Ben Cubby; 22/12/09
New national parks covering more than 70,000 hectares must be created in south-west NSW, and infrastructure built to create artificial floods, if the state’s iconic red gum forests are to survive. A comprehensive new report from the Natural Resources Commission, commissioned by the State Government, calls for a reorganisation of the timber industry in the region. There was not enough water flowing down the Murray River, the report found, and in some areas up to 80 per cent of the red gums across vast swathes of river country were dead or dying. Some areas of forest needed double or even triple the current flows to survive in their current form.
See: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/report-calls-for-logging-shakeup-to-save-gums-20091221-la28.html
Tags: Australia, Environment, Murray-Darling Basin