After a while and some further climbing, we passed the wooded area and emerged into a meadow. Unlike #Dartmoor, which is home to both #cattle and #sheep, there only seem to be #sheep being reared in #Exmoor. Here, we see a group of #lambs feeding in the field, along with some adult sheep.

Day 14

“Nearly 2m hectares of #forests suitable for endangered koalas have been destroyed since the iconic species was declared a #ThreatenedSpecies in 2011, according to analysis for Guardian Australia.

The scale of #habitat #destruction in #Queensland and #NewSouthWales – states in which the koala is formally recognised as being at risk of #extinction – has continued despite political promises it would be protected.

Analysis by the #AustralianConservationFoundation using state and federal government #data found 1,964,200 hectares of #koala habitat were cleared between 2012 and 2021, the latest year for which there was complete data.

The total amount of destroyed forest and bush covered an area larger than greater Sydney, taking in the #BlueMountains, the #Illawarra, the southern highlands and the #Goulburn and #Shoalhaven regions.

It is more than 10 times larger than the area the #NSW government is assessing for a possible “great koala national park”. But most of the cleared area – 81% – was in Queensland.

About three-quarters of the lost forest is estimated to have been cleared for agriculture, to create #cattle pasture and #crop fields. The analysis found 13% was removed by the #forestry industry and 5% for development of infrastructure, including #mining. Just 4% was likely due to natural causes, such as bushfire and drought.”

There’s a reason the Minister for the Environment has been kept quiet.

#Auspol / #Labor / #Straya / #ClimateExtinction <https://theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/apr/12/koala-habitat-destroyed-since-2011-analysis>

@saltphoenix @BroGle demand and prices for #seed up. #Fertilizer prices through the roof. Limit planting to conservation planting, rotate #cattle through on most marginal #land. Grow #soil health this year and Improve herd #health. Cull marginal cattle with health and genetic issues early this year before #avianflu and economic s**t hits big mid year. Cattle prices high now.
#USDA numbers say corn acres are going up? Data going dark, too.

Grow sunflowers

“If there's no funding," Bart Fisher, who sits on the board of the Palo Verde #Irrigation District in #California said, "there will be no #conservation."

#Farmers in Palo Verde use #ColoradoRiver #water to grow #cattle feed & #vegetables in the desert along the Arizona border. Fisher said they want to be active participants in protecting the river, but they stand to lose money if they use less water & grow fewer crops.

@kityates we must close the borders for #usa #meat and #cattle right away @EUCommission #eu #europe #birdflu #vogelgriep

@maugendre @histodon

Indeed USA and Brazil were built by destroying pre-Encounter @ecology

"Successful colonization of New England depended heavily on domestic animals. […]

"At least at first, friction between these unlikely neighbors grew less from the very different ideas that informed Indian and English concepts of property than from the behavior of livestock. Let loose to forage in the woods, the animals wandered away from English towns into Indian cornfields, ate their fill, and moved on."

Historian Virginia Anderson in her book "King Philip's Herds: Indians, colonists, and the problem of livestock in early New England" https://feralatlas.supdigital.org/?cd=true&bdtext=feral-atlas-and-the-more-than-human-anthropocene&rr=true&cdex=true&text=fq-creatures-of-conquest&ttype=essay