Opening Keynote Speech
Global crises can get you down but what happens at home matters, even globally. Caring for land entails caring for biodiversity, which, in turn, can care for the carer. How can the carer implement care it in a spiritually and economically efficient manner?
Recent Tasmanian scientific research suggests that the unpleasantness of killing cats and gorse, two of the major activities in management for nature conservation, is not necessary to maintain native animals and plants. A third major activity, planting trees, can constitute a threatening process for native elements of biodiversity. The biota on your block is largely a result of your management choices, which should be directed mindfully and efficiently towards maintaining the most threatened elements of biodiversity that depend on your place. Choices can be as simple as not using rat poison and allowing your rough bits to evolve to a species-rich tangled wilderness of natives and exotics.