W Boyle, Durrumbul
I used to vote Green. Until the cause was hijacked by vainglorious politicians with no interest in genuine green politics. Emotional, reactionary tree-huggers, using environmental goodwill to climb the ego-driven political ladder.
For all you would-be leaders asking for our vote, I have a question: Can we change the official attitude about trees? We live out in the hills surrounded by millions – yes millions – of trees. Most of them weren’t here before we came.
To manage our trees we need firetrails and usable house sites, so occasionally we need to drop some trees. Big deal. Even Council needs to chop down the odd tree. So can we start by changing the title of the job from the emotive Tree Preservation Officer to the more functional Tree Management Officer? It’s time to allow people to reasonably manage rural tree stocks without punitive bureaucratic interference by those who’ve never lived in the bush. So if you’re running for the Greens, don’t just posture about it – offer us some useful strategies to help care for our land.
And while I’m on the subject – Council stopped funding maintenance of the Main Arm Firetrail decades ago. After the wettest two years on record, when the ground dries out there’s the potential for the biggest bushfires since 1947. Hey, councillors – spare a thought for those of us living in the hills – can you please give back our firetrails? Let us live in the bush if we want to.
Our native trees and forests are not ours. They should be left in peace and preserved.
Native trees should be cut only when it is absolutely necessary.
Without proper preservation any idiot could bulldoze or fell trees indiscriminately. That’s not on.
Have you seen the camphor laurel tree and weed infestations over farmland at Montecollum? I am sure that it wouldn’t be the only farmland that has been lost this way. I love trees too, but letting introduced species overrun farmland is not green, it is environmental vandalism as well as undermining our food security as a nation.