Arboretum half-baked
Following the revelation that at least a quarter of the new Arboretum's famed Wollemi Pine plantation is dying, ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey has questioned the management of the whole project.
"Planting a whole bunch of shade loving Wollemi Pines on a hot dry hill in a drought never seemed like a good idea to me" Dr Foskey said today.
"When I asked questions of the Chief Minister last year he reassured me that the watering system for the Arboretum was top class."
"In answer to another question, the Chief Minister informed me early in February that 95% of the trees were alive and well. It would appear that he hadn't looked or didn't want Canberra people to know what was really happening to them."
"?Perhaps it is time to reconsider the whole Arboretum idea. Its plan of 100 rectangular forests of non-local species is ill conceived and inappropriate for that site. Restoration of red gum yellow box grassy woodland over time might come out cheaper and be less embarrassing."
"There is also the larger question of managing the former pine plantation sites in the ACT. Dairy Farmers' Hill, where the Arboretum is planned, would be a perfect trial site."
"Finally, it would make much more sense to reallocate the Arboretum's resources to the Australian National Botanic Gardens so we could have a thriving world class collection of native trees, bushes and grasses, rather than one suffering from inadequate resources and the other failing because it was ill-conceived from the first."
"A strategic investment in the Gardens by the ACT Government would deliver a better result than an arboretum project which it seems is half-baked" Dr Foskey said.
