Jennifer Marohasy

Feral cats, along with wild dogs and foxes, are thought to have a devastating impact on populations of small native animals in parts of the Australian bush. But the future may be even bleaker with a larger and more ferocious breed of cat, known as the Savannah, expected to be introduced into Australia [...]

Peter Garrett, Australia’s Opposition Environment Spokesperson, is reported in the Age as having said,
A federal Labour government would commit $2million to a national plan to stop the spread of cane toads into the south and west of Australia.
Alas, his is pledge is unachievable; as cane toads are already in Western Australia. I saw them [...]

…In another part of Australia, cattle grazing has been identified as detrimental to World Heritage values, by potentially initiating soil erosion, altering under-storey vegetation and fire regimes. Cattle grazing has also been associated with the introduction of weed species such as pasture crops and assisting in the spread of other weeds.
The Wet Tropics grazing policy [...]

The latest satellite (SLATS) data on Queensland clearing is now available and it provides an interesting insight into how data can be presented in a way that is quite remote from the truth on the ground. The report, Landcover Change in Queensland 2004-2005 can be seen at www.nrw.qld.gov.au/slats
The annual average area cleared in the [...]

I was pleased and surprised to read today at Farm Online that the actions of six Queensland Government employees is being investigated over the Ashley McKay saga.
I detailed the sorry story in a piece at this blog entitled ‘Tree Clearing in Queensland: One Man’s Battle Against Bureaucracy’ posted in October 2005.
It began: “About six years [...]

While groups like the Wilderness Society run advertisements suggesting that in western Queensland and New South Wales broadscale tree clearing is a major environmental threat, many local landholders argue the problem is quite different. They claim that trees are replacing once open grassland over vast areas and that these ‘invasive woody weeds’ are the [...]

The following media release was distributed by a group called the NSW Regional Community Survival
Group* after TV personality Don Burke was interviewed by radio personality Alan Jones in Sydney yesterday:
“Australia’s pioneer lifestyle presenter and Chair of the Australian Environment Foundation, Don Burke, has called upon the Iemma Government to make further changes to native vegetation [...]

Nyngan farmer Anthony Gibson, spokesperson for the NSW Regional Community Survival Group, has warned government officials and the public to be aware of Dr Barry Traill’s limited scientific credentials on the ecology of woody weeds.
Following is the rest of the media release from the NSW Regional Community Survival Group:
“An exhaustive search of the world’s premier [...]

Easter Island has been described by Jared Diamond as the “clearest example of a society that destroyed itself by overexploiting its own resources”.
Prof Diamond has told and retold the story and drawn a parallel between the ecological disaster he says befell Easter Island and our likely fate because we are cutting down too many trees [...]

Thirty-three different species of weeds are now reported to have developed resistance to herbicides commonly used in Australian farming systems, says Dr Chris Preston, programme leader for the Weeds CRC.
The worst offenders are annual ryegrass, wild radish and wild oats.
And of the thirteen ‘families’ of chemicals used to control weeds, resistance to ten has now [...]