In article , "George.com"
wrote:

Interesting book I and 3/4 the way through, Collapse - How societies choose
to fail or succeed, Jared Diamond (I can recomend it). There is a chapter on
Aus that is good reading. The chapter is titled "Mining Australia" and says
essentially that for decades ockers have mined not only minerals but also
soil nutrients, timber resources, moisture/water and fishing stocks.

The bit about timber I found expecially interesting. I am aware that Aus
exports timber, we get oz hardwood in NZ for decks and the like. I presumed
that it was from a sustainable resource. According to Diamond this is not
the case.

No. There is surprisingly little sustainably managed timber around. In
Australia, it's plantation radiata and huon pine, according to the Forest
Stewardship Council. These are people who certify sustainable timbers.

The rate of timber growth is slow for you compared to say NZ. Once
a forest is stripped of mature trees the conditions for regrowth is quite
difficult and can lead to the drying out, even desertification, of the soil.
Not sure I will buy any more Aus hardwood if that is the case.

Thanks -- don't.

The trendy timber here atm is "merbau". Changed its name from Pacific Maple,
not that most people know what that is. It's a group of rainforest timbers
from bastions of environmental responsibility like Malaysia and Indonesia!

He reckoned that much of the nutrient value of your bush is held in the
trees themselves. I have understood for a while that your soil is low in
nutrients given its age. It seems the trees store much of the nutrients and
recycle it through the growing cycle as they shed leaves or die and decay.
Once the trees are gone so is much of the nutrient. The trees could curvive
and grow as they existed in a closed cycle with the existing nutrients
recycled many many times. Once the nutrients were stripped away by forestry
there was nowt left in the soil for regrowth. If true, a really fascinating
example of closed cycles in nature and the way ignorant human activity can
destroy it.

Yep, tell us about it. We know it's happening; we just don't know how to stop
them. Apart from by voting green, investing ethically and buying carefully --
but lots of people don't do that.

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Parenthood is like the modern stone washing process for denim jeans. You may
start out crisp, neat and tough, but you end up pale, limp and wrinkled."
Kerry Cue