In Memory of Our Fallen Gumtrees
‘In Memory of Our Fallen Gumtrees’ is my entry in this year's Blank Canvas, a silent auction to raise money to reforest the Bellarine Peninsula.
It is a painting of a blue gum branch, from a eucalyptus sapling that is growing on my property. I only planted the tree last year yet it is already 2 metres high. I have begun planting as many trees as I can, wherever I can, in response to Australia’s voracious land clearing. Did you know about 395,000 hectares of native vegetation were cleared in Qld in 2015-16?
I was horrified to discover World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Report 2018 names Australia as one of 11 global deforestation hot spots, alongside Borneo, East Africa, the Congo Basin and the Amazon. Australia is the only developed country on the list.
It is predicted 3 million hectares of forest will have been cleared in eastern Australia in the two decades to 2030. You can read more about it at The Guardian. When will our national obsession with bulldozing native vegetation stop?
#deforestation #landclearing #reforestation #oilpainting #bluegum #stilllife