I think we have to accept that ever growing human populations will finder it harder to co-exist with pristine areas so something will have to give; that won't be reducing the number of humans. Deliberate burns close to housing cause alarm, accidental escape and distress to asthmatics. However I think it is also a waste of a resource since undergrowth, woody debris and crowded trees can be turned into products. These products include heat, electricity, liquid fuel, mulch, charcoal and particle board. Even cattle could graze in forests for short periods. The forest ecology will change; acacias apparently need fire and certainly not being eaten by cows. In the end we may have to accept a compromise as things can't go on like this every year.

Gee, Steve Bracks has a lovely smile. The bad news is that a nice smile is no substitute for a pro-active premier. The loss of life and property and the smell of bar-b-qued wildlife would seem to indicate that Mr Bracks hasn't managed Victoria's forests very well at all. Mother Nature has taken matters into her hands and all an impuissant Mr Bracks can do is put on that concerned look for the 6PM TV news.

What is particularly galling is the fact that we actually pay politicians.

Classic stuff from the Australian Environment Foundation, yet another front for the Institute for Public Affairs.

Check out the hypocrisy:
“Debate on the environment has typically been characterised by emotionally charged statements designed to induce fear or alarm, which reflect an ideological viewpoint rather than statements of fact.” Then see the many emotive terms in the text, para 7, 1 sentence alone containing those reknowned objective and scientific terms accuses, fails, huge and vast.

Check out the slewing of the evidence:
In this case mixing apples and oranges vis inside & outside Parks Act areas: “We are told “About 75 per cent of fires are started by humans”, but government records for the 2005 - 2006 fire season show the majority of fires started in areas under the Parks Act were caused by lightning.” (para6)

Checking out of this dive, the well paid fleas are endless.

I'm with you Liam.The Aborigines were the biggest pyromanics in our history seconded only by lightening strikes.Eucalyptus trees are designed to burn.It is thought that Aborginies' use of fire have directed the evolution of our trees.Their leaves are highly flamable however the trunk lives on,unlike many feral species introduced to this country.Fire actually purges many feral plant species.

Controlled burning lessens the risk to wildlife since they have more of a chance to escape.If you let the fuel build up on the forest floor for decades,then the wild fire will be unstoppable and destroy everything in it's path.Not man or animal can out run or survive a wild fire of 1000 degrees celcius.It is total devestation.

The weak kneed environmentalists have not a leg to stand on concerning this issue.They won't admit that they are wrong because it is the hateful passion of the private enterprise system that blinds them from considering both the truth and reality.

The governments of Australia still have not got it.
The use of burn offs by farmers and government departments are causing the earth to warm up, with the result that our hot continent gets even hotter.
The Grampians in western Victoria are often clouded in smoke during the summer,not from bush fires but from the government approved burn offs.
To blame the Aboriginals for "naturally burning the bush" is an insult to anyones intelligence.
The only reason an aboriginal person would want to create a fire would have been to get rid of the European "landowners" who moved onto Aboriginal land.Nothing to do with supporting the Australian natural environment as the Firees seem to say.
It is interesting that the simplest and most cost effective way to clear a bush block is to burn off.
This last point may be one of the reasons why so many fires occur around where people have invested.
It is time to look at all the CFA and work out what is the hidden agenda.
(Oddiysea House was started by ex drug addicts to help stop drug addiction.Eversince drug useage has increased yearly.)
The CFA is after bigger and bigger budgets and the number of bush fires seem to increase?

My concern about the extent and intensity of alpine fires in recent years is mainly related to the need to conserve flora and fauna. Fuel reduction burning ensures a variability in the intensity of burn over a large area and thus a establishes a complex of forest conditions which in turn preserve a diversity of flora and fauna. Such a complex ecosystem is probably the best means of conserving flora and fauna species.

Anyone reading Mitchell's Journals or reports of early settlers will know that aboriginals used fire extensively. Thus for the 50,000 years before white settlement it is probable that alpine areas were burned with a higher frequency than now.