“Families are being denied vital contact with nature and its wildlife… Canberra is on its way to becoming a “concrete jungle”!” says former soil scientist and letter writer Dr CHRISTOPHER WATSON. 

TOPSOIL is currently being completely scalped by bulldozers over a large acreage. Organic matter is also decimated, causing carbon dioxide atmospheric emissions. 

The remaining bare soil surface will be further eroded by heavy rain or strong winds over oncoming periods. When building occurs, more trenching follows, often to bedrock, for their concrete foundations.

Dwellings are more invariably built on almost the whole of designated blocks, with most of the remaining soil surface covered with concrete driveways, paths, and artificial lawn. Rainfall then goes into gutters, but not the soil!

Moreover, there is now no chance for trees with canopy for their very significant summer cooling effects, plus no space for gardens. Families are being denied vital contact with nature and its wildlife.

Canberra is on its way to becoming a “concrete jungle”! 

Residents will not then realise that soil, with its biodiverse microbes and insects, as well as supplying nutrients for one’s food, will continue to be decimated.

It is urgent that we have legislated requirements to retain a reasonable area of undisturbed soil with no impervious cover around all dwellings (houses and apartments); an immediate need in new developments is to prohibit any initial “butchering” of square kilometres of soil.

Sadly, we still await compulsory standards for all building to be orientated to the north with good insulation.

Dr Christopher Watson (retired soil scientist), Latham

Show some backbone – and policies

SOMEONE please correct me if I am wrong, but it would appear that The Canberra Liberals are once again relying on the discontent of Canberrans with the current Labor/Green government to win the election next year.

I have seen neither hide nor hair from them, apart from leader Elizabeth Lee gracing the cover of “CityNews” with a new baby and a couple of posters of Ed Cocks dotted around Woden area in recent months. Is this the Liberals “campaigning”? Canberra is surely doomed.

They are in a prime position to win the next election. They need to start showing some backbone… and some policies would be nice as well.

Rebecca Henson, Hughes

Good riddance to creepy bogong moths

I, FOR one, do not miss the bogongs (“What’s gone wrong for the bogongs?”, CN May 25). They are horrid, creepy creatures. 

Maybe their decline is evolutionary, like a number of animals, sea creatures, birds and bugs, they come and go. Some are wiped out, such as dinosaurs, some by being eaten by their predators, some by human intervention and some by natural attrition. 

If every form of life kept breeding and not dying out for one reason or another, the world would be overrun. Can you imagine if the moths had kept breeding, how many there would be now? All I can say is thank goodness they have gone, and do not waste the $1 million on researching them.

Vi Evans via email

More aged-care scrutiny needed 

THE federal government would be relieved that it mostly kept the lid on failings in residential dementia care from bursting forth when the media focus on a recent NSW police call out to Yallambee Lodge aged-care facility in Cooma centred on the police interaction with a resident at 4 am.

More honesty and openness is now needed from the federal government about what is and is not working for those with advanced dementia in residential care, and whether regulatory surveillance processes are adequate and sufficiently informative about facilities’ preparedness and operations. 

The government should also clarify how its recent visa changes will provide improved on-site management of dementia residents 24/7 plus ensure safeguard measures are in place to protect them and other residents . 

To attract more overseas nationals to aged-care sector work, some more Commonwealth “carrots” are now on offer. English language requirements have been lowered even more, apparently below those needed for basic VET level study, and after doing a six-week course in aged care and two years on the job, the new arrivals can be fast tracked for permanent residency.

To prevent the many embedded cracks in aged care turning into large crevices, this policy initiative and the trainee selection need to be carefully monitored and evaluated.

It is not clear how those with the lower-level English skills will be able to handle what presumably is an intensive, general aged-care course, and any dementia management training. 

All front-line aged-care staff should be expected to be able to engage and communicate clearly and easily with elderly residents, particularly those with deteriorating brain and body functioning, loss of inhibitions, and suffering a worsening and scary loss of awareness of the world around them.

Sue Dyer, Downer 

Kangaroo cull affects hundreds of plants

I WOULD like to highlight my concerns regarding the policy adopted by successive ACT Labor governments of annually culling Eastern Grey Kangaroos in and around the nature reserves.

Their rationale for allowing this is based on three factors, one protecting threatened species the Grassland Earless Dragon, Striped LeglessLlizard, Pink Tailed Worm Lizard, Perunga Grasshopper, Hooded Robin and Brown Tree Creeper. 

The second is that a grassy layer between five and 15 centimetres be intact to support these threatened species.

The third is limiting the number of kangaroos to around one per hectare. What is most worrying about this approach is the failure to monitor what effect this has on the hundreds of plants that coexist within the reserves, the small delicate plants, in particular lilies, orchids and a variety of various forbs, and herbs too numerous to list. 

Their existence is dependent on several factors including the amount of annual rainfall, the amount of light and space they need to enable them to flourish.

It appears no effort has been made by ecologists and the Conservator of Flora and Fauna to understand the impact of their actions on these plants and no plant surveys have been conducted, either. 

It is amazing that after a fire many small plants that have not been seen for years suddenly flower profusely. Sure, it could be a result of more carbon in the soil or seeds needing heat for germination, but equally it can be because they have plenty of room and plenty of light.

As vegetation recovers, particularly grass and shrubs, the space and light for these plants diminishes and they slowly disappear in quantity.

This is why it is so important to ensure continuous grazing of kangaroos to help keep the grasses low and allow these numerous, small, native plants to thrive and flower. 

Another overlooked problem is the impact of invasive weeds, not only on these native forbs but on the reptiles, birds, insects and mammals.

It is evident for years now that very little effort, resources and interest has been shown by the managers of the reserves to control weeds, foxes and rabbits or for that matter conduct any analysis or studies to assess the impact invasive weeds have on flora and fauna.

Julie Lindner, Farrer 

PM has the cart before the horse

I THANK Mr Eric Hunter for his letter (CN June 1) in which he takes me to task for expressing reasons to vote “No” on the Voice, after a great deal of my research and analysis into the pros and cons of the Voice debate.

Also pleasing, is to see Mr Hunter agreeing to my contention that a “Yes” vote on the Voice boils down to just “the right thing to do”, that “there is nothing to see here” in respect of the Voice being justiciable.

Potential “Yes” voters should do their homework and think with their heads instead of with their hearts or by blindly following the PM’s lead.

The PM is actually on a tiger’s back of his own doing, but does not know how to get off. One way would be to legislate first then think about a referendum. 

As is often the case in politics, the cart is before the horse.

 Max Flint, principal, Australian Logistics Study Centre

Consider both sides to the story

IN his letter attacking the Albanese government (CN May 31), Ian Pilsner makes several highly contestable statements. For example, he cites the “election promise that (Labor) would reduce our energy bills by $275 (a year)”, and conveniently overlooks the big gas companies’ exporting most of the natural gas extracted from this land and charging excessive prices for what they deign to sell to eastern Australians.

Mr Pilsner sings the praises of former PM Tony Abbott, but overlooks the fact that he broke almost all of his election promises: “no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST (a legacy of John Howard), no cuts to the ABC or SBS”. Only the GST was left untouched.

Abbott also deliberately downgraded the Rudd government’s fibre-to-the-premises NBN to the much inferior and troublesome fibre-to-the node. 

The final straw for voters was when Abbott’s Treasurer Joe Hockey brought down “the budget from hell”. Abbott lost the prime ministership to Malcolm Turnbull, then lost his own seat to Zali Steggall when Labor won the election on May 18, 2019.

Mr Pilsner should consider both sides of the story.

Dr Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin