Monopolizing forces and how to resist them

A very cursory and incomplete look at Australia, A prefix is used where man has restricted biodiversity by his actions . B is where nature restricts biodiversity by its actions.  

 A1. Broadacre ploughing  
Some wild country is needed to encourage biodiversity in any land system because we don't really know what we are killing when we spray big patches with roundup, simazine or cultivate the broadacre for one plant.

Patchiness, I would suggest, is a good aim for Country whether it involves  private use of farmland or reserve. There are many reasons for this but one of the main reasons is the dominance of fire and the way fire clearing restricts resultant growth - monopolizing by colonizing and determining the resultant regeneration phases. 

Most of the lower half of this photo was originally covered in shrub and forest , The top half , like most of Australia was Savannah type grassland supporting occasional trees. Soils and soil drainage play an important part in the type of original vegetation. 
  



OK its complex 
Say we leave the whole country to nature, Which land systems have been the most vulnerable to monopolizing by man's activity?  Is it Savannah  or Forest cause we don't interfere here in Australia much with Tropical. 
Our foothill forests are like those in other parts of the world- controlled by trees who discourage competition but are decimated by fire,/ lets get real though much of the world is not naturally covered by forests but by grass and heathlands. The focus of the following is on annual plants and our heavy working with them in grasslands , hinterlands and shrublands in those areas. 

So is our clearing of land by nature all bad ?    cf A clearing by man B clearing by fire 
Fire and Light control in a forest greatly limit the potential for biodiversity.   Provided we don't clear great swathes of bush , the increased area of open soil around such forest and cleared patches clearly adds to the potential for both annual and perennial plants to seed or survive ( when not over grazed) and birds and insects to flourish. Aboriginal settlements observed this pattern of land use. 

Even low intensity grazing seems to encourage orchids and monocot grasses like themeda  Too complex a subject for now .

MAJOR IMPACTS  ( just a listing of some ) 
B Acidification of soils . 
B The podzolization  of soils 
B The concreting of soils 
A The increased recycling ability of a fertilized  soil   Ca, P < K and trace elements 


This article is unfinished   but if you would like to ask a question please do 


POSITIVE IMPACTS of man's interference in nature . As most of you know my theme is not to deny that much of mans impact on nature has been damaging. In the face of nature's sensitive processes man has been an ignorant and arrogant brute.
Our problem first. We have no consensus amongst us  In mid 2023 there is no consensus amongst conservationists about the priorities for the future because the issue are complex and political with some people overstating the degradation risks and others overstating the resilience realities- we still know so little . 
My job is ,as always, to call for more research positions for young people to study these things properly. Tell me where it is happening ! 

 The key issue for nature at least is ---In what land systems is irreversible degradation of seed and life sources likely to be still happening.
Reducing man's ignorance and arrogance is on the critical joint ticket.  The unhelpful response of labelling much with a misanthropy brush is not IMO helpful  - important stories for another time. 

A  New types of homes 

1. Corrugated iron 
Our blue tongues have always said thankyou, but increasingly there are others. Corrugated iron can play a crucial and complex role in pioneering and protecting growth after fire. 
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/humble-iron-sheets-a-lifesaver-for-endangered-dunnarts

2. Neighborhood gardens 

Many of our large native animals have been grateful for the patchwork of forest and grass which allows for grassland for food and forest for shelter . Birds and insects the same . 

3. More diverse forests and more diverse grasslands  by Patchwork clearing  . The digestion of grass in the savannah is a prominent force for encouraging growth and stability . As Australia is actually  Savannah , the extending of the grassland and its boundaries with forest has many benefits for biodiversity.   
4 More diverse forests and more diverse grasslands  by leaving Individual trees and plantations . A treeless plain is truly a monopolized landscape.  Clearly we should question if we create more of them . 

Fences the good the bad and the ugly 

MORE COMPLEX QUESTIONS   
Can we , or should we ever return to the past where recycling of scarce nutrients , shorter lifecycles , impeded drainage and fire limited the life to a tighter reign and a much tougher set of species and physical constraints. Let; increase the areas of reserves by studying the need in various land systems. 

Do we really want to restrict all life in Victoria to the limits of leaching ,poor soil drainage  and the ascendancy of ants ( above photo of the healthy tree being eaten and used by ants for home ) 

We still have large areas of untouched reserves in Victoria  See the maps of Victoria before and after  settlement  .
For some reason the map below  doesn't show the large area of native vegetation on the NW border - even now .