Land clearing for housing: we remove trees at our own peril

How many trees will be lost when thousands of acres are cleared to make way for housing across the Macarthur region in the next 20 years? What has happened in our neighbouring Liverpool could be a guide to our approach. Local resident IAN BAILEY had some radical thoughts on trees when he addressed the council earlier this year:

Given that the Local Government Area of Liverpool has only five percent of the original open and riverine forest left after 206 years of European settlement, it should be absolutely imperative that every tree still in existence be preserved as a “significant tree’’.

We cannot afford to lose one more tree and a determination to urgently plant indigenous species including appropriate understory must be taken.

Each mature tree such as those recently removed at Warwick Farm Racecourse holds hundreds of species of fauna, flora and invertebrates and thousands of individuals, which simply die.

A eucalypt, angophora or Grey Box tree takes 100 to 150 years to develop hollows which can be used as homes by dozens of Australian animals and birds. There are very few such trees left in Liverpool and we are destroying them at an alarming and horrific rate.

Developments such as West Hoxton and Middleton Grange, those under construction like Austral, Cecil Park and Warwick Farm Racecourse or proposed for Liverpool such as Badgerys Creek Airport, a marina and recycler, and an intermodal at Moorebank, represent

tens of thousands of trees lost because this council allows the removal of all vegetation converting forests into deserts.

The idea of offsets or biobanking to counteract lost bushland to development is ludicrous.

There is no way that a 10,000 year old forest can be replaced.

Money put aside to provide a reserve in another part of NSW is just wrong.

Once an area of natural ecosystem is lost, it can never be replaced.

Over many years Liverpool Council have had good intentions but the results are poor.

Mayor George Pacuillo promised almost 20 years ago one million trees for Liverpool.

How many were planted? How many trees are still being removed without replacements as required under regulation?

I submit that trees are vital for our future. The future of mankind.

Trees not only cool the air and keep underground water tables viable, but store carbon and convert carbon dioxide to oxygen.

Open space, naturally forested with Cumberland Plain woodland will ameliorate flood waters that are becoming more frequent and more devastating.

This call is for every tree still standing in the Liverpool Local Government Area to be preserved and an urgent program of plantings to be undertaken.