Half of Australia Still Wilderness

Technocrat

Half of Australia Still Wilderness

zogger

Thu Aug 28 18:50:00 -0700 2008

Environment.

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A joint environmental organizational study has looked at Australia and land use and found that it still has almost half of its land area as wilderness. This ranks them in the top tier of still remaining global wilderness areas, with Canada's north, the Sahara, parts of the Amazon basin and Antarctica at the very top. The study also cautions that this could be endangered if it isn't managed correctly, and notes the pervasive destructiveness of certain invasive species.

However, the study also found that the wilderness regions of Australia face serious threats, including from feral animals such as pigs and foxes and invasive weeds, which are degrading the environmental quality of the country and are causing well-documented losses of habitat and wildlife. The report also found that it was important to manage wildfires to ensure healthy habitat.

Most of Australia Still Wilderness

Michael Smith

Thu Aug 28 19:31:24 -0700 2008
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The bigger bits of Australia which they are counting as not wilderness are probably huge cattle stations in the outback, each bigger than some European countries. These places are effectively wilderness anyway. Very rarely would you see a farm animal and you would probably never see a farmer.

And our wilderness is a lot more like the Sahara than the Amazon basin. This country is really a big flat sand bank. When I go to other countries I am always struck by the amount of rock and the amount of elevation. It is quite uncommon here.

Most of our rock eroded away billions of years ago. And yes, feral animals are a huge problem. The cane toads are still creeping south and west.