No, no, eucalypt plantations don’t guzzle water!
Or do they?
Found the following excerpt on www.pilipalapress.com under the title of Walking in Portugal (published 1999 (!)).
… As in much of Europe, Portugal’s trees have been chopped down for centuries to make way for towns and clear fields for agriculture. In recent years, widespread eucalyptus planting has had a devastating effect. The tree guzzles water at an alarming rate, draining farmland of water, destroying undergrowth, and causing massive erosion…
The bushwalkers knew 11 years ago but the science based Tasmanian forestry establishment knows nothing.
And just so that the usual suspects don’t howl and point the finger at agriculture it must be acknowledged that the vultures are indeed in after the eucalypt devastation has hit Portugal. And what do they do? The Spanish are moving in to buy vast tracts of wasteland for nothing to plant ultra gigantic olive monocultures.
And closer to home: Not much different. Tasmania has been declared the fibre plantation island by the Federal Government long ago. That’s the reason why the Tasmanian forest establishment doesn’t want to change anything. It is Federal policy, underpinned by funding. A small angry section of the Tasmanian population is a small price to pay for the grand vision.
In the new global economy Australia is to import food from South America says untiring Trade Minister Simon Crean as he shuttles between continents to clinch ever more technocratic new order deals. Much of Australia is to be monocultured up with carbon sink trees, and that’s it folks. This policy only shines through at the edges now and then but it exists and is the reason why no intelligent arguments and viable alternatives will ever be considered by those on the levers of power.
Pensive
