Are Eucalypts Weeds? Peter Andrews.

[Murray]

For many years they’ve been seen as a symbol of pride in Australia. Expatriate writers in the 50’s and 60’s would write about returning to Sydney by ship and about being greeted by the smell of wafting gum tree leaves as they waxed lyrical about the nostalgia they felt for home.
Authorities still plant them everywhere. In parks, next to footpaths, street corners, new housing development estates, Eucalypts are as Australian as the Emu and the Kangaroo. They are seen nearly everywhere and nobody seems to take them as a threat in Australia.

But should Eucalypts be re-examined as a noxious weed?

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See more clips about Peter Andrews here. http://www.ecofilms.com.au/?tag=natural-sequence-farming

[iain]

Peter Andrews should be made federal environment minister. A guy that calls it the way he sees it - and has more environmental knowledge than all of Canberra's MPs put together.

[RupertofOZ]

Hear, hear... ;)

[dufflight]

I've got a Eucalypt in the backyard that I rim barked over 2 years ago and injected with straight roundup. The bark grew back over the 100mm section that I cut around the tree. :evil:



Planted some Paulownia's that were on the noxious weed list but was taken off due to there benefits to the environment.

[fishfood]

Copper nails

[Castaway]

FF have you ever used copper nails on a tree? My neighbour gave me some copper nails ages ago from his boat-building days especially for this purpose. I've never used them. Looking around the internet - the copper nails story is said to be a myth. Tree surgeons say it has no effect...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueri ... 47,00.html (http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-2347,00.html)
Only one way to find out I guess...but I do like this guy's response who wrote "THIS MAY be true if the piece of copper is the shape and size of a big axe!" :D

[fishfood]

No i havent but will let you know in a few months theres a big one out the back :shock:
Or i can get my hands on some 245d [agent orange ] :oops:

[dufflight]

I'm trying a chainsaw next. :twisted: Then but a hot compost pile over the trunk to rot it down.

[Castaway]

A big industrial mulcher would be good. Compost the lot and make some good soil.

[fishfood]

The shire put in a fire break behind here last week there was a big tree near my back fence [was :oops: ] 22 ton excavator with a grab 20 seconds

[Castaway]

Yes they are powerful things. Best time to cut trees down is during a bushfire. We had a bushfire near my home. A big fire front threatened houses in our street. Our friend up the road grabbed his chainsaw and got to work on a vacant block next to his covered in Eucalypts, Down they went, He got instant permission from the local fire chief. Snap decision made. Trees went down. No problem. The sound of chain-saws echoed through the valley.Try doing that with the local council next time when there's no threat to your home...

[Ben]

Never heard of this bloke before... Can see where he is coming from about the eucalypts poisoning the water, but if we let our rivers run and did not put weirs and dams up there would not be half the issues that he discusses (particularly in the Murray River).

This bloke can go camp with Clive Blazey from the Diggers Club, all of these eucalypts are getting in the way of their great gardening ambitions.
Nature is a far bigger and more complex system than humans can imagine, humans need to get over themselves and realise that the earth is not going to "change" for them or by their actions (including "human induced global warming").

Personally I would rather look at a forest of eucalypts than "anything that is not a eucalypt"...

[RupertofOZ]

Ben if you research the work Peter Andrews does, and his theories... especially related to water resources, waterways and natural fertility...

You might find that your views are a lot more similar than you might think... ;)

http://www.naturalsequencefarming.com/

http://www.nsfarming.com/principles.html

http://www.fromthesoilup.com.au/agricul ... ce-farming (http://www.fromthesoilup.com.au/agriculture/natural-sequence-farming)

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1925553.htm

Once dismissed as a "crackpot".... he now works in association with many emminent scientists and agricultural & pastoral groups...

If you can... get hold of his book "'Back from the Brink"... and his latest one "'Beyond the Brink"