A GREEN SOLUTION? IS IT BULLDUST?
A large property of about 1200 hectares at Kangaroo Creek has been in the news lately. Firstly, its herd of cattle was sold, followed by a clearing sale of all its equipment. This followed 12 months of intensive tree felling for saw logs - up to ten 25-tonne truckloads, six days a week.
After the sale, there were "Entry prohibited' signs posted on the boundary fences, and giant bulldozers appeared. Pastured areas were burnt and Roundup was sprayed to prevent regrowth. Treed areas beyond the pasture were bulldozed on slopes up to 30 degrees. Windrows burnt for weeks. A few selected old trees were left here and there.
The whole area of about 3000 ha was ploughed, formed into furrows. These furrows at about 2.4 metres apart were formed on the contour around the slope, and after a further spraying of a long-lasting herbicide, seedling trees about 150mm tall were planted along the mounds, about 1.4 metres apart. In all, 3.3 million plants.
About two-thirds of the seedlings are Dunns White Gum, with the other third being Spotted Gum and another local Eucalypt. No other plants will be allowed to grow. In other words, a monoculture.
As in all monocultures, be it wheat, rice, poultry or cattle, pathogens (diseases) move in. Where there's plenty of 'food', Nature accepts the abundance and sends bacteria, viruses and insects for the banquet - the easy pickings.
These monoculture forests are owned by 'for profit' enterprises. I mention 'for profit' because any concern for environmental maters are secondary. Return for shareholders comes first.
In the event of disease or insect invasion, chemical spraying is used. One reported instance north of here on a monoculture plantation (not necessarily owned by this company - there are a number of them nowadays), the neighbours who were subjected to spray drift found chemical drums labelled 'Made in the USA. Not to be used in the USA.' It's okay in the colonies though!
Aerial spraying in Tasmania has been blamed for fish kills in streams, and a possible cause of the disease currently wiping out the Tasmanian Devil (a carnivorous marsupial) besides killing other non-target flora and fauna nearby.
Experience shows that these plantations cause streams to dry up in 4-5 years. This is mainly due to the contoured mounds and the thirsty trees. No run-off occurs after rain. Nearby cattlemen are upset by the thought that our small Kangaroo River will die.
At my property which is a 40 hectare conservation area 4 kms downstream from the plantation site, fish, tortoise and ducks will disappear. In the recent past, platypus have been seen at my place.
After 4-5 years, every second tree will be removed (thinned). The final harvest will be 15 0r 20 years. The whole area will be harvested.
Over the millennia, deforestation has been a consequence of mankind's adoption of farming - growing crops and domesticating animals. This started about 12,000 years ago in what is now called Iraq and Iran. They were forested. A ruler in about 4000 BC saw deserts being created and streams silting up and drying up, so imposed a ban on tree clearing. After his death his son reversed the ban, and the forested lands became the deserts they are today.
Australia is the world's oldest continent, and with a tiny exception or two has not been subjected to the 'normal' soil enrichment factors to which most other lands have been. These factors are volcanic eruptions and crustal uplift, both of which bring new material from within the earth. Both of these have only ever occurred in a narrow coastal band on the east and southeast of the continent, in the long past. The third factor is glaciation, which grinds the earth's crust exposing deep nutrients. This only occurs in Australia during what are called Ice Ages. The last was about 15000 years ago, and caused glaciation in a small part of what is now called Victoria and South Australia. The overwhelming area of Australia has worn-out, nutrient-deficient soils as a consequence of this tremendous age and its inability to renew. Then just over two hundred years ago, there began an unprecedented removal of what vegetation and forest trees there were.
Plants take up nutrients. When forest trees are removed, so are the nutrients encapsulated in them, and so our short supply of soil nutrients is further depleted. In the not-too-distant future, our soils won't grow anything unless great quantities of fertiliser are lavished on them. The consequence? A boon for the time. In the longer term? Making a building board with a mixture of cement and asbestos fibres was regarded as a marvellous idea about 30 years ago!
Intensive monoculture for timber would appear to be hurrying us towards disaster for Australia's soils - and us.
So while tree planting would appear to be one of the ways to save our country from erosion, from salination, from desertification, monoculture forests are surely NOT the way to go.
Post script: For at least this past fortnight, chainsaws and a bulldozer are clearing apace on private land about 1 km beyond my eastern boundary in order to plant another eucalypt monoculture. This land has been leased from the owner, a cattleman, by the same company.
-Jim Knight
(SORRY - SAWDUST?)