IN this time of environmental problems being put in the too hard basket, there’s one issue that’s relatively easy to deal with.
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River banks are incredibly valuable assets.
The Victorian government says it wants to manage them to promote environmental, social, cultural and economic values.
However allowing livestock to graze on river banks supports some economic values and ignores the rest.
On the other hand, fencing off the river frontages, revegetating them and providing off-stream water for stock provides benefits all round, and has been enthusiastically adopted by many farmers.
Livestock are still allowed unrestricted access to thousands of kilometres of rivers and creeks across Victoria.
The damage they do has been regularly identified as the number one manageable impact on river health, and moving them off the riverbanks brings benefits for farmers, for wildlife and for communities who are able to enjoy better amenity and cleaner water.
Environment Victoria is asking all political parties to lift their game to get livestock off river banks, especially off river frontages on public land.
Domestic animals have a right to drink but not to degrade.
Moving them out of our rivers is a modest and achievable goal for whoever is in government.
— JULIET LE FEUVRE,
Melbourne