Banjo, "Some 'greenie' councils have stopped firewood gathering from roadsides which adds to the hazard"

Western Australia would take the prize for over-zealousness.

What irritates farmers are the lunatic bans preventing farmers from slashing and so on to reduce the fuel along fences bordered by roads.

Is Mise,

An interesting article, thank you.

Dear David,

<<Habitat destruction is the chief cause of species extinction.>>

So your priority is to preserve all species even if it means that your home will burn down with everything you have inside, including those sentimental and otherwise things that no insurance can replace.

Or is this priority of yours only in regards to other people's houses?

People should be able to exercise their priorities on their own land: if yours is to preserve more species than by all means do so - on yours.

Dear Yuyutsu,

I am asking people to think of the consequences resulting from where they put their homes. I am asking people to go easy on destruction of nature. I am asking people to think of the consequences of their actions. I don't think we should be free to do what we want regardless of how much damage we do not only to other humans but also to other species and the general environment.

You wrote: "People should be able to exercise their priorities on their own land: if yours is to preserve more species than by all means do so - on yours."

There are laws restricting what people can do on their own land. People are not free to dump noxious materials in a stream running through their property, to clear forest land without a permit or to do other things on land even if it is our own. The reason is that what we do on our property can affect others.

We cannot operate on the basis, "I'm all right, Jack. To hell with everybody else."

When I was growing up in the Victorian Western districts I spent quite a few springs out on the back of the local brigade truck conducting roadside burns. Back then the done thing was for the farmer to have plowed a run next to his fence as part of his contribution to the break, and there was a lot of mutterings on the truck about 'the slack bastard' if we came to a section that was not done. Thankfully there were very few of them.

Now-a-days it seems none of them do it. Either too bloody tight to spend the diesel or wanting to crop every last inch.

I would love to see it made mandatory.

Dear David,

<<There are laws restricting what people can do on their own land>>

Anyone who isn't blind knows that, but it's an Argumentum ad baculum.
Other places have laws saying that a woman may not go outside unless fully covered and accompanied by a male relative - it proves nothing about right and wrong!

<<The reason is that what we do on our property can affect others>>

Dumping noxious materials in a stream that flows to other properties can actively and adversely affect others, real others, thus is immoral. Whether it is also happens to be illegal I care not of.

Clearing one's own forest land (and especially when those trees are replaced with fruit trees), does not meet that criterion and in any case, how could a piece of paper called "permit" make a difference whether a particular act is harmful or otherwise?

You could obviously claim that everything we do affects everyone else, concluding that we should not be free to scratch our nose without a permit from "those who know". You may note from chaos-theory that scratching our nose could cause a typhoon - or also prevent a typhoon: could your omniscient government tell which will actually result?

How more so when the "affected others" do not even exist!
The claim against cutting down forests is of protecting those generations yet to come: well why ought they come in the first place? This is not a necessity, this is only a DESIRE, an AMBITION that some people harbour to see their progeny last long after they die (including biological, cultural and intellectual progeny). What the state is saying here is that you who owns land must sacrifice your desires, forego your comfort on your land and in this particular case even live in constant fear of fire under the significant risk of losing all you have, all for the desires of others. How odd!