Author: Candice Bartlett, Conservation Officer 

As a policy nerd with a science background, my environment campaigning is usually quite cerebral. My nose is usually in the detail, reading policies, advocating for nature to government and digesting the facts and figures of habitat destruction... so investigating and seeing the destruction for myself was confronting. 

I’ve just returned from a field trip to see how land clearing is occurring on freehold land across the state. The vast majority of habitat clearing in NSW occurs on private land, for agribusiness, but this driver of destruction is rarely in the spotlight.

It was dusk when we got out to one property. We stopped on a red dust road that was running through native cypress woodland. The soft light of evening was dancing through the trees and scrub.  

The peace of this beautiful forest was upset by the sound of machinery in the distance... then a thunderous crack. We continued on up the road, when we came across the source. A 30 year old eucalypt pushed over by the bulldozers, and in the next second, another hits the ground.  

It’s a confronting sight to see this beautiful eucalypt and native cypress woodland destroyed in an instant. And it hits me—it takes such little time to destroy, but repair takes a generation.

Image: The last of the trees in a paddock cleared.

Since 2018, over 110,000 hectares of trees have been cleared on agricultural land in NSW. In 2023, over 19,000 hectares of trees were cleared for agriculture. That represents 59% of all woody vegetation cleared that year across the state.  

And yet the problem of runaway habitat clearing on freehold land has seemingly been put in the too hard basket by government. It’s my job to change that. 

With your help we can win stronger laws and oversight and rein in the largest contributor to habitat destruction in the state.