Australia Fires Part 2

[Jstpssng]

Mate.

I'm not going to argue with you.

That "Special" from your 60 Minutes was so misleading, one sided, balderdash as to make me physically ill.

The thing that you need to realise (which wasn't even casually mentioned) is that these forests are eucalyptus trees. Think of them as "gasoline trees". They're 'evergreen', as in they don't seasonally shed their oily flammable leaves. They do shed their bark, also flammable. They do shed (cast, actually) their limbs/branches. Also flammable. It does not rot on the ground, at least at the rate that a North American forest would. We call it Fuel Load.

Fire is how a eucalyptus forest has grown and spread over Australia over thousands of years. Fire doesn't destroy eucalyptus trees, within a week a 'burnt' eucalyptus tree (yes, all of the various species) will start sprouting new leaves. The burnt ash will fertilise the eucalyptus trees and, at the first rain, the 'gum nuts' (seeds) will germinate.

The only way to remove this fuel load is to either burn it in a slow, controlled manner or physically remove the fuel load. Tonnes of this debris/fuel load accumulate every year. If the fuel load isn't regularly removed (every 10-15 years) then the intensity of the inevitable forest fire will increase.

Subsequent State and Local governments who are responsible for the management of the forests (State Forests, Forest Reserves AND National Forests) have simply 'locked up' these forests over decades. Instead of dealing with 'ongoing' management of the forests, they (and I charge 'Green' policies for this) they have decided to deal with the consequences of these fires.

"Climate Change"(tm) has nothing to do with these fires and these fires (which we have every year) are, although this has been a particular bad year, not "unprecedented". The drought that preceded these fires also are not "unprecedented". It's the way Australia is.

I say again, in Australia, the Federal government and, specifically, the Prime Minister, is not responsible for Fire Fighting or managing the various Forests (including privately owned & managed commercial 'plantation' operations). That is a wholly State responsibility. That may be a foreign concept to you but it's the way it's done here.

Another concept that may be foreign to you is the use of the Military during these times. The Australian Defence Force [ADF] can only, by law, be used if requested by the State(s)... it's called Military Aid To The Civil Power. If they don't make the request, the Military (and their assets) cannot be approved and used. (yes, there's some 'local disaster' discretion available) The State's Premier has to request, through that State's Governor, to the Governor General (the Commander In Chief of the ADF) for the use of the Military.

Lastly, I'll say this... my 'next-door neighbour' is a State forest. It hasn't had a clearing burn in 25 years and I hope that It's been scheduled soon.

Perhaps this year will be a wake up call that trying to maintain a static environment doesn't work.

 

[ovrszd]

Plenty of camels here we are trying to get rid of. Shooting them in their thousands. Maybe sell the meat to you guys.... hehe

Pretty sure I ate Camel in SW Asia in 1990....

 

[ericm979]

Perhaps this year will be a wake up call that trying to maintain a static environment doesn't work.

Land managers have known that since the '80s when I was studying fire ecology and working as a fire fighter. It's hard to change from the program of putting all fires out for a number of reasons. More people have built in the wildland-urban interface. You can't do control burns around people and their buildings as there's too much risk. We've trained people to think fire is bad for the ecosystem. Smokey the Bear was an effective advertising campaign. As a result, people complain when there's a control burn. Politically it is hard to spend money to clear overgrown forests to address a fire that might happen in 10 or 20 years. In the US, the Park Service in the '80s had a program to let natural caused fires burn. That worked well until much of Yellowstone burned from some 'let it burn' fires in '88. It'd been a long time since Yellowstone burned, I know because I did a big vegetation mapping project there in '85. The result of those fires was intense pressure to shut the program down. It set that kind of let it burn program back 30 years.

We're finally seeing some movement on control burns here in California after the disaster in Paradise where 85 people were killed. But a lot of the forests close to homes are going to require thinning, which costs more to do. The state just allocated $1B for fire prevention work, we'll see how far that goes.

I think that a lot of the increase in fires here in California has been due to the build up of fuels from the lack of low intensity fires. But climate change is a factor too. The higher night time temperatures we see mean that the big fires don't "lay down" as much at night, which is when a lot the work to control a fire gets done. And in our big Sierra mountain range there's been a reduction in summer rain, resulting in lower fuel moisture, which means the stuff burns faster. (both of these found by studies, not just my opinion).

 

[Big Barn]

Pretty sure I ate Camel in SW Asia in 1990....

Some guys even smoked them.

 

[Big Barn]

Mate.

I'm not going to argue with you.

That "Special" from your 60 Minutes was so misleading, one sided, balderdash as to make me physically ill.

.

I am totally enlightened. Thank you, Wagtail.

 

[GeneV]

Payback for the camel cigarettes.... a delicate blend of camel sh## and tram tickets.

That's how I like 'em.

 

[ruffdog]

Mate.

I'm not going to argue with you......
Lastly, I'll say this... my 'next-door neighbour' is a State forest. It hasn't had a clearing burn in 25 years and I hope that It's been scheduled soon.

Maybe you will get your wish for that natural and beneficial clearing burn so it will be all cleaned up! :dance1:

 

[Alien]

I 'wish' my 40 acres would cold burn. So much ground litter and dead trees. But wishing could lead to disaster nowadays. AND we have Koalas. Like you Wagtail, we back on to State Forest. They have done two cold burns in part of it in the last 10 years, one less than two years ago. State Gov has since bought in new regs so I don't think they will do it again.

 

[bunyip]

We have very little debris as we are grassland and the horses keep that down, no koalas but plenty of wombats and possums and snakes of course, haven't heard any frogs for a while and nothing can destroy blowflies.
Had some decent rain of late and actually had to cut the grass as it was starting to get too long where the horses don't go.

 

[JohnMacca]

Thought I would post this link to a picture of a local river.
There has been a number of heavy rain events (thunderstorms) that have helped control the fires, but there are always trade-offs.

It shows the mud that is now coming down river from the burnt catchments in the Ovens River and the Buckland Creek.
The Ovens River is usually clear in this area (and above) and is a favourite trout fishing stream.

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