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The Forum > Article Comments > Bushfire 'experts' not helping us adapt to climate change > Comments

Bushfire 'experts' not helping us adapt to climate change : Comments

By Vic Jurskis, published 15/2/2021

According to Mackey's expert academics, mild burning can't prevent natural disasters such as Black summer. But there was nothing natural about it.

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“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.
Posted by ttbn, Monday, 15 February 2021 8:52:13 AM
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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.
Posted by MESSMATE, Monday, 15 February 2021 9:29:44 AM
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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 !
Posted by individual, Monday, 15 February 2021 9:39:42 AM
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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.
Posted by Little, Monday, 15 February 2021 10:02:34 AM
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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.
Posted by Alan B., Monday, 15 February 2021 11:42:17 AM
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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.
Posted by Little, Monday, 15 February 2021 12:49:12 PM
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Around here we have a problem. Too many tree changers. They like trees, lots of them, & like others in places that have burnt, they will suffer the consequences sooner or later.

The only way to maintain forest grazing here is to burn. 2 years grazing, a year locked up to establish enough grass to carry a warm fire, then a burn in the 4Th year to clear 4 years development of saplings & other woody weeds that have grown before they become fully established.

Our tree changers write letters & phone owners, complaining about the smoke, but it is they who moved into an established grazing area, not the reverse. If they wanted to live in the bush they should have moved there.

My neighbors 10,000 acre paddock is a perfect example of lost productivity. We used to train our eventers there 25 years ago. Riding at a moderate gallop, jumping fallen timber, & other obstacles was great training. Today it is so full of garbage undergrowth that the brambles would tear your horse & you apart even at little above walking pace. He can carry less than a quarter of the stock he could back then.

Why, he is getting old, over 70, & is sick of complaining neighbors if he burns. He can no longer be bothered with the ratbagery that has overtaken us today.

His kids have seen the writing on the wall, & moved to city employment. He is letting it wind down into useless as he does so himself. Fortunately I have half a kilometer of lightly timbered country between us, so should be safe when inevitably his place goes up in flames.
Posted by Hasbeen, Monday, 15 February 2021 1:58:35 PM
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To Author - Vic - you wrote -

The Bushfires Royal Commission totally failed to address the absence of sustainable land management which led to Black Summer. It didn't even properly fulfil its requirement to consider the outcomes of previous Inquiries, stopping short at the 2004 COAG Report by two academics and a fire chief. COAG effectively swept under the carpet A Nation Charred, the report of the House of Reps Inquiry into the 2003 disasters, which heard from experienced land and fire managers across Australia.

Response - I totally agree.

So where do we go from here - Governments don't listen or acknowledge
"failed sustainable land management - which led to the Black Summer", and lives lost.

In essence - Government know the "actual errors" but won't acknowledge.

So, if Governments won't address these issues, its now time for citizens to rise up.

I note with interest - there have been only 6 people = before me, responding to your great article.

When we should all be outraged.

But - of course - we have the "Greenies" around us, that don't wish to acknowledge the absence of - sustainable land management.
Posted by SAINTS, Monday, 15 February 2021 9:31:41 PM
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Vic -

I guess it comes down to "there is a spine looking for a backbone" - within Government.
Posted by SAINTS, Monday, 15 February 2021 9:40:34 PM
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Little,
Yep ! We need to find a way to stock the authorities with common sense ! A National Service would do that !
Posted by individual, Wednesday, 17 February 2021 7:50:40 AM
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