After reading Rob Farnes' email I just thought -- tell me the old old
story. "Fuel reduction burning" is driven by politics, conservation of
species barely registers, if at all, when the decisions are made to
burn. Last spring, even the local operatives were privately registering
their concern at having to torch the bush when it was under enormous
stress from three years of drought. I went out afterwards for a look and
areas were just devastated, fire had gone through to crown level and
nothing was left except skeletons of mature trees. At the moment the
fires are boiling up to the north of me in the heat and north winds,
totally inappropriate weather, and once again there will be nothing left
except blackened skeletons when things cool down. All the young saplings
will be killed, the mature trees damaged, and the fauna eliminated. I
can echo Rob's comments about local extinctions, from a botanical point
of view as well as re the Quail Thrush, rarely seen now in the
frequently burnt foothills where it used to be relatively common. Duncan
Fraser, Maffra, Vic.
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