Going Native
Living in the Australian Environment
Michael Archer & Bob Beal
<Rating: 5 stars>This book is about Australian land use and conservation strategies and how, despite good intentions, the way we Australians make our living from an ancient and fragile land is seriously damaging and unsustainable.
"Why is it so easy to keep a cat, but a legal nightmare to keep a koala?"
The authors demonstrate how providing opportunities for adults and children to bond with Australian animals is the most powerful way of galvanising protection of them.
[But why should be bother protecting them? Our economy, food supply and thus survival depends greatly on maintaining our land and native biodiversity. Healthly land and biodiversity provides 'Environmental Services' to our cities and agriculture. Typical environmental services are water filtration, oxygen production, carbon storage, salt reduction, and soil regeneration.]
The authors describe how Australia's land and animals have evolved. The continent has been stable for long periods. This has led to minimal soil renewal and therefore our old soils are now mineral poor. Traditional European agricultural practices are unsuitable to this land and will never be sustainable here. Land clearing - removal of native trees and vegetation - allows the water table to rise bringing salt with it which prevents productive European style farming. These factors plus rural and urban expansion, is fragmenting and killing our native animals and biodiversity. Species extinction rates are higher in Australia than anywhere else in the world.
This book covers what can be done to keep what is left of our natural environment and make it resilient in this harsh country. Without these steps our food costs will rise and economy will falter.
Some of the proven solutions covered in this book are farming of native plants and animals, and establishing native animals as pets. Many foreign countries are making profits using Australian species such as our eucalypt trees for wood and oils and Macadamia nuts for food. We export more Kangaroo meat than we eat.
For city dwellers, one of the best things you can do to support our native animals is to plant native flora around your home and community. This will provide a habitat and food source for our native species. If you don't have a garden, you can join a local community landcare group to revegitate the patches of open space we still have.
more... www.hha.com.au
Updated Feb 2008