How Many Trees?

[Stephen Whiteside]

Sounds lovely, Neville. And then there are those amazing nightjars, too.

[manfredvijars]

Stepping into Nev's domain now with this one from Ogden Nash ...


À Bas Ben Adhem
(c)Ogden Nash


My fellow man I do not care for.
I often ask me, What's he there for?
The only answer I can find
Is, Reproduction of his kind.
If I'm supposed to swallow that,
Winnetka is my habitat.
Isn't it time to carve Hic Jacet
Above that Reproduction racket?

To make the matter more succint:
Suppose my fellow man extinct.
Why, who would not approve the plan
Save possibly my fellow man?
Yet with a politician's voice
He names himself as Nature's choice.

The finest of the human race
Are bad in figure, worse in face.
Yet just because they have two legs
And come from storks instead of eggs
They count the spacious firmament
As something to be charged and sent.

Though man created cross-town traffic,
The Daily Mirror, News and Graphic,
The pastoral fight and fighting pastor,
And Queen Marie and Lady Astor,
He hails himself with drum and fife
And bullies lower forms of life.

Not that I think much depends
On how we treat our feathered friends,
Or hold the wrinkled elephant
A nobler creature than my aunt.
It's simply that I'm sure I can
Get on without my fellow man.
---

[Stephen Whiteside]

Very clever.

I didn't know the great Ogden Nash was another tree-hugging elephant-embracing human-hater...and I've always like him so much! (Don't know much about his aunt, though...)

[Neville Briggs]

We do know Stephen that his aunt rhymes with elephant. We would have to rhyme aunt with elepharnt.


Do I have a domain Manfred ??

Now I'll stir the pot. The answer is not the elimination of man, the answer is to create the new man.

[r.magnay]

...some years ago now, a company I worked for tendered to remove the overland telephone poles and wires across the Nullabour plain..... (which as we all know stands for treeless plain) the contract called for a certain number of the poles to be left standing with the crossarms still attached....because the birds nested in them, isn't it funny how we never hear of the things we humans do to promote the native species, you know, like providing watering points that they can access, planting crops that they can access and so forth, but we always hear about how we destroy their habitat. Wouldn't it be great if people told the whole story sometimes......

[Stephen Whiteside]

Yes, that's fair enough, Ross, and I know logging is not the only activity that threatens quolls and similar animals. It does seem that humans and quolls are essentially incompatible. We've out competed them and will continue to do so. It's interesting that their populations are strongest in Tasmania - which has certainly had its share of logging activity over the years, but no foxes, at least until recently. Quolls are nasty, aggressive, anti-social little animals. They don't even like each other very much, though they do used shared latrine areas, which is interesting. But they are also very pretty. And Tasmania, of course, is seen as the economic basket-case of Tasmania. Perhaps I'm just an old grouch. But I think it is very difficult not to feel sadness at the sight of large areas of forest (yes, most of it is re-growth, I know) reduced to...well, what would you call it?

It is even more sad sometimes to see the equivalent of your telegraph pole story - an occasional 'habitat' tree left in the middle of such a wasteland. It is hard to see how a single tree in the middle of such a desert could achieve anything for anybody. As the environmental scientists say, without the other trees around it to shelter it it will probably blow down in the next big wind anyway.

[r.magnay]

G'day Stephen,
I am not having a go at you or your beliefs, I am not in favour of willy nilly clearing and logging either, nor do I condone the total eradication of a species through pure negligence, it just seemed funny to me at the time the tender came out that even though there had been no trees removed in the first place, because the wildlife had adapted to the man made structures it sort of became an evironmental issue to remove them!
I was raised on a wheat and sheep property and we cleared scrub and planted crops, we also installed watering points for stock which the native (and feral) wildlife took advantage of, it saw the population of 'roos and emus soar way above their natural numbers, we had permits to cull a certain number for everyones sake, but it wasn't long before the do gooders (most of whom had never seen a 'roo in the wild) jumped on the band wagon suggesting that the species would soon become extinct! it often makes me cross to see people quote "statistics" or "facts" that they get from sixty minutes or some similar sensationalised report and suddenly become experts on the matter.

(Not suggesting that your feelings on the matter are based on that by the way.... )

[Stephen Whiteside]

Since nobody has replied to my earlier post, I'll reply to it myself. (I'm laid up with the flu at the moment, and have to do something to pass the time...)

As I see it, the Green Movement more or less kicked off in the 70s, in the wake of the anti-nuclear movement of the 60s. For the first time in human history it appeared that Mankind actually possessed the ability to destroy their own world. The most graphic example of this was, of course, the atomic bomb, but there was also a growing awareness that natural resources, such as oceans and forests, were not infinite. The collapse of populations of various species of great whale had already occurred, together with a number of fisheries.

So there was a move towards 'sustainable' harvesting of fish, logs, whales, etc. (It was actually a bit more complicated than that in the case of the whales. Firstly, many scientists believed there was no sustainable level of harvesting for them. Secondly, considerations of animal cruelty came to the fore.)

Alongside all of this, though, was another thread. For most of the course of human history, the 'wild' has been seen as something to be tamed. It is essentially hostile, and needs to be tamed. But such was human domination over their environment, there was a real possibility that all the 'wild' places would be removed. And this raised a very interesting question - do the 'wild' places have an intrinsic value all of their own? And the answer, at least in the minds of many people, was 'yes'. This was not, of course, an entirely new idea - think of Thoreau and 'Walden' - but it accelerated rapidly.

What, then, is the value of the 'wild'? At an intellectual level, it can be seen to be a critical reminder to Humanity that they are animals, too, after all - a reminder of their origins. At an emotional level, many people talk of the 'beauty' of wild places, and of the peaceful feelings they encounter when they visit them. Of course, none of this is to ignore the dangers of the wild, also - from the bush walk where the tent got flooded to an encounter with a tiger snake.

Of course, none of this is to say that the Green Movement does not make mistakes. Do they display gross ignorance at times? Yes. What about arrogance? Most certainly. Are they internally consistent? No, not always. Are they reasonable? Often not, though some would argue their very unreasonableness is one of their strengths. Do they behave like an unruly mob? Again, at times, certainly. But all of these flaws are common in all 'movements' - they are not restricted to the Green Movement alone.

Things are poised at a very interesting conjunction right now. Will the Greens be able to repeat the success of the last election without their highly charismatic leader, Bob Brown? My guess is probably not. Would they have been able to if he had not resigned? That is something we will never know.

Fortunately, we live in a democracy - not a perfect democracy, but a pretty good one. If the aspirations of the Green Movement fail to continue to resonate with the general public, their support at the ballot box will fade away.

[Stephen Whiteside]

Snap!

I think my last post addresses most of the issues you raised. I was quite active in environmental politics for a while in the 80s, and sometimes our friends alarmed me as much as our opponents!

As you imply, the city is where the Green Movement is at its most strong, but also at its most ignorant. It's the city people who miss the 'bush' the most, I guess, and it's also this lack of exposure that leads to the silly things they say sometimes. So all of that makes sense - not that it's easy to listen to at times, I know.

I know what you mean about 'unnatural, man-made' structures that acquire a conservation value. The World War Two aircraft that sits on the ocean floor and becomes a haven for marine life. The list is endless. I guess all you can say about these is that they are against the general trend - and people will still support the preservation of a threatened species even if it is being protected - occasionally - in an 'unnatural' way. To my mind, this is quite reasonable.

[william williams]

HI Stephen, I like Ross have no wish to belittle you about the removal of small and large wild life through out Australia there has been many useless plans about that problem
I have lived on the land for more than 50 years of my life. Man, they are the biggest destroyer of habitats for the benefit of the human population though in some cases it has not been for the better.
BUT he has also been the greatest benefactor of wild life but alas it also has a great down side involved with it and people are the greatest problem.
By letting their cats run free to breed and to kill and maim our wild birds and small marsupials.
Doggers that allowing their dogs to roam free and join with the local Dingoes creating havoc with properties domestic stock.
The fishery’s and the CSIRO have documented proof that the Eastern Gray Kangaroo is in greater numbers than when Captain Cook arrived.
But small marsupial and birds have been slaughtered by the cat and the fox and domestic dogs that have gone wild.
The ACT motor insurance known cost for repairs to motor cars has topped $3.5 million all caused by Kangaroo accidents because they will not reduce the numbers in the area.
In my own back yard native birds finches, willywag tails, five species of small parrots and three families of blue wrens and bronze wing pigeon and topknot pigeons has now all gone owing to the cats that run wild if you wish to do good, remove the wild cats dogs and foxes and re educate the population, but I am afraid you will not succeed mate.