Growing Rainforests in Australia and Keeping an Eye on BC Fish Farms
A variety of concerns have been raised over fish farms, from their use of pesticides and antibiotics to their potential to spread disease to wild fish. Today we speak to Randy Christensen, a lawyer with EcoJustice, about problems with government monitoring of fish farms and what he’d like to see done. Then we go all the way to Australia for an interview with Jim Tedder to hear about the work he’s been doing to begin re-establishing rainforests in areas of the country that have been logged. And of course we kick things off with a wrap up of the week’s news headlines.
Picture Courtesy of the BC Salmon Farmers Association
Environmental News Headlines
Geoengineering: The solution to Climate Change?
American “Listen and Learn” on the Canadian tar sands
-Environmental Defense Response
Water Problems in the Town of Raymond and New Dayton, Alberta
Randy Christensen on Salmon Farming
For years there has been controversy over the salmon farms dotting the coast of B.C. The main concern of environmentalists are what impact these farms have on wild salmon populations, and consecutive below-normal salmon returns during the spawning season have kicked those concerns into high gear in recent years. Transfer of disease from farmed salmon at high densities to migrating wild stocks, the effects of fish farm waste on the receiving environment, and the risks posed to wild fish by escaped farmed fish are some of the issues. Salmon have been in the news quiet a lot lately on account of the above average amount of returning Salmon this year. But it is too soon to say whether this is merely a blip on the radar or amounts to a reversal of the declines of recent years. This week Steven Andersen talks to Randy Christensen, a lawyer with environmental group EcoJustice about the way in which monitoring of fish farms is being carried out.
Further Information:
EcoJustice: http://www.ecojustice.ca/
Jim Tedder on How to Grow a Rainforest
Rainforests are incredibly complex ecosystems. Once destroyed, it can take many hundreds, even thousands of years to restore what once existed. This is bad news for our lost old growth forests. But the good news is that a surprisingly good imitation job can be achieved when innovative people put their minds to it. Today on Terra Informa we bring you ‘how to grow a rainforest’. David Kaczan speaks to Jim Tedder, farmer and tree grower on the Pacific east coast of New South Wales, Australia. We find out that with some care and careful planting, recreated rainforests can provide many ecological benefits. David filed this report from Brisbane Australia.
