Letter to the editor - Kerry Brindle on land clearing
Dear Editor
I am writing to respond to the ‘opinion piece’ provided by Andrew Dunbabin on behalf of ‘FLAG’ in last week’s edition of Tasmanian Country.
First and foremost, it is unfortunate for the Fergussons that they appear to be the first landholders to receive a large fine prosecuted for undertaking illegal clearing on their land. However, the explanations supplied by Andrew Dunbabin are incorrect and misleading.
Andrew stated that the Fergusson family were “Owners of the farm for over 75 years, new regulations have been imposed, which restricts the use of the land by the owners. Being unaware of the newly implemented restrictions was no defence as this family was dragged into court and treated to harsh treatment “as an example to others” and a fine of $100,000.”
This is simply not true. The new regulations (presumably he is referring to changes to the EPBC Act) were not relevant in this case. The Forest Practices Act has been in place since 1985, with amendments in 2017. These are hardly ‘new’ regulations.
The threatened vegetation communities that Andrew mentioned (Eucalyptus globulus - blue gum forest and woodland and Eucalyptus ovata - black gum forest and woodland) were listed as threatened under the Nature Conservation Act in 2002. Again, these are not new regulations.
There appears to be some confusion in the article around what is a threatened species and what is a threatened community. Andrew states that Eucalyptus ovata (black gums) were listed as endangered in 2020. However, it is the ecological community ‘Black gum forest and woodland (Tasmanian Forests and Woodlands dominated by Eucalyptus ovata/E. brookeriana)’, that was listed as Critically Endangered under the EPBC Act in 2019.
Likewise, individual Blue gums, as a tree/species, are not threatened, but Blue gum forest and woodland as a vegetation community is threatened. Information on known locations of threatened species and communities is publicly available on LISTmap or by using the FPA’s biodiversity values database.
The argument that the Fergussons were unaware of the conservation significance of vegetation communities on their property and that a more appropriate action would be “to educate landholders before you start to prosecute them” may be true but there are several resources available to producers to enable landholders to better understand conservation values on their property and potential restrictions with respect to managing these assets.
There have been several farmer-focused workshops and field days held in the region over the past 10-20 years, and there are many resources publicly available online.
If all these resources are already available, how can landholders better engage with the information to ensure that on-farm actions are within the law?
Hopefully this case, hard for the Fergussons as it might be, might make all land managers learn more about the regulations around native vegetation clearance, and to seek advice from appropriate advisors if the information is unclear.
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Farming and Forestry practices
Farming and Forestry practices must change with the climate. If you look at the countryside as you drive around you will see how yellow and dry it is and the winter season has only just ended. All the major river levels are way below what they should be, and most of the smaller streams and creeks are dry with some of them never even flowing during winter.
It has been the warmest winter on record with hardly any rainfall. Compounding that are the huge farming Pivot irrigators everywhere draining the aquifers. Disappointingly you can see these monsters operating only during the daylight hours and even in the windiest conditions where almost none of this water ends up where it is intended. Irrigating should preferably be done at night to minmise evaporation and give most benefit.
When I first arrived in Tasmania over a quarter of a century ago there was hardly any irrigation done because it wasn't required, and only with sprinklers which wound up to tractors. When you flew into Tasmania from Victoria the difference in colour was incredible with Victoria being dry and yellow while Tasmania was always lush and green no matter which time of year you were flying in. Now Tasmania is dry and yellow, even in winter.
When the Forestry industry started their massive land grab, springs which had never dried up before started to disappear forever as the extremely closely planted non-endemic plantations established themselves and started to drain the previously healthy aquifers. On top of this is global warming where the seasons are all out of whack, and even Europe has just experienced their hottest summer ever with temperatures constantly in the high 30s and 40s.
On top of that Forestry has never ever made an annual profit. Gunns went bust doing it, and Forestry Tasmania changed their name to Sustainable Timber Tasmania to try to hide their involvement, as Governemnt Departments do when they develop a bad name. A complete waste of our taxes just to make woodchips for toilet paper.
Clean fresh abundant Water is the most precious thing on our planet, and without it nothing survives. Farming and Forestry practices must change now for the survival of the planet and all life on and in it.