A dumb place? Replanting of dead trees, WA

Keepleft · 26-11-2011, 06:37 PM

http://junkscience.com/2011/11/22/bo...sies-are-dumb/

Contractors must need annual funds.

Jim Goose · 26-11-2011, 06:47 PM

There will no doubt be something behind this.... but on the face of it, it seems like another waste of tax payer money?

Council here have after cyclone Yasi wasted millions on shoddy road repairs only to dig it all up later and redo the entire road.

Alas council has subcontracted out ALLLLL ROAD REPAIRS to a large Australian company, who then subcontracted out the work to every man and his dog.

One road nearby had the pot holes fixed up at least 3 times in 3 months during heavy rain. Later large patches of road was dug up and the road base relaid. However these long patches werent very smooth afterwards. 3 months later the same road was completely dug up!

I watched repairers dig up and patch a pot hole. About a 2m by 4 m section.
2 days later... contractors back again dug up the same section and relaid the bitumen. Lord knows why.

A main road nearby had a section of road dug up and relaid 2 yrs ago, the rest of which was in extremly poor condition. This newish section has again been dug up and is about to be relaid.

Councils have gotten into the public service habbit of blowing good money after bad much to determent of everyone else...

**Polyal** · 26-11-2011, 07:23 PM

Isnt council spending (and govco) in that ridiculous situation that if they dont spend their allotted budget then the next years gets cut a little? Or something to that effect?

**cs123** · 27-11-2011, 12:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polyal

Isnt council spending (and govco) in that ridiculous situation that if they dont spend their allotted budget then the next years gets cut a little? Or something to that effect?

That isn't just a govt thing. Private companies work that way too. If you have a Opex budget and don't spend it, you loose it.

DoreSlamR · 26-11-2011, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keepleft

http://junkscience.com/2011/11/22/bo...sies-are-dumb/

Contractors must need annual funds.

Possums, birds and lizards need dead, hollow trees to use as homes, at least, this is the explanation for it.

Also, this is in South Australia, not WA...

http://www.borderonline.com.au/?p=7227

Serial_Fool · 26-11-2011, 10:56 PM

We should be glad, according to Keynesian theory this increases GDP and economic activity!

chamb0 · 27-11-2011, 12:23 AM

I work in a Victorian national park, and large old trees (dead or alive), particularly those with hollows, are absolutely worth their weight in gold when it comes to wildlife habitat. Only old trees produce hollows and they provide absolutely essential refuge for various birds, mammals and reptiles that no amount of younger trees can. As for being a dumb place, well roadside reserves are surprisingly ecologically valuable places, especially in cleared rural areas, as they are long corridors often with a good array of native grasses and shrubs that these can tie in with. After spending $1million on removing trees for road safety, in my opinion this relatively small $20k project is doing the best with what they've got and putting the discarded material to use.

After our area here was fire-affected in the feb 2009 fires, a lot of road side clearing & trimming of trees occurred, and some of the material went on to be successfully put to good use as refuge material for the threatened white footed dunnart (a small carnivorous marsupial). Hope this help makes sense, this is not as dumb an idea as the article would suggest!