Land Use
Approximately 56% of the Mallee region falls within what the Department of Agriculture and Food calls the "Intensive Land-use Zone" (ILZ), the area of Western Australia that has been largely cleared and developed for intensive agriculture such as cropping and livestock production. This includes most of the western parts of the region, and a smaller area along the road from Norseman to Esperance. Within this area, only 19.5% of the native vegetation remains uncleared. The remaining 44% of the region falls within the "Extensive Land-use Zone" (ELZ), where the native vegetation has not been cleared but may have been degraded by the grazing of introduced animals and/or changes to the fire regime. Thus about 44.9% of the total Mallee region has been cleared. The majority of clearing was undertaken by the Government of Western Australia between 1958 and 1969, under a program of assisted settlement in which the Government cleared, fenced and stocked virgin crown land, then sold it to aspiring settlers. There has been virtually no further clearing since 1980, when Beard estimated the cleared proportion of the region at 44%.
About 30% of the Esperance Plains region is now in protected areas. It therefore has only medium priority under Australia's National Reserve System.
Read more about this topic: Mallee (biogeographic Region)
Famous quotes containing the word land:
“America does not concern itself now with Impressionism. We own no involved philosophy. The psyche of the land is to be found in its movement. It is to be felt as a dramatic force of energy and vitality. We move; we do not stand still. We have not yet arrived at the stock-taking stage.”
—Martha Graham (1894–1991)
“Over the land freckled with snow half-thawed
The speculating rooks at their nests cawed”
—Edward Thomas (1878–1917)