Bellingen Update in two parts:
Part 1
#Bellingen has been undergoing radical road widening and "Panic logging” for many months. A desperate attempt to convert narrow, windy and sloping forest roads into a wide and straight 'highway' to suit heavy road trains and extraction machinery. The new all-season road will enhance #deforestation and the flow of motorised tourists. It is said. The nexus #GlenifferRd and #RosesRoad and are being worked on most intensively with #Fossilfuel and a generous amount of a tar-like substance.

On some roads the shoulders are shaved of all vegetation to widen it by 2-3 m on either side. This is supposed to convey the illusion that the road is very wide. On others, bulldozers push the 'dirt' and vegetation (and its habitants) down the 'ditch' (Bellinger River or small creeks) Decorative small sandbags are placed sparingly apparently as #SiltControl. The recent rain makes the slimy bare red soil run off, #erosion and #weeds will follow with a vengeance. This is fossil fuel landscaping at its finest. Matting or replanting seems not in sight. Weeds love this disturbed area.

For road users and residents this intensification means detours, various traffic lights, diesel generators, heavy diesel machinery, blockages of the existing rural roads for months and months. Dump trucks and bulldozers add to the ambient #pollution of the air, soil, aquatic systems and living entities.
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