Ms Clay reports the good work of volunteers has been undone by well-meaning mowers coming closer than they should to reserves set aside for planting and weeding.

A mowing motion may seem trivial and requesting less, not more, may seem counter-productive during a wet year. However, recent reports demonstrate the little shortcuts add up.

The ACT holds its bush capital badge high. Many residents will sight access to nature as something they treasure most about calling Canberra home.

While leading the way on progressive policy to help stem emissions and introduce electric vehicles is crucial, sweating the small stuff matters, too.

As the federal State of Environment report recently revealed, it's the little slights that become neglect.

It's the bandicoots, quolls and rodents that earn Australia the unenviable record of having lost more mammals than any other continent, with one of the highest rates of species decline.

It's the hastily-approved development application here, the axing of a mature street tree there, that leads to the ACT losing more than 6 per cent of its trees in just five years.

As Larry O'Loughlin, former executive director of the Conservation Council ACT, said following the report: "We continue to face the ongoing death of nature by a thousand cuts."

Places like Mulligan's Flat and Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve play an important part in repopulating species at risk, however, they're a costly and reactionary alternative to actively avoiding decline.

The work of academics and scientists to ensure the threatened don't become the extinct is lauded, even if they wish they didn't need to do it.

While Canberra's rapidly growing population demands more houses, more schools, more shops and more roads, questioning where and what type is more important than ever.

Every resident has the right to a home, just as Canberra has the right to grow, the ramifications of what gets built and what gets knocked down will reverberate into the future.

The world is seeing the consequences of putting growth before nature. Australia is now reckoning with the part it plays in paying for the damage and reducing future harm.

Seeing the politicians and the people stand up against the small slights might be evidence Canberra is learning its lesson.

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