A link between forestry activities and road kill?

Dave Groves

WE HAVE just come back from Northern Queensland.

We flew most of the way, but still managed to clock up around 1200kms on the road. I hit the cruise control and watched the traffic sail past us like we were standing still. It didn’t matter if it was five a.m. or ten p.m. be it in the city or in the bush. Life is like this in the sunshine state apparently.

We saw no sign of clearfell forestry activity and only saw three log trucks on the whole trip. They all carried plantation pine and were loaded to what I assume to be legal limits.

The curious observation for me was that except for one unfortunate mud lark, there was not one piece of roadkill. Not a mark on the road, no carcasses, not even a piece of fur.

Do you think there is some correlation between the gross incidence of Tasmanian forestry clearfell and napalm burns and the amount of animals plastered over our roads?

Surely Queensland has fauna that would cross their roads and lose playing Russian roulette with the hurtling metal and rubber that clogs these thoroughfares?

Are there any studies that link my curious observations to so called “good science”?