Why can't councils do anything right, planting bottle brush trees all over the place, birds ignore them most of the time and are useless as nesting sites. Why don't they put those dreadful power lines,ect underground and give us some decent native trees that look good, provide shade, food and nesting sites for most birds. Hint, gum trees do all that and they look good too.
I'm not sure if you're complaining about Bottlebrushes...being all over the place? I don't see a problem. It seems it's the opposite.
Most councils are liable to excercising anti-avian activities, such as clearing away native plants, like these. Bottlebrushes are, in fact, very useful to birdlife, providing roosting and nesting space, shelter, food, and nesting material.
Generally, councils are about planting what won't upset the ratepayers & avoiding litigation. Hence not many gum trees are planted because some species drop limbs, others drop relatively large fruits & other debris. This upsets those among us who like all their streets swept clean thrice daily & every blade of grass straightened morning, noon & night.
We also need to keep in mind that few councils, it seems to me, have any understanding of ecological systems & the critical importance of biodiversity to our long term well-being.
If we throw in the still Eurocentric gardening culture which adorns our landscapes then we can gain some appreciation of why there is a relative paucity of biodiversity sustaining vegetation planted b councils.
As for bottle brushes, they do attract honeyeaters but unless there's decent nearby natural bush land their ecological usefulness is limited. If they're to be the beginnings of a wildlife corridor then they do serve a purpose.
Who cares about the rate payers, most are too ignorant to understand the importance of environmental stability. As for litigation, change the laws, god knows politicians are good at doing that when it suits them and if they won't, then change politicians, get ones that care about Australia for once. Btw gum trees provide bees both native and european with a source of necter hence honey of excellent quality for us selfish humans to eat. Only gum trees provide roosting and nesting hollows for a vast number of animals, not just birds.
For Australian birds, natives=life, exotics=death, so do them a favour and go plant some natives and save their lives.
I'm not quite sure what your issue is here, but I hear your commitment to native wildlife.
The majority of street trees for planting are selected to be medium sized trees that will not grow too high to interfere with powerlines.
While putting electricity underground would be a nice idea, the expense to do so would be huge. I know it has been done where it has significant impact on the views of wealthy residents, but this often involves partial payment from the ratepayers. I know because they did this near my folks holiday house in NSW.
I agree that gum trees provide a significant source of habitat for native wildlife, including nectar sources, hollows and roosting sites. And there has definitely been a reduction in availability of nesting hollows for wildlife over recent years. There is probably more scope to plant these in urban green space where utilities are not affected.
However, I think councils should also be recognised for moves they have made to native trees as opposed to exotic trees over the last 10 or 20 years. Certainly here in Brisbane there has been a shift from exotics such as:
to more suitable natives such as
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
After the recent fires here in NSW, there has been a feeble push to move more powerlines underground to prevent fires. Dunno if it will come to anything though. It can't be that expensive to move the powerlines underground; most new developments seem to be doing it.
But, is there more to it than just digging a trench, redirecting traffic and dumping some extra-insulated wires in the ground? You already have the existing maintinence costs for the poles, and fixing any storm damag to the electronics and wires...
I think Woko hit the centre of the problem- Australians, whilst now being culturally dissimilar from Europe due to the influences of the last 110/20 years still retain many of the vestiges of northern temperate society. We just haven't adapted fully to the different physical conditions that exist in Australia yet, and the process, as many do, will probably take several hundred more years in our urban society. In this context the advent of the much maligned 4WDs and dirtbikes is actually a good thing- it encourages people to appreciate a more natural environment, even if only by osmosis.
Mind you, considering where the process started from (ie, thinking that the Platypus specimen was a hoax), as a society we're making good progress. Politicians are naturally more conservative than the public, and if society hasn't changed yet we can't expect them to.
I thought they were very useful to birds in all sorts of ways? Maybe the ones over here differ from over east.
Timmo makes sense in his post. Councils are improving in environmental awareness overall. Yes gum trees are great but their positioning is important. Besides dropping litter and limbs, their roots can also call problems in confined areas. And they are not particularly good for shading compared to other species, including non-native deciduous trees. Horses for courses. The important thing is to plant trees, preferably in their thousands, instead of covering towns and suburbs in concrete, tiles and bitumen.
I think the native plant people have had a lot of influence with councils for a long time. The fact that things don't get a lot better shows the difficulties with establishing local native plants in nutrient-rich urban habitats. Sure Eucalypts will grow, but these have been shown to be unsuitable for higher density living due to issues such as insect attack, falling trees and limbs, not to mention bushfires. This thread shows that even when councils make a token effort to plant local native street trees they will be criticised. Many local natives will be unsuitable for urban cultivation, the environment has changed too much. You have to take a pragmatic view, rather than wishing for a return to pre-settlement nirvana.
I hold the view that we've destroyed so much of our natural environment that we'll never return to "pre-settlement nirvana". That's a given. But because it's a given it doesn't excuse us from doing what we can to restore what we can. There are councils which have done some good work. But often it's a compromise with, for example, mixed plantings of native & exotic flora. In one town near where I live council has done a marvellous job in establishing indigenous vegetation around an artificial wetland composed of water from sewage treatment & a natural creek line. But right next to sections of the native vegetation are plantings of exotics which cause water putrification & the subsequent death of any remnant native aquatic wildlife in autumn & early winter. So while progress is occuring there's still a long way to go. My deep concern is that so much of our natural environment continues to be compromised at great speed that our slow progress will never catch up. But, as in the issue of "pre-settlement nirvana", that shouldn't stop us from doing what we can as fast as we can.
There are councils which are missing out on or overlooking opportunities for restoration of wildife habitat. Roundabouts could be used to plant indigenous understorey plants which will survive exposed situations as well as hoon drivers. As Tim posted, open spaces could be used much more for the planting of native vegetation. Schools could benefit in a variety of ways from plantings of more indigenous vegetation.
When it comes to war to protect our nation no expense is spared. A critical part of our nation & its economy is our biodiversity. No expense, including the cost of undergrounding powerlines, should be spared to protect that part of our nation. Then we would have less bushfires & more room to plant the appropriate vegetation.
Y.
For Australian birds, natives=life, exotics=death, so do them a favour and go plant some natives and save their lives.
Sorry guys but the native animals that are left would disagree with you if they could talk, they need their homes and food sources back. As for their human counterparts, blah, blah, blah, excuses, excuses, excuses. This is Australia and people need to get used to its nature not the other way round. Cyclones, bushfires, droughts, floods, insect invasions, sand storms ect, ect are all parts of its natural cycles like life and death, they go hand in hand, get used to it and stop trying to change it you'll only make it worse.
For Australian birds, natives=life, exotics=death, so do them a favour and go plant some natives and save their lives.
No one is disagreeing with you Doublebar.
But the ecosystems currently present in Australia are degraded, and no amount of effort will restore them to their previous state. All we can do is attempt to minimise our impact and restore what exists to the best state possible.
Too bloody right Lachlan. It is about time the power industry gave something back to the people it has been ripping off for so long. They need to put some of their mega profits back into their infrastructure by dropping the 100 year old design power poles and digging some ditches. They might create a few jobs while they are at it. (filthy, thieving, fire starting, polluting mongrels)
It's time you stopped holding back, richman. Tell us what you really think! Ah, but your words did me a power of good!
Lachlan, spot on!
Doublebar, that principle of us adapting to Australia rather than vice versa needs to be our guiding light. In the long run we're stuffed without it.