Debris in my local river after heavy rain

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The Leven river in Ulverstone, Tasmania. The amount of debris being washed out to sea was amazing. Log's 5mt long, tree stumps & everything else in between. One local guy was on the wharf with a mooring pole "directing" logs away from the boats. It's been a nasty couple of weeks here. Even the pontoon between 2 launch ramps on the opposite side of the river had lost a section which someone had to tie up to the steel walking ramp. There's never a swell in the river, but horrid winds combined with logs would have been enough to break the fittings.

 

That 'debris' is an important ecological component of Tasmanian rivers, especially for native fish like the River BlackFish.

The European dislike of 'mess' has lead to severe degradation of Tasmanian river environments, as has clearing of land for farming.

River BlackFish
"They generally inhabit slow flowing sections of streams that are well oxygenated, with abundant cover such as snags and boulders."

Why is it Threatened?:
Increased water flows; Extensive stream siltation from erosion; Removal of instream habitat, particularly woody debris;

http://www.ifs.tas.gov.au/publications/fish-fact-sheets/river-blackfish

 

Well why don't you front some cash for a lawyer then & do something about this lack of preservation. You would be of European heritage I'm sure. Either that or your an Aboriginal & a descendant of the original inhabitants of Tasmania. Which is it?

 

Calm down, son. I don't think he was trying to insult anyone.

I'm not personally familiar with New Zealand and its rivers. But it seems plausible to me that European-style efforts to keep the water cleared of debris, as introduced by European settlers, might not be the best approach half a world away.

We have a situation here in Southern California where a hundred years or more of trying to suppress all wildfires has backfired on us. We've found out that when the inevitable fire does come, it's so hot from the build-up of dead material that it kills adult trees instead of just clearing the underbrush from around them; kills seeds that would normally germinate after fires; etc.

I don't think it's an insult to anyone to point out that the 'stop fires at all cost' approach of our Forest Service was heavily influenced by European attitudes and practices, and that those practices didn't translate well into the semi-arid American Southwest.

Nowadays, we understand that for thousands of years California hillsides have burned off about every twenty to twenty five years, and the local ecology is geared to that cycle. So now we schedule controlled burns, let natural fires burn when they aren't a threat to human habitation, etc....

 

Don't worry about it Troy, but thanks for the support- he was irate with me for my comments at
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/al...ed-harbour-master-trashed-my-yacht-48013.html

If he had actually been trying to make a valid point, I would be quite happy to say that I am not European ( born in Tassie, and European was never a genetic condition ), and the 'imported tidy English minds' that brought us manicured lawns, lace curtains, rabbits, gorse, penal colonies and blackbirds are still very much in evidence. The supposed 'mess' that goes with a healthy ecology had disappeared in England and much of the continent a thousand years ago, with the destruction of most of the huge forests, the uniform landscape of tilled land and the mining, since the Roman occupation.

Even today, we encourage eco-tourism in Tasmania, where you drive to a 'forest walk' along miles of tree lined roads
http://www.discovertasmania.com/attraction/tahuneforestairwalkandvisitorcentre

never realizing that the lovely timberlined roads have only 100 metres or so of trees along the edges, and the land after that is either clearfelled or plantation monculture.

Dismay at a 'messy' river ( only logs, no MacDonalds wrappers) , is just indication of another victim of the modern 'clear felled' way of life.

Oh, and Troy, apologies might be in order - as I recall you might be a bit of a victim of the global ecology over there also - I think California has been overrun with the Eucalyptus trees that seems to love a good fire now and then, eg
http://www.academia.edu/322875/Gone_Native_Californias_Love-Hate_Relationship_with_Eucalyptus_Trees

 

Anything that'll burn fits right in, around here.

But we do have entire forests of eucalyptus; a lot of people think they're native. And I understand they've taken over in Israel, too. One of the funniest misplaced things I ever read was in a mystery/historical novel - where one of the disciples moves through a courtyard looking for Jesus, as 'the pungeant odor of euclyptus' fills his nostrils....

 

Well, that is a classic "blooper" ! Like an historical movie where you can see jet contrails in the sky, or the gladiator wearing a wristwatch in Spartacus ( I think ? )

 

Could well be both, like, oh, maybe 90% of Tasmanian aboriginals.....

I can see why your rep score has already dropped to 2, incidentally.

PDW

 

I'm not here to build a reputation. I havn't posted much as you can see, plus I'm not a pro' boat builder so I usually don't have much to add & therefore won't earn many rep' points. I originally joined to find my grandfathers yacht, but I was unsuccessful. Now I'm fixing up a boat so I wanted to share the experience.

I do get annoyed when people who are bored, find a thread they disagree with & start firing pointless post's. I could name plenty of users who do this regularly.

rwatson did so on the "trashed yacht" thread. I offered my assistance to the OP as best I could, that's why we're all here (you'd think).

rwatson treated the OP like a paranoid schizophrenic, he may be but no-one here needs to point the finger.

My mother once told me "if you can't say something nice, then say nothing at all". I do break this moral rule occasionally in order to point out the stupidity of others as they obviously can't see it for themselves.

 

It's easy to make an enemy from someone we don't know. So why don't you tell me a bit about yourself rwatson, then maybe we'll find some common ground. What part of Tas' are you in, what type of boat/s do you own, did you build it? what is you boating history.

I'm on the central north coast. I have always been around boats, I live, eat, breath & s__t boats to be honest. My grandfather built a yacht in the 70's, I now have his plans. I build models from them. Biggest one so far was 57". Now I'm repairing an old Hartley Flareline, that & an old trailer on which to put it. Not enough hours in the day.
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yes, I did say he was a " paranoid schizophrenic". Let me also state that to trash the Bill gates foundation, with lies, character assassination and innuendo is a crime.

If you want to get moralistic about it "Thou shalt not bear false witness", "A mans reputation is his fortune", "A gossips tongue is sharper than a sword."


Now, staying academic about it - what do you think the logical solution is to prevent falsehoods and lies being spread ? ignore it ? My blood boils when I see the troubles caused by the liars of the internet - from mayan Doomsday cults to south pole Hitler theories.

Go to the "Flat Earth" website, sure, a bit if a joke and fun, until you read the poor souls who are actually trying to assimilate the 'facts' into some kind of reality.

We spend billions of dollars making sound scientific discoveries and clarifying the mysteries of the universe, to have mean spirited, lying toads confuse the issue with superstition and confusion.

You may want to stand by and ignore it, but I am quite happy to shout in the faces of the bad guys.

 

That last would be like implying that the ancestry of anyone in Tasmania was an 'either/or' choice between European ancestry & Tasmanian Aboriginal? Hmmm? While we're on the topic of 'stupidity of others as they obviously can't see it for themselves'.

The owner of the 'trashed yacht' is by his own posting incompetent, ignorant, a conspiracy theory nutcase and an appalling seaman. Ray pointed out a couple facts of life.

On this thread you were the one who dragged in ancestry and I cheerfully demonstrated your ignorance, highlighted your attempt at trolling or dragging red herrings etc, pick. You should have left that topic alone if you weren't prepared to defend your position.

FWIW I'm building a 12m steel junk rigged schooner down south of Hobart. I've learnt a lot off this forum, one thing in particular being that you'd better pick your arguments and have plenty of supporting facts or be prepared to be shown the holes in your logic. Best thing at that point is to concede gracefully and move on to another topic.

I'm happy to discuss boat stuff where I can make a contribution but stay away from ply & epoxy as I simply don't like working with epoxy. It's good stuff, I just prefer steel personally. If you ever need a bit of stainless pipe, tube etc I have a big pile of offcuts etc.

PDW

 

Debris in my local river after heavy rairn

Lots of boat users have trouble with logs and weeds and rocks in the water ways they use which damage their props and drives.
To stop damage and make a drive survive, a cam action Smart Drive takes the shock from encounters with that problem. The drive can run in S/P mode or as a sub-surface drive and you can make a simple model yourself or a very sophisticated expensive monster.

 

You know what they say, if you ignore it, it'll go away. Very true I think.

You also see what I mean now regarding pointless post's on other's threads.

On this particular thread, no-one needed leave a comment, mine was merely an observation of the local river.

Now look at what it's become.

I'm still waiting for rwatson to divulge his boating history .....if any & justify his existence on this forum.

 

I've never seen any good come of a ****ing match over who's boatier than whom.... let it go.

I thought they were impressive pictures, and I was amazed by the sheer volume of debris. How often does that happen? Fairly regularly? Or is this a result of unusual flooding, the aftermath of drought, or whatever?