In a recent article about Craig Huff he spoke about commercialising the harvest of camphor laurel trees using commercial operators to remove the trees, creating economic activity etc.
However, if camphor was to be eradicated in Burringbar there would be simply nothing left except bare hills. In the early days of settlement clearing was almost mandatory, being done on a mindless scale; early photos clearly show the devastation – dairy farmers, banana plantations, huge areas for hardwood timber for railway bridges and sleepers, the enormous red cedar and rosewood trees etc – all chopped down and sent to Sydney.
So camphor sprouted up. Like it or not it offers shade, helps stabilise creek banks, slows down growth of noxious weeds under its canopy, and sucks up carbon dioxide. Yes, weeds are a prolific problem in the Northern Rivers, none more so than Singapore daisy, now everywhere, and include lantana, crofton weed, Devil’s fig, all sorts of grasses – the list is endless. The thought of clearing land of camphor, inevitably using large machinery for road and housing development, for more population, to me would be a shame.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
