Australia's Iconic Gum Trees Dying As Seedlings Fail To Revegetate - Guardian

[hatrack]

The iconic gum trees that dot Australia's paddocks are dying. Millions of hectares of tree-studded farmland could end up as bare plains because of poor farming practices, researchers have found.

Researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) measured the diameters of thousands of NSW "paddock trees" to estimate their ages. They found many were more than 140 years old, but there was an unnaturally small number of young trees.

ANU ecologist Joern Fischer said this was because sheep and cattle nibbled or trampled tree seedlings. The overuse of fertilisers, particularly superphosphates, contributed because it allowed introduced grass species to thrive.

Dr Fischer said gum trees were vanishing from the farming landscape as the old ones died off. "In our lifetime, we'll already see a very different landscape," he said. "When you drive through there in 30 years from now, you would have a lot more dead trees standing up, or just not being there any more."

EDIT

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/times-up-for-iconic-gum-trees-20090602-bu40.html

[kestrel91316]

1. They can always come get some of ours here in CA. They are a plague

and a fire danger.