Its disappointing that the Victorian inquiry has failed to examine the
science, rather it appears to have been swayed by emotion.
Any suggestion that "inadequate" fire regimes are responsible for fires or
for the intensity of fires needs to be viewed through the filters of the
interest group making the statement. Emotive property owners, disgruntled
dispossessed graziers, avaricious foresters and developers are not
dispassionate objective voices in this discussion.
Certainly there have been cases where more hazard management may have
reduced fire impact, there have been cases where greater access may have
increased reaction times and where more effective planning would have
alleviated the impact - however, in the instance of the Victorian fires we
are talking about broad scale fire across mountain ash forests which have a
natural fire regime approaching 400 year intervals.
In the NSW context I have seen wildfire rage accross the top of areas of
strategic hazard reduction burning which took place no more than 6 months
prior to the wildfire, a crown fire will not be contained by cool condition
hazard reduction fires.
More hazard reduction burns would have little impact in either of these
fires.
Lets look though at why are we getting more, bigger, larger wildfires?
Could mesic shift be at play? Could ongoing drought/climate change be
impacting these forests to the point where they are tinder dry and
susceptible to ignition across large areas? Could fire be a natural tool in
ecological community change?
The arid zone is encroaching on the semi arid which is moving inexorably
eastward (in NSW at least) and previously reliable water supplies have
dried up (see Goulburn and Orange), from an ecological perspective this
process is seen in plant communities drying out, death of plants due to
water stress, and increased fire frquency and intensity.
Have these issues been adequately addressed in the Victorian enquiry or
have the weight of numbers of submissions and the emotive strength of those
submissions overriden the science (for a change!)
Lynton
>
> I heard the following on ABC radio today. Its pretty alarming..and scary
> news.
>
> The text is copied from the ABC at:
> http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/26/2286580.htm
>
> Dave Cameron
> Hamilton
>
>
> 'Flawed Fire Regime'
>
>
> A Parliamentary Committee has found bushfires which ravaged large parts
of
> Victoria in 2003 and 2007 were the direct result of a flawed fire regime.
>
> About two-point-three million hectares of land was burnt out in the
fires.
>
> The inquiry into land management practices has found insufficient burning
> by
> the Department of Sustainability caused the bushfires.
>
> It also found the lack of burning exacerbated last year's Gippsland
> floods,
> causing extensive damage to homes and businesses.
>
> The committee has recommended the number of prescribed burns be tripled
to
> 380,000 hectares each year.
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