Living With the Bush

TALKBACK radio should not be the only place informing government policy - why not use the far more considered outcomes of the royal commission? What will become of all the roadside plantings, wildlife corridors and shelter-belts that Landcare groups have worked hard to create? Many of these plantings were taxpayer-subsidised. What about threatened or endangered flora - how will residents know what they are chopping down?

People don't have to remove vegetation but many will. We only have to look at how little remnant vegetation there is in the state and the rate at which it is still disappearing. Our vegetation is already disappearing from the stress of years of drought and increasing urbanisation.

We moved to the bush for its beauty; it is frightening in summer but we can always leave home. These proposed changes risk far too much clearing and it would be far better for properties' clearing needs to be assessed individually. A property in an empty paddock can still burn.

Kirsty Skilbeck, Macedon

The Age, Letters, 8th September 2009.