The following is the text of an article that appeared in a leading Australian newspaper, The Land, which serves that country's rural population. Reprinted with permission. |
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From The Land, October 8, 1981 Lack of tree cover in Australia ‘desperate’ By Kevin Boyle
A man who has spent the majority of his 92 years encouraging people around the world to plant more trees believes the situation in Australia is “desperate.”
Dr. Richard St. Barbe Baker, who in 1922 founded the international Men of the Trees movement, said only about six to seven percent of Australia, outside desert areas, was covered by trees. But the minimum requirement for a continent like Australia was 33 percent. Dr. Baker, who has lived for about 20 years in New Zealand, said the lack of trees in Australia was so serious that the Government should declare a state of emergency and urge people all over the country to plant more trees. He also claimed farmers could double grain yields by devoting about a quarter of their land to tree shelterbelts. As has been shown in Alberta, in Canada, shelterbelts reduced wind speed by a third, encouraged a more humid atmosphere and allowed soil micro-organisms and worms to produce big amounts of manures which acted as natural fertiliser. Dr. Baker said Australia was in urgent need of massive reafforestation programs because the countryside was slowly being “skinned” of its natural tree cover. Tree planting programs could help to stem the spread of deserts in arid areas and in some cases even reclaim desert land for farming. He said the know-how and suitable species of trees was already available for such a project... all that was missing was the political will. Dr. Baker is in Australia to support the UN Association of Australia’s “Year of the Tree” campaign which begins in 1982. He has worked on a number of tree planting projects since he founded the Men of Trees movement in Kenya in 1922. At that time there was major concern over the spread of arid zones in Kenya because of the loss of trees. He said parts of Australia were suffering increasing drought because of indiscriminate logging by the early settlers, and the continued logging of forests ever since. He pointed out that the Sahara was spreading by up to 30 km a year in some areas of its southern borders in Africa as a result of moves to cut forest areas to grow cash crops such as cotton. In Africa, the need to contain the spread of deserts had brought some previously warring countries together in reafforestation work, he said. Dr. Baker also issued a warning over the continuing dustbowl problem in the US, which he described as becoming more serious year by year. He said vast areas of the US could be lost to agriculture with only the eastern and western seaboard areas suitable for crops within the next 15 years. He said China employed about 45 million people in reafforestation work, and Russia also began a big tree planting program employing about six million people after World War II. The US also had similar schemes under President Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930’s, which had been created at Dr. Baker’s suggestion.
On the question of eucalyptus dieback, Dr. Baker said he believed the clear felling of treed areas had reduced water tables which had affected the trees remaining. “Eucalyptus dieback is a direct result of this lowering of the water table and interfering generally with nature,” he said. “We should never clear fell, but take out of the forest what it is capable of regenerating itself,” he added. And his final message: The earth is like a man being slowly skinned. Already about one third of the world is desert and the point of no return will be reached when it is impossible to check their spread.
From The Land, October 8, 1981. [Two photos above added; original photo of Russian shelterbelts unavailable.]
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