After the nightmare that was the closure of the Kings Highway for six weeks between December 2019 and January 2020, it's easy to understand why Bega MP and Transport Minister Andrew Constance directed that trees be cleared from major NSW highways.
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It's also easy to grasp the counter-argument, that our wildlife suffered enough during the fires and cutting down more trees will add to the trauma from which they're only just recovering.
And with the legal impediments revealed in parliament this week, we can see how an apparently simple remedy to an ongoing problem is actually quite complex.
Like the rest of us, the NSW government is beholden to environmental rules and regulations as well as the rights of property owners whose landholdings abut the highways.
Transport for NSW already has a mammoth and ongoing task managing roadside vegetation. All of us who have been held up on the highways by this maintenance can attest to that. Trees alongside major roads are not only problematic during fires but present a safety risk as well. They are unforgiving when motorists come unstuck and collide with them.
However, a blanket 40-metre clearing from all major roads as directed by Mr Constance is unlikely given the legal restraints. And, as we've seen with the controversy over koala protection, it's also politically challenging. But somewhere between the two positions, human safety and wildlife protection, some kind of compromise ought to be struck.
Having major roads cut by fallen trees for weeks on end - 1200 of them had to be removed from the Kings Highway before it could reopen - is untenable. It does inestimable damage to the economy and has the potential to put lives at risk.
Finding a way to ensure roads stay open and wildlife is not placed at further peril is a challenge but not insurmountable.
