Up in the air

Good fortune saw me up in the air over the Waituna lagoon earlier today, getting a God's-eye view of the splendor of the lagoon, wetland and stream system and a chance to look for signs of deterioration in the shallow waters. Sadly, some were visible. Traces of algae showed from the height we helicoptered at and the extent of the siltation could be plainly seen. The reasons for it were obvious too, as we swept out over the dairy farms that press up against the fences that keep the cows out of the lagoon. Plain as the green velvet on a billiard table, it was to me. Monocultural thinking and wildly unimaginative land use conspired to create a contrast that could hardly be more marked. The misuse of the peatlands that border the wetland and lagoon, the draining and ploughing, sowing of urea-sucking grass and hammering of hooves on soils that should only bear the weight of birds has ruined the balance that once existed here, throwing the system into crisis. It just seemed so infantile - the squared paddocks, the straight-line drains gouged through the peaty soils and into the gravels beneath, the cows crawling over the green sward like lice...I was not moved romantically by this bucolic scene, more moved to despair.
It got worse when we landed, pulled on waders and got into the waters of the Waituna lagoon. Or rather, the stinking muds. Reeking of sulphides, the bed of the lagoon was more mud-mattress and sign of a sickening eco-system. The seagrasses that should be waving to and fro in the warm waters were thinning dramatically and losing the fight for light to the algae.
The scientists on hand to explain the situation made us feel the slimes, dig into the muck with our hands to get a feel for what was going on and it wasn't a good thing.
*more on the lagoon visit tomorrow