Not Birds But

[finchbreeder]

Endanged Species Can be Helped. - Good news from the ABC - So good on those people. And Qld has legislation that requires Councils to reaforest areas.
There are firms that specialise in Biological correction. My daughter works for one of them.
"Volunteers have been turning up in droves to plant food trees for koalas along a corridor that will eventually stretch the 50 kilometres from Byron Bay to Lismore in northern New South Wales."
And while the Koalas are eating the leaves the birds can nest and roost in the trees so it does help birds too.
LML

[Rod_L]

Is this thread about the 4-Corners episode from last night on the ABC, about endangered species and species extinctions in Australia?

If yes, the quickest way to save endangered species is to domesticate them and replant the planet. Neither of which the government will do because they don't give a crap about anything except getting their name into the history books.

[finchbreeder]

I read it on the computor. The point was to - replant the planet. As you so correctly put it.
LML

[Rod_L]

Replanting the planet has a number of positives and not just for providing habitat for endangered birds and animals.

90% of the forests that were on Earth 200 years ago, are gone. I wrote to the government about this a while back and haven't had a response. I pointed out that trees and plants provide us with everything we need and when there aren't enough of them, the carbon dioxide levels start to go up and when it reaches a certain level we all suffocate. Big animals go first and the smaller ones last.

Replanting the planet would fix climate change, provide more shade so we have a cooler environment, encourage more rainfall, and remove excess CO2 from the atmosphere, which would help the oceans and coral reefs. More trees will reduce the strength of the wind and this reduces soil erosion, which reduces sediment and agricultural runoff into the oceans.

Having more trees around farms and paddocks provides shelter for the animals and reduces wind and heat that can wipe out crops. It also encourages more rainfall in the area, which helps the animals and crops. Farms have studied this and found that by planting around the edge of crops, they lose a small amount of land that would be used for cropping, but they get better yields. So it balances itself out, and the trees provide habitat for native animals.

The Australian government could start in the desert and use the underground aquifers to irrigate the desert. They could use prisoners as labour and they could be monitored by a minimal number of guards. If they escape they have to walk hundreds of kilometers through the desert to get anywhere.

Most of the towns, cities, roads and carparks use to be bush land. People removed all these trees and replaced them with rock buildings and black tar roads, which absorb heat and do nothing to help the environment. Then we drive little fireboxes (cars with internal combustions engines) everywhere and the automotive industry makes it worse by selling dark coloured cars that heat up faster and require more air-conditioning, which in turn uses more fuel. And they make automatic gearboxes as standard now, which also uses more fuel.

If we add big screen televisions, lots of electrical appliances in houses, computers, etc, we simply add more heat to the problem.

The human race needs to get a grip on reality and wake up. Anyway, that's my gripe, sorry for the rant.

[Tiaris]

Irrigate the desert? really? Farmers on fertile cropping land have had their water entitlements reduced to zero so irrigating desert is hardly an appropriate use of such a scarce and valuable resource.
Sure, more trees on over-cleared land would have productive as well as environmental benefits and that should be encouraged, but that's no reason to go off the deep end.
I live in an area with very high forest/tree cover and traditionally large koala population, but the koala population decline still experienced has nothing at all to do with not enough trees. Road kills, domestic animal attacks and disease are the main causes.

[Rod_L]

There are huge underground water reserves underneath the desert. A lot of them already have bores with caps on and it only takes a spanner to remove the cap. Subsequently, the only water used to irrigate the desert would be the water that is already under the desert.

If the government replanted the country, there would be significantly more rainfall and there wouldn't be any need for water restrictions.

[Tiaris]

The desert is a unique and valuable ecosystem in its own right worth preserving as desert. I simply say there are far more worthwhile and viable uses for groundwater irrigation than destroying our deserts by trying to turn them into irrigated tree plantations.

[finchbreeder]

Road kills, domestic animal attacks and disease are the main causes. Very true. But habitat loss is a problem in some areas also, so replant the areas that have been damaged over the past 100yrs.
The desert is a unique and valuable ecosystem in its own right worth preserving as desert. Also very true. There are some very unique species that live only in deserts so we do not want to lose them. So leave those areas that were desert 100yrs ago as desert so we can keep these species.
More trees will reduce the strength of the wind and this reduces soil erosion, which reduces sediment and agricultural runoff into the oceans. Correct. so we should replant where there were trees in the last 100yrs. But leave those areas where there were no trees - treeless.
Wow. Between the 3 of us we could fix the entire country if we were put in charge. Now to just get someone to put us in charge.
LML

[Rod_L]

Wow. Between the 3 of us we could fix the entire country if we were put in charge. Now to just get someone to put us in charge.
LML

LOL, and we wouldn't cost the country as much as the government does either

When I say replant the desert, I'm not talking about turning it into a timber plantation. I want oasis's? (don't know what the plural of oasis is) made and irrigation on the plants that are endemic to the desert. That way there will be more habitat and food for the native animals there.

Then we send in the army to deal with the introduced species and away we go.

Before the Aborigines came to Australia, the entire country (with the exception of the inland sea) was covered in forest like Cape York Peninsula.

[finchbreeder]

Before the Aborigines came to Australia, the entire country (with the exception of the inland sea) was covered in forest like Cape York Peninsula.
Yes but that has been gradual over 1000yrs. Not rapid like what has happened in the past 100yrs.
LML