Fuel reduction burn in the Wombat Forest in late November 2013
A controlled burn that aims to burn grass and scrub but does NOT affect the forest canopy. This low intensity burn trickles along the ground allowing insects and animals to take refuge and encourages healthy grass regrowth and clear open forest.
Habitat successfully re-established. An excellent balance of open grasslands extending into healthy forest.
Example of the inhibiting effect of fuel reduction on the spread of wildfire
Reformatory Track north of Bruthen-Nowa Nowa Road. Green area had fuel reduction burn during April 2019. Wildfire ran under the influence of a NW wind on 29 November (from bottom right of Plates 1 and 2 , and left of Plate 3. Photos taken on 18 February 2020. Fire was effectively stopped completely by the recent fuel reduction burn . Plate 4 is same area on the ground. Note the recovery in the form of epicormic growth on the trees.
Plate 1
Plate 2
Plate 3
Plate 4
Australia’s fire culture is totally flawed.
Indigenous fire practitioner, Victor Steffensen, who runs workshops on land management, shares his views on how Indigenous practices could help prevent bushfires.
Failure of a government to minimise loss from bushfire
Phil Cheney, formerly with CSIRO, is one of Australia’s foremost bushfire experts. He enjoys wide international recognition for his research into environmental management, bushfire studies and their interaction with the urban lifestyle. Click on the link below to hear him speak on the failure of the Victorian government to implement effective hazard reduction as an important contribution to minimising loss from bushfire.
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6121349634001
Kath and Kim are responsible for the bushfires
David Packham talks about our tendency to ignore alternative views to our own or just plain lack of situational awareness when it comes to wildfire behaviour. Well worth listening to David.
Kath & Kim is an Australian television situation comedy. The programme was created by its stars Jane Turner and Gina Riley, who play the title characters of suburban mother Kath Day-Knight, a cheery middle-aged woman and her self-indulgent daughter Kim Craig. The other main characters are Kath’s boyfriend and, later, husband, the metrosexual Kel Knight, Kim’s husband Brett Craig, and her lonely, overweight “second-best friend” Sharon Strzelecki. The series is set in Fountain Lakes, a fictional suburb of Melbourne, Victoria. It is primarily filmed in Patterson Lakes. (from Wikipedia)
National Bushfire Management Policy Statement for Forests and Rangelands
Prepared by The Forest Fire Management Group for The Council of Australian Governments (COAG)
© Forest Fire Management Group 2014
An extract from the Foreword:
“The vision inspiring this policy is that:
Fire regimes are effectively managed to maintain and enhance the protection of human life and property, and the health, biodiversity, tourism, recreation and production benefits derived from Australia’s forests and rangelands.
To achieve this vision for the enhanced management of fire in the landscape, actions must fall under four strategic objectives:
- Effectively Managing the Land with Fire.
- Involved and Capable Communities.
- Strong Land, Fire and Emergency Partnerships and Capability.
- Actively and Adaptively Managing Risk.
‘…appropriate use of planned fire to protect communities and their assets, and to protect and conserve natural and cultural values.’