A plantation that cleared 16 hectares of land in Western Australia was fined and ordered to replant the area.
The Blue Whale Farm Plantation cut down trees and native plants, including the endangered round-leaf honeysuckle, to develop the area and create firebreaks, as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
Magistrate Anthony Sullivan of the Bunbury Magistrates Court cracked down, fining the company $141,000 for the 2022 actions, which occurred over five months and would have been worse had they not been interrupted. Only the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation — which detected the changes via satellite images — stopped further devastation.
"There is a serious breach to the natural environment," Sullivan said, per the ABC.
The outlet reported that the clearing happened on four remote tracts of land near the Scott River in the Shire of Augusta Margaret River.
Sullivan said the punishment was partially to deter other companies from doing the same thing and to "preserve the natural landscape," as the ABC stated.
Still, there's no replacing what was lost — even with the revegetation plan, which requires Blue Whale Farm Plantation to "frequently report" to DWER, per the outlet. The honeysuckle plant only grows in a few places in the country.
"Our beautiful natural environment is a major part of what makes our shire a special place and preserving and protecting that biodiversity that we've got is really important to our community," Shire of Augusta Margaret River President Julia Meldrum told the ABC.
"It's quite devastating," she added, referring to the lost plant life.
The Australian government does well to punish environmental criminals, fining a millionaire for felling trees near a koala habitat, tourists for taking their dog to a national park home to protected seabirds, and people who used century-old trees as firewood.
Laws designed to protect the environment are essential, as the planet's living beings are in the midst of a sixth extinction event — the first caused by humans. We must do everything we can to reverse course, conserving the natural world that can't speak for itself so future generations can experience its wonder just as those before us did.
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