"European settlement had a big effect on creeks and rivers, we’ve often used them as convenient waste dumps. Pump industrial waste, chemicals or sewage into them and watch it float away. Once we might have thought “problem solved”. Now we know differently. Treating rivers as dumps can (unsurprisingly) damage or even wipe out the life in it."
https://theconversation.com/many-urban-waterways-were-once-waste-dumps-restoration-efforts-have-made-great-strides-but-theres-more-to-do-to-bring-nature-back-206407

Bellinger River Rehabilitation Project
https://www.bellingerlandcare.org.au/current-projects/upper-bellinger-river-aquatic-and-terrestrial-habitat-connections/
#water #rivers #RiverCare #pollution #waste #restoration #platypus #BellingerRiverSnappingTurtle #biodiversity

Bellingen Update in two parts:
Part 2/2
The increased human encroachment on living beings 'out there' in the bush consitutes an existential threat. The vehicular disturbance of noise, light and vibrations from vehicles causes stress and alters their behaviour. Road noise and/or vibration is believed to disrupt communication in birds. Motor noise is audible over 200m penetrating the environment. Species adjacent to roads flee the area.
The fragmentation of their home or loss of habitat can put yet another species on the extinction list. Survivors have a bigger chance to get under someone's wheels as #roadkill.

The once closed canopy above some roads gave the koalas some connectivity. The new widening does not provide any canopy bridges. A good way to undo the NSW #koala strategy.

In #Bellingen town the many logging trucks and heavy machinery shooting through the blissful latte strip of #HydeSt. go unnoticed. The surrounding #forests with their inhabitants are perceived as mere material for economic #Exploitation. #Deforestation, #BiodiversityLoss, Extinctions and #Climate disruption are not yet on/at the level of the military dictatorships of the Amazon or Myanmar, but one has to keep up with the neighbours.

The Sisyphus 'highway to hell' is paving the way to go past the 1.5C threshold. 'Upgraded' roads speed up the destruction and extraction. A hotter, dryer climate will invite more mega #fires. It's the fast-track towards extinction.

#BellingenLogging #PanicLogging #River #care #NorthBankRoad #BellingenShireCouncil #NoFootpaths ##NoBikePaths #Mobility #Bushfires #GKNP #Biodiversity #Runoff #Platypus #BellingerRiverSnappingTurtle