Download Millennium Drought and Species Recruitment - TopInfo

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Article for ‘Tatura Guardian’ newspaper.
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Deadline Friday noon.
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Proposed series of articles or opinion pieces laid out in letter format.
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Series: ’In My View’
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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.
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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