Cattle overgrazing puts future of finch in doubt

I HAVE read the experts’ report “How to Send a Finch Extinct”.

Greenies didn’t conveniently decide the rare little finch lived at the Adani site – their habitat has plummeted and so have their numbers.

The live export holding facility has not been built, or as yet approved even – but the little band of black-throated finches is the reason for the conditions on dwellings at Oak Valley’s Chisholm Way and if the facility is approved, the second largest population (of 200) is likely to lose their habitat too.

Once they’re gone, or the Carmichael flock of 400, that’s it for the little finch. Too bad we saw it coming. And no, Ken Knuth, while cats are bad, cattle are the cause of the habitat destruction when the finches’ nesting trees are bulldozed for more cattle and their food sources eaten by the same.

A good way to start saving the finches and all those native birds you love is to stop knocking down their homes and feed.

It might surprise Mr Knuth and Debbie Gibson that I think greenies are barking up the wrong tree when it comes to Adani.

So far, the unconstructed mine has not damaged the reef like the decades of sedimentation from land-clearing has.

The unconstructed mine has not ruined waterways draining into the reef like lazy graziers who haven’t fenced off waterways have. Most of our threatened animals are on the threatened species list due to the impacts of agriculture and overgrazing.