Day to Day happenings in my life

Salinity

Journalistic Intentions  (18+) This is for the journal keeping types that come to PLAY! New round starts July 1! #2213121 by Turkey DrumStik

Prompt two: grappling with soil degradation.

I was born in a green and pleasant land. A land of fertile soil and plentiful rain but now live in a harsh environment, with poor soils, unpredictable rainfall and high temperatures.

It was much the same in the nineteenth century when the first European settlers arrived on the shores of Australia.
They were met with unfamiliar conditions and natives who had never seen white men before.
The natives had lived and thrived for thousands of years on this land. Their country. A country managed by the people who lived by the seasons. In Western Australia the Nyoongar people observe six separate seasons.
• Birak
• First summer
December-January
• Season of the young
Dry and hot
Burning time

Bunuru
Second summer
February-March
Season of adolescence
Hottest part of the year.

Djeran
Autumn
April-May
Season of adulthood
Cooler weather begins

Makuru
Winter
June-July
Season of fertility
Coldest and wettest season of the year
More frequent gales and storms.

Djilba
First spring
August-September
Season of conception
Mixture of wet days with increasing number of clear, cold nights and pleasant warm days.

Kambarang
Second spring
October-November
Season of birth
Longer dry periods

The first settlers knew nothing of the climate, the seasons of this foreign land and yet they were farmers and sure of their farming knowledge. Convinced they would continue to grow crops successfully here as they had for years at home.
If only they had taken the time and patience to make allies of the natives. Instead, they thought them ignorant and tried to destroy them. Massacred them, destroyed their camps, and feared them.
The settlers were soon to learn their old methods of growing food here in Australia would fail.
The first thing they did was to clear the trees, scraping the last bit of vegetation from the sandy soils. The outcome of all the clearing is that now Western Australia contains 70% of the land affected by salinity in Australia.
More than 2 million hectares are currently affected, and around 4 million hectares of land are currently listed. More than 1 million hectares of agricultural land in the south-west of Western Australia (WA) is severely affected by salt. The lost agricultural productivity from salinity damage is estimated to be worth at least $519 million per year. Even though climate change has resulted in reduced annual rainfall, saline water tables have risen in many areas, meaning that dryland salinisation is a threat to an additional 2.8 to 4.5 million hectares of low-lying or valley floor soils.