Re: Willows for Bank Erosion Prevention
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Re: Willows for Bank Erosion Prevention
- From: J* A* <j*@nemo.mech.eng.usyd.edu.au>
- Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 11:54:52 +1100 (EST)
At 04:43 24/02/99 -0800, you wrote:
>Since riverbanks are their native habitat, it is hard to believe that
>their leaves pollute the water.
Yes, I never heard of this. Willows have been widely used here in eastern
Australia since the last century to deal with creek erosion on cleared
grazing land. Certainly they don't worry the stock, or, in my experience,
the waterbirds. I don't know about the native fishes.
> On the other hand, if S. babylonica is
>not native to Australia, they could conceivably cause other problems -
>such as crowding out trees that are native to AUstralian riverbanks.
Feral willows along rivers in National Parks and similar areas are a
significant problem. The NPWS here in NSW organizes volunteer groups to
spend weekends poisoning them.
>On another note (and mea culpa in advance for going way off topic)- some
>of us americans would not have realized that the aussies had problems
>with homelessness. We have the image of the australian government being
>a lot more people friendly than the US in recent years, social programs
>for the poor and with a thriving economy - sort of like the NOrway of
>the southern hemishpere- all myth?.
Well, it used to be that way (at least to a first approximation, and
provided you kept your eyes shut to the situation of some of our aboriginal
people, which most of us did). However, one thing that IS true about
Australia: whatever you do in the US, one can bet that the government here
(both major parties) will copy it, usually just after you've discovered it
doesn't work. So we get all your problems, just five years later.
As for unemployment, we're running around 8% at the moment, which is
considerably higher than the current US figure. This may be partly due to
the fact that we have a minimum wage which, unlike yours, is high enough to
live on. But that's OK, the current government's got a proposal in the
works to get rid of it.
John.
