“The Bushfires Royal Commission totally failed to address ....".

Royal Commissions regularly fail; they are just very expensive pass times for retired judges and lawyers nobody has heard of.

And, while I have the utmost respect for Vic Jurskis’s experience, knowledge and truth-telling, repeatedly pointing out the bleeding obvious is not having any effect on the only people who can do anything to change the situation - the halfwits most people keep voting for, election after election.

Thanks Vic for the good article.
I haven't read the Royal Commission Report, but you say that Prof Mackey et al say that logging increases bushfire risk. That theory has been promulgated in recent years several ANU academics such as David Lindenmayer, so I guess it isn't surprising to see it in the Report. The fact is that many forest/fire scientists disagree with that theory, so it remains a theory, not a fact.

Related to this is that logging in an area means that there are roads and tracks and harvesting equipment present, that will assist in firefighting if a fire happens to start. Roads and tracks can assist in back-burning, and the bush skills of equipment operators are invaluable. With logging being pushed out of much of the bush, fire-fighting thus becomes hugely more difficult.

Local volunteer fire fighting groups, such as the CFA (in Victoria), have little experience and skills in fighting forest fires, so they cannot be relied upon to control big fires.

Local volunteer fire fighting groups, such as the CFA (in Victoria), have little experience and skills in fighting forest fires, so they cannot be relied upon to control big fires.
MESSMATE,
My own experiences tell me that if those local volunteers were given some say there wouldn't be any big fires in the first place !

Messmate, Individual,
NSW RFS got rid of nearly all the old fire control officers and probably brigade captains because they didn't like them challenging authority with knowledge and experience. Last summer they caused massive destruction by over-ruling locals. Not doing backburns under ideal conditions and doing some under impossible conditions.

Yes, we need to retain backburning as a fire fighting strategy! As for cool burns that are limited to a very few weeks! The areas cleared by this stone-age, primitive method are prone to feral weed infestation and one hectare of burnt grassland can contribute as much CO2 to the atmosphere as 600 cars. Naturally, these cars would be moving with engines running for the period of the burn. Only a halfwit would assume or argue these were parked cars!

That said, fuel reduction is a must! Goat herds do a wonderful year-round job of doing just that, even in windy, dry as a bone, weather! They'll eat the blackberries and gorse that take over after a burn! Be it cool, hot or cultural practice/cultural noise!

If management teaches just one thing, it teaches there is always a better way! And can't be seen if you're not looking or willfully blind!

Goats seem to be able to graze the steepest most remote country!

Other than that, we need to return to the sanity of selectively logging our native forests! This (sanity restored) management model has shown, we half the timber extracted and double the jobs created. Moreover, this ensures the managed forests increase their ability to capture and store carbon during their most prolific growth periods! More so than old forests!

Finally, trees store carbon whether horizontal or vertical! A feature no longer available when they burn or decay. And soil stored carbon is often removed by the plough!
Alan B.

Blind Old Goats:
Anyone who's actually lived and worked in the bush would have seen that blackberries and gorse or lantana or native weeds like sheoak or tea tree or pittosporum or budda or hopbush have taken over because there's no soft burning anymore. Plagues of feral goats or deer are feasting on these woody weeds. There would be no need for fuel reduction if the bush was maintained properly.