Hi there and welcome to my first Blog on Conservation and Environment.
The website is up and working now so make sure you register and go into the draw to win an iPod nano.
What I am on about is New Zealand.
Aotearoa.
Clean green forests, streams and beaches. Most of us know that is not quite accurate. NZ’s image has taken a beating and will continue to do so while making obscene amounts of money, comes before one of our most precious resources, our country.
I was told by my Grandfather that smart animals don’t shit in their own nest, like pigs for example. We probably think of pigs as dirty mud covered creatures. The truth is though given the right conditions, they will remain very clean.
Humans however are the creators of their own environments and are far dirtier than the messiest pig lying in a mud hole, we aren’t very smart either.
We came to this pristine, unspoilt and beautiful country less than 700 hundred years ago, depending of course of your ethnicity. We brought with us the means of shitting in our nest in the form of rats, either as stow aways or maybe even a food source. This caused the widespread death and destruction of NZ wildlife. Flightless birds that had previously no predators were up against it and numbers in coastal areas quickly dwindled, rats soon spread to all parts of the country and increased in numbers, earlier Polynesian rats were bad enough but upon the arrival of the black ship rat with Europeans this destruction went into high gear.
Those early European sailors also introduced goats to the mix as emergency food sources for shipwreck survivors and later settlers. These animals roamed unchecked across the land, stripping bush and destroying habitats of an already overwhelmed native bird population. These animals were later joined by deer for meat and sport. Early settlers in search of an income and possessing skills from the old country introduced animals to establish a fur trade and brought in ferrets, stoats and maybe the worst of them all, the possum.
These factors combined to form an army of mega proportions that has meant the demise of many NZ native animals and plants. Hard to come back from extinction.
What are we doing about all this? Not enough I reckon.
If you agree let me know, if you don’t tell me why? If you don’t care, then change your bloody attitude!
Till next time
Jeff Cameron
Being new to New Zealand I can really appreciate the natural beauty of the landscape. But I also think many countries in Europe were once like this also until humans took effect. New Zealand really has a chance not to make the mistakes of others and I really hope it doesn't
All that and more, wild pigs are my plague at times, but what really gets me is the rubbish people leave in our bush and beaches, we need to campaign on only leaving your foot prints! i'm sick of bottles and disposable nappies left everywhere, if its not native kill it, if you bring it bloody take it back,it's embarrassing to take visitors on bush walks and our west coast beach.
I have joined the NZ Forest and Bird Society and help out with restoration projects. I also grow plants to attract native birds to my garden and those of my friends. I would love to see a possum bounty in place and believe that it would do more good than 1080 poison. Keep this country clean and green like the blog says
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