Bush pyromaniacs at it again
9 Nov 2009
The silly season is here again with 'fuel reduction' burns underway in many parts of Victoria. We believe that anyone who lit a fire today or yesterday should be treated as an arsonist. In our view it was a criminal act. But this is just a loopy government plan to be seen to be doing something - doesn' t matter what - even though there is no evidence to show that the burns make Victorians any safer.
In fact these burns frequently get out of control and cause widespread damage to private property, public land and our native wildlife. It will be interesing to say the least if the Point Nepean burn gets out of control!
Just imagine how many nestling birds are being fried right now by the Department of Sustainability and Environment and Parks Victoria in their lunatic approach to 'fuel reduction'
WHY LIGHT THE FIRES NOW WHEN EVERYTHING IS NESTING AND CAN'T ESCAPE! The aswer is simple - they don't care and neither do the politicians as long as they con a dumb population into thinking they will be safer.
Humans are the biggest problem for this planet.
Tags:
arsonists, fuel reduction burns, parks victoria, pyromanics
Posted at: 06:24 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Fuel reduction burns increase fire risk, say experts
14 May 2009
Melbourne University experts agree with us that in some cases, fuel reduction burns increase fire risks in native forests.
Professor David Karoly and Dr Kevin Tolhurst told a bushfire seminar called to discuss proposed fuel reduction burns in the Otways that over time any burning starts to change the ecology of rainforest gullies so that they cease to be wet rainforest gullies and become dry fuel gullies which no longer protect the community or the forest.
"Increased fuel-reduction burning, as advocated by some sectors of the forest industry and associated lobby groups, will further exacerbate the situation," they said
Dr Tolhurst said extreme weather, caused by global warming, was a greater threat than fuel. Fuel load is not as important a factor as weather."
This is not confined to the Otways - the same applies around Grantville and in the Strzeleckis. We have great fears that the Royal Commission currently investigating the latest wildfires will be hoodwinked by the numbers of people who want to cut down all the trees and 'burn the bush'.
Tags:
fire risk, fuel reduction burns, native vegetation
Posted at: 08:03 AM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
A few more thoughts on the Victorian Wildfires
2 Mar 2009
At least it's not just me! Here's a short version of comments by Andrew Campbell a well known former bureaucrat and consultant who has been involved in forestry, farm and catchment issues for years.
I was asked by a friend in America what I thought of some of the media and webstuff circulating about the Victorian fires.
As a Victorian forester with professional training in fire behaviour, fire suppressionand fire management, and with experience as a sector boss in fires leading up to and including Ash Wednesday (Feb 1983), I have maintained an on-going interest in fire management in Australia. The way we handle fires for me is one of the keyindicators for how well we are learning to live in this ancient continent. The Victorian fires, and in particular some of the media since the fires, suggest that we have a long way to go in improving the ecological literacy of Australians and the body politic.
There has been lots of rabid stuff coming out since 7 February, pushing long-held anti-green agendas. Suggestions that ‘it’s all the greenies’ fault’ and headlines like “will the real arsonists please stand up” claiming that conservationists, tree protection policies and green groups’ opposition...
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Tags:
back burns, bushfire, controlled burns, fuel reduction burns, wildfire
Posted at: 04:24 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
Victoria's devastating wildfires
10 Feb 2009
The unprecedented scale of the wildfires which have hit Victoria (some of them deliberately lit) will no doubt result in a continuing clamour for more destruction of native forests through 'fuel reduction burns' and the creation of ever wider fire breaks.
But the reality is that in conditions like those experienced on Saturday, just about anything will burn - even bare ground!!!!
Damp forest, with a closed canopy is the least likely to burn and that was clearly shown in the Strzeleckis. The most dangerous vegetation from a fire perspective are pine plantations (and remember it was those which caused problems in Canberra).
The dedication and the heroic efforts of our firefighters are not in question but by insisting on regular burns, DSE and the CFA actually increase the fire risk for Victorians by changing vegetation types from damp to dry. Even slashing roadsides in early summer (especially if the roadsides are mainly native grasses) increases the fire risk by depositing the cut grass as a dry fuel load.
We made a submission to the Parliamentary enquiry into the 2006/7 Victorian fires - have a look on page five of this website - but of course we were ignored.
We will have another go with the...
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Tags:
fuel reduction burns, victorias bushfires, wildfires
Posted at: 04:54 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink