THORNY PROBLEMS - Rethinking Invasion Ecologies from the Environmental Humanities - page 127

of good stewardship of the land was constantly changing and this placed them in a
situation of permanent struggle to manage their land and business and make a viable
living. Some, like the 'old fella' mentioned in the quote at the beginning of the
section, felt they no longer had the energy or will to undertake Landcare or other
government programs that claimed to protect native biodiversity and improve
sustainability of the pastoral industry. Others wondered whether the so-called best
practices of Landcare and government policies were merely using the trendy
language of sustainability or genuinely 'doing right by country' (Pastoralist A,
interviews, 2007).
Resisters
Given the broad ethos of antagonism toward prickly acacia, very few pastoralists
in the region wanted to be seen as advocates for the tree. One pastoralist was an
exception in resisting the pressure to condemn prickly trees as evil. 'I wouldn't be
here if it wasn't for my prickly trees,' he declared. He claimed that the prickly
acacias were the best source of protein for sheep and cattle available in this part of
the Outback and were crucial for keeping them healthy during good and bad times.
He explained:
Round here at the end of every year when they got beans on them . . . it's
like a measure of protein drops on the ground every day . . . The sheep come
along and they get their feed on the protein and it keeps them going, you
know, in the worst of the drought.
(Pastoralist D, interviews, 2007)
This pastoralist took great pleasure in poking fun at government programs and
Landcare initiatives for their fear-laden concerns about the threats posed by prickly
acacia and insisted on celebrating their role in making pastoralism successful in the
region.
Strategists
Another group of pastoralists who refused to condemn prickle bushes stood out
from the rest by emphasising the broader aspects of pasture management. They
claimed that it had become a habit to constantly look for scapegoats to blame for
all the problems associated with pastoral production. The prickly acacia was the
latest target of such scapegoating, which led many people to think that all their
productivity and industry-related problems would be solved by eradicating these
trees. They argued that, unlike the conventional perspective of seeing land as a
resource that exists to support cattle production, their main focus was on producing
pastures with healthy soil and grass. Rather than being cattle graziers, they saw
themselves as pastoralists who harvested 'sunlight, grass, and soil' embodied in the
form of cattle.