is either already infested or highly susceptible to invasive scrub.

“Now that burning is ineffective in large areas of the Western Plains, the NSW Government needs to allow farmers to clear these woody weeds by a process clearing, cropping and finally rejuvenation of native grasses.

“Clearing and cropping removes and suppresses scrub regrowth and allows native grasses to take hold,” Mr Ryan said.

“If the NSW Government acts quickly to change the existing regulations, local communities in western NSW can start the long process of rehabilitating the landscape.

“Local communities of western NSW are committed to restoring the environment and it’s about time that the Government started to heed our advice,” concluded Mr Ryan.”

Farmers Challenge Minister to Explain Tree Laws

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A new group has formed in western New South Wales (Australia) out of frustration with the states vegetation management regulations. Vegetation management is code for restrictions on tree clearing, and trees tend to include what that the locals refer to as “invasive scrub”. Following is the groups second ever media release:

“Farming families and business people from western NSW are challenging the Minister for Natural Resources and Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald, to explain the laws that govern the control of invasive scrub.

“The regulations for controlling invasive scrub are a bureaucratic nightmare that will result in more country being invaded and destroyed by weeds and farmers being forced off the land,” said a spokesman for the NSW Regional Community Survival Group, Doug Menzies.

The Regional Community Survival Group is made up of farmers and local business people from western NSW who are fed up with bureaucratic red tape that is preventing farmers from rehabilitating land infested with invasive scrub.

Invasive scrub is the term used to describe native shrubs and woody weeds that have infested formerly open woodlands and grasslands of western NSW. Infestations of woody weeds are smothering out native grasslands leaving a desert-like landscape devoid of natural grass cover.

“If the Minister can make any practical sense of his own regulations I would be bloody surprised. Farming communities of western NSW are demanding that the Minister answer the following simple questions about the regulations,” Mr Menzies said:

1. Why aren’t farmers allowed to rehabilitate 100 per cent of an area that has been degraded by infestations of woody weeds? In environmental terms, what’s the rationale in leaving 20 per cent of an area that is being degraded by woody weeds?

Under the regulations, land rehabilitation is ‘capped’ at 80 per cent of the degraded area. This is analogous to a surgeon only removing 80 per cent of a tumour!

2. How can farmers practically clear a paddock with large machinery if they are forced to leave woody weeds of varying stem/trunk diameters?

Ridiculously, for western NSW alone, there are over 70 ‘rules’ that govern the retention of scrub species at various stem/trunk diameters. For example, in the Western Catchment Management Authority area farmers have to retain: 6 Wilga plants per hectare that have a trunk diameter (at breast height) of between 0 to 5cm, 7 Wilga plants per hectare that have a trunk diameter of between 5 to 10cm, and 7 Wilga plants per hectare that have a trunk diameter of between 10 and 20cm. Finally, Wilga plants with a trunk diameter of over 20cm must be retained.

3. It is estimated that 20 million hectares (an area the size of Nebraska) of western NSW is either already infested or highly susceptible to woody weeds. How does the Minister envisage the measurement of millions of woody weeds over this area? Will he redeploy accountants from NSW Treasury to do the job?

4. How does the Minister expect farmers to clear woody weeds and control future regrowth when the regulations are so complex and prescriptive that cultivation and short-term cropping becomes impractical and uneconomical?

5. If a farmer wants to clear woody weeds, then this can only be done 20 per cent at a time (and only up to a maximum of 80 per cent of the degraded area!). To make matters worse, you can’t start the next 20 per cent until the cleared area is ¾ covered in native grasses. This could take years to achieve. Cultivation and short-term cropping are crucial steps in restoring native grasslands to a degraded landscape because these activities suppress woody weed regrowth. Does the Minister understand that cultivation and cropping play a vital role in the rehabilitation process?

“This is bureaucracy running rampant in an area that they know nothing about; that is, farming.

“Rural communities of western NSW look forward to the Minister’s answers to these simple questions,” concluded Mr Menzies.”

A similiar group formed in Queensland a few years ago also out of frustration with restrictions on tree clearing. This group called Property Rights Australia has championed the cause of Ashley McKay a softly spoken cattleman who has refused to plead guilty to illegally clearing cypress pine. I’ve written about Ashley at this blog, you can find a copy of the post here https://jennifermarohasy.com.dev.internet-thinking.com.au/blog/archives/000971.html .

Lorikeets a Pest

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Since announcing Don Burke as the new Chair of the AEF I have received emails from those wanting to promote leucaena, kill camphor laurels, naturalise lantana etcetera.

Weeds and ferals are a huge environmental issue. But can we learn to live with some of our exotics? Should we accept lantana as naturalized?

I was amazed to read in OLO this morning that rainbow lorikeets are considered a pest in Perth,

“The rainbow lorikeet is alien to the southwest of WA and numbers have now reached at least 10,000 in metropolitan Perth. Complaints increasingly come from people living in urban areas, as well as from commercial fruit growers about the loss and damage caused to their crops. The lorikeet is a noisy bird that out-competes more timid birds for nest hollows and may displace the western rosella from its only habitat in the world, the south west of WA. The lorikeet has been declared a pest species within the Perth metropolitan area, with an open season declared on the species throughout the southwest division of the state.”

At certain times of the year I get a lot of rainbow lorikeets in my backyard in Brisbane. They are busy and noisy and beautiful.

It is the possums I get cranky with. Over the last few months they have even been stripping my chilli bush of both its chillis and leaves.