Photograph showing Federal Member for Page, Janelle Saffin, with Big Scrub Landcare Group chairman, Dr Tony Parkes, in regenerated lowland subtropical rainforest at Binna Burra.The Northern Star reported last Monday:
THE TREES towering over Dr Tony Parkes are only 16 years old, yet they show what is possible when the Big Scrub Landcare Group decides to regenerate a forest.
Now it has bigger, more ambitious plans.
The environmental group, whose myriad partners include Rous Water and every local council from the Clarence to the Tweed, has just won a $369,000 Federal Government grant to rehabilitate some of the most significant lowland rainforest remnants in the country.
“Some of the vegetation around here is 20-odd million years old, and can trace its genesis back to 100 million years ago,” Dr Parkes said. “We are dealing with a very ancient rainforest that has evolved over time.”
The Member for Page has had a charmed year in the local media and is held in high esteem by many in local communities and groups which have benefited this year from Federal Labor funding.
However, when push comes to shove in 2009 and informed policy accompanied by firm action is urgently required on climate change, water security, the environment and human rights; Ms. Saffin may have to work harder to retain that political honeymoon mood within an electorate which cannot be brought.
