Trunk Calls are about making connections
For those old enough to remember, there was a time when phone calls, whether or not they were local or national, were all connected by hand in local telephone exchanges dotted around the country, from the largest city to the smallest village.
WE RECALL THAT at Parkville and Wingen and all the other villages in the Upper Hunter, there were manual exchanges offering limited phone services between about 6am and 8pm Monday to Friday and limited services on the weekend.
Only a couple of wires connected all the users along local unsealed road. Calls shared this line. Known as a party line, anyone could listen in, if the operator allowed more than one person to join in. Calls other than local, were known as ‘trunk calls’ and were not cheap. Certainly not bundled into plans with unlimited times like today.
What has this got to do with conservation and Munibung Hill? Trunk calls triggers this memory, and without too much of a stretch suggests that all things are connected – especially when we expand our thinking beyond a tele-communications mindset – with the ecosystem being one gigantic integrated marvel that the human mind will never fully fathom, in spite of our skiteing that we know what makes the earth tick.
So this National Eucalypt Day – March 23 – spare a thought for the wonderful things that these trees do for us and without which our world and lives would be impoverished. Reference: (Gardening Australia, April 2024)
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The challenge of making our designs come true
Everything is drawn. By that we don’t necessarily mean drawn on a piece of paper or computer screen, although that may well be the case. Drawn, as in imagined in the mind.
There is a visualisation of how things might be, or how they might turn out if given substance and brought into being – into some physical form. In the case of MHCS we have designs for Munibung Hill as expressed in a Five-fold Vision and the associated projects that the Society is involved with.
How to bring all these together as an integrated working design
that delivers on the promises is the challenge.
Many of the design concepts are expressed in the Management Plan, 2022. Most of them will only see the light of day by us working in collaborative ways with partner organisations. They will rely on strong community support. On bringing people along with us, to bring them off the page and onto the ground. How will they stack up against best practice? Sound science? To be nature positive?
Design Strategies for Increasing Biodiversity, by Pamela Conrad, ArchDaily, November 26, 2024, tackles this subject. Pamela writes …
The world has lost 60 percent of animal populations since 1970. This staggering decline reflects the growing pressures on ecosystems, from habitat destruction to climate change.
As these problems continue to escalate, the importance of preserving biodiversity and restoring ecosystems becomes clearer.
The term biodiversity – which means the variety of all life on Earth – is new to many. But it has been present in the work of landscape architects for decades. There are key ways we can increase biodiversity:
Preserve
The simple importance of preserving biological life cannot be overstated. Much of the developed world’s historic response to impacting ecosystems has been mitigation. Yes, before it was a term used in reference to climate change.
Restore
Preservation is best, but we should take every opportunity to restore ecosystems where we can. Working with ecologists and biologists is key to understanding the nuanced details — from soil regeneration to species selection, and planting arrangements that support habitable conditions.
Connect and Create
Harking back to Richard Foreman’s Land Mosaics, a book still on my shelf since landscape architecture grad school, I am reminded of the simple terms that outline the interconnection of habitats.
Habitat “patches” are areas of suitable habitat for species, while a “corridor” is a narrow strip of habitat that connects isolated habitat patches. Continuity and connectivity of corridors are critical to maintain, create, or restore healthy and resilient ecosystems.
Measure
In 2020, the Montreal COP15 paved the way for adopting the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, setting four goals, including protecting at least 30 percent of the world’s land and ocean by 2030.
… From MMM Issue #48, Feb-March 2025
