Here’s a classic comment on farmers and conservation, written by Mission Beach farmer, Maurice Franklin.
A must-read for anyone who thinks farmers don’t care for the environment and that the natural environment and farming can’t co-exist. And the recent residential development around Mission Beach should give everyone cause for serious thought. Queensland’s wet tropics region is only a tiny percentage of Australia’s land mass, in percentage terms. And this region is spectacularly beautiful with many unique species of plants, animals, insects etc. Many people fall in love with the rainforest and reef while on holidays, then move north and into a freshly erected brick and tile suburban box on land that was not long before either very productively growing food for native animals or food for human beings – or more likely, both, to some degree or another. Typically these houses are surrounded by 6 foot pine fences enclosing lawn, cement slabs, pavers, pebbles and swimming pools – with barely enough room even for a palm tree or two (often not even a native palm, instead something relatively useless for native animals) – and certainly no room for trees.
It’s time everyone acknowledged that urban sprawl is incredibly bad for the environment. There is absolutely nothing good about towns and cities, from an environmental point of view, except that the environmental damage is concentrated in one spot rather than more spread out. If Australian suburban residents have a native plant or two in their own backyards it’s usually happened by sheer accident not by design.
All Australian residential development should be more tightly regulated than is currently the case, to preserve as much of our pristine bush and vital food-producing land as possible. Cities are the most environmentally compromised places on the planet and it’s time they were recognised as such.