Bushwalk Australia

Interesting article on the ABC talking about the dieback of snow gums due to beetles.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-10/ ... 26128?nw=0

As if the area isn't already under enough pressure.

Makes me think of the effect that the phytophthora cinnamomi infestation (cinnamon fungus) is having on Stringy Barks in areas of the Grampians.

Need solutions more than identifying yet more consequences, but looking for reports here:
https://www.saveoursnowgum.org/?fbclid= ... T6b8HzaopA

I have been watching some of my favourite snowgums die in the last five years. Even though the Logicorn beetle is native, there still maybe some things which can be done to reduce the numbers. The boffins are trying to decide if intervention is appropriate. Spreading the word is helpful. Locating more sites is important.

As if the state of the environment in Australia wasn't depressing enough. When I read these stories I feel like there is an elephant kneeling on my chest. The Australia I leave behind when I die won't be the one I grew up in. God help our children.

Or one monstrous Canary, & yet another coal mine.

I was discussing this around the stove in the hut a short while back and mentioned that over the last few years I've seen fewer and fewer black cockatoos in the high country.
Perhaps the two are linked in some way.

Moondog55 wrote:I was discussing this around the stove in the hut a short while back and mentioned that over the last few years I've seen fewer and fewer black cockatoos in the high country.
Perhaps the two are linked in some way.

Not sure what you mean by fewer and fewer. We see them regularly usually ahead of a storm front.

I used to see lots of them feeding, now I see very few of them in the above snowline areas. Around Anakie VIC I still see dozens and sometimes hundreds flying back to the roosts in Heidelberg around dusk