I'm not one of those guys who likes to be a doom sayer, in fact I believe in the ability of humans to fix anything if they really apply themselves, but this is a natural system and it has limits beyond which it will not be able to recover in the ways we would like.
These pics aren't the best but they get the point across...
First the percentage area of remaining native woody vegetation 1990-91
Source: Land cover change in Australia: results of the collaborative Bureau of Rural Sciences-state agencies' project on remote sensing of agricultural land cover change, Michele Barson, Lucy Randall and Vivien Bordas, 2000.
next the distribution of clearing (ha) of woody vegetation 1990-91 to 1995 for agriculture, grazing and development.
Source: Land cover change in Australia: results of the collaborative Bureau of Rural Sciences-state agencies' project on remote sensing of agricultural land cover change, Michele Barson, Lucy Randall and Vivien Bordas, 2000.
You will I hope notice some similarities in the geographic location of both the native veg and the clearing?
and last but not least the extent of clearing over the study period by Interim Biogeographic Region. In this one red is really really bad.
Source: Land cover change in Australia: results of the collaborative Bureau of Rural Sciences-state agencies' project on remote sensing of agricultural land cover change, Michele Barson, Lucy Randall and Vivien Bordas, 2000.
By heck it makes you proud to be a Queenslander don't you think???
Despite all the laws passed in the last 5yrs I still see massive landclearing, offenders getting ridiculously small penalties, and even after those penalties repeating the offences.
By the way I live at the uppermost point on the red area.
