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Article for ‘Tatura Guardian’ newspaper. Deadline Friday noon. Proposed series of articles or opinion pieces laid out in letter format. Series: ’In My View’ Author: Kevin Linton. Partner at consulting business ‘TopInfo’ based in the township of Tatura that deals with Information and Troubleshooting for those that require it. Article title: The Millennium Drought and Species Recruitment. The Millennium Drought and Species Recruitment The last drought that occurred throughout Australia lasted about 12 years and has been labelled the Millennium Drought. The drought heralded many changes for Australians. As the water resources dried up there was increasing demand for redistribution of this resource, European trees died and soils turned to dust, but many of our native species also suffered, becoming fewer in number to the point that many environmentalists feared that many populations would not recover and these once plentiful species of birds and marsupials would remain forever few in number, vulnerable and perhaps at risk of extinction. In other words, population recruitment would remain low. Well known environmentalists, Tim Flannery and Richard Smith stood on fairly solid ground when they indicated that this was the history of extinction in Australia; that is, dwindling populations under stress, then environmental or habitat change, pushing what was once a healthy population over the edge; never to recover. A sobering sentiment for any environmentalist, or even, concerned Australian. In some areas of marsupial and plant loss, Australia’s track record in the last 225 years is abysmal. Actually, most Australians would not recognise the environment in South Eastern Australia 220 years ago. We had extensive woodland of eucalyptus species and grasslands of Kangaroo, Wallaby and other native grass species, saltbush and a number of smaller marsupial wallabies that served as primary food source to the Aboriginal peoples. These species were all gone, most extinct, after as little as 20-30 years after Europeans settled the area. This was not primarily because of the settlers, but rather as a consequence of human intervention such as timber cutting, land clearing, foxes, cats, pigs, rabbits, goats, camels and domesticated animals such as sheep and cattle. All have ‘played a role’, but many of the native species would have survived if it had not been for the grazing and hunting pressures exerted during periods of drought. Australian plant species could not survive heavy grazing and many marsupials had never experienced predation on the scale that foxes and cats wrought. Even in 2012 a bounty introduced on fox scalps for six months yielded 12,000 scalps in the Shepparton area and another 13,000 in the Bendigo area. Such numbers mean 100,000+ birds and animals fall victim to predation every few months or so. Many native species, just did not recover after such extreme events (drought) which is usually considered completely normal without the extra predation pressure. If you like, it is a combination of natural events and human induced pressure, a very deadly combination of events and we have a record number of extinctions to prove it. In many ways plants are more resilient than birds or animals, as they have tiny time capsules called seeds that can survive generations without germination. Even so, they must germinate and if they do not progress to adulthood, reproduce, set seed and recruit to the population, the population will eventually perish. Surprisingly, many of our endangered species are now plants as cultivation and grazing prevent recruitment. Many species in Victoria cling to existence in three or four pockets of no more than several square meters apiece. Now drought is common in Australia, a continuing occurrence. Our climate is one of the most variable in the world and Australian’s have strived for generations to ‘drought proof’ themselves from its ravages. Sidney Kidman (the cattle king) thought he had succeeded with a network of cattle properties across Australia and irrigation areas in NSW and Victoria have all helped, but eventually everything succumbs to the grip of the longer droughts. Agriculture in Australia is at best, opportunistic in most areas of the country. The often quoted example of early settlers moving into the Flinders Rangers of South Australia during the ‘good years’, building houses believing the good times to be with them forever. However, the seasons and years changed to drought and now this area has not been farmed seriously for over 130 years. Too dry, too marginal to even make a living. The interesting thing about extinction, is that another species takes the originals position, or one species can take several species place, rarely is there a complete void. In some cases, as in ‘rich’ environmental areas as rain forest, the extensive network of interconnected species is such, the magnificence of diversity can be destroyed. I have heard recordings in such areas before and after impacts such as logging (science of Audiophonics) and can report that 90% of species can be removed with some impacts. As people we have five senses and some say six. I am in favour of using smell, taste, touch, hearing and sight to assess the environment. It is blatantly obvious to me that most people do not know what they have lost because they either, did not know what was there is in the first place or it is beyond human memory to do so. For example, did you know that in the Tatura area 90% and in most cases 98% of all species found have been introduced. This is pure ignorance! For this reason I support the formation of Total Exclusion Areas (TEA’s) as these will allow us to know what we may lose if we are not careful. I believe it would be a tragedy to not know what we have lost, before it is gone as we will be forever poorer. As mentioned, many environmentalists were getting exceptionally nervous about the dwindling number of bird and animal species, habitat and breeding sites. The millennium drought meant there were large reductions in numbers due to attrition. Individuals just died and recruitment did not occur as there were no breeding cycles. Drought is a natural occurrence in the Australian Landscape, although sometimes less sever it is pretty regular. To human’s, it greatly inconveniences us and at times, we ‘ring our hands in despair’, but it is almost cathartic to the environment. In some respects it clears the ‘countries soul’ (wipes clean the excesses of Europeans) and when it rains, it floods. The rivers flow and there is a huge blossoming of the environment. When the drought breaks, vegetation, rivers, wildlife…all explode into life. In my view, this vast magical land still holds many untold secrets; if we allow it to do so ‘the country’ will recover, and beautifully so. Richard Smith, Tim Flannery and others were generally overwhelmed at the rate of environmental recovery, after the ‘drought broke’, but there is always the possibility that ‘the next one’ will be longer and harsher, after all, we have only been here for 220 years…and then there’s climate change. Kevin Linton