In the Bairnsdale Advertiser last week, there was an article titled Locals protest planned burning.
According to secretary of the Howitt Society, Garry Squires, the group of protestors have short memories.
“It is merely five years ago that a large proportion of East Gippsland was ravaged by an intense, catastrophic wildfire, which destroyed millions of birds and animals, burnt rainforest gullies, caused major erosion, polluted waterways, and caused untold damage to unique ecosystems,” Mr Squires said.
“Have the protestors already forgotten those fires and the impact that they had on our community and the forest areas?
“The natural regime of fire in the forest landscape was dominated by mild fires caused by lightning and Aboriginal burning, with occasional severe fires.
“This regime has now been replaced by a different pattern: natural lightning fires are suppressed, Aboriginal burning has ceased, and instead, we now experience extensive extreme fires on a regular basis, as the district did in 2019/20.
“Our forests are adapted to regular mild fires.
“In fact many species in the forest require mild fire to germinate seeds and for maintaining the ecological balance.
“The natural regime of lightning and Aboriginal burning not only preserved the balance but also prevented the accumulation of excessive fuel that could lead to catastrophic wildfires.”
According to Mr Squires, the forest cannot tolerate extreme high intensity fire and the results of such fire in 2019/20 are still evident to the travelling public in East Gippsland as they travel along major roads such as the Princes Highway or the Great Alpine Road stated Mr Squires.
“The planned burning carried out by land managers aims to reduce fuel over large areas, much like the natural lightning and Aboriginal burning did in the past,” he said.
“It is imperative to reduce fuel loads.
“The laws of physics inform us that the more fuel that is available, the more intense the fire will be. In fact, if the fuel quantity is doubled, the fire becomes four times as intense and if fuel quantity is tripled, the fire is nine times as intense.
“This principle also works in reverse, which is why planned burns to reduce fuel loads are so essential.
“In the future management of fire in the eucalyptus forests, there is a crucial choice to be made.
“Land managers can follow the lead of the protestors and cease all planned burning, and await the next mega fire to inflict the same level of damage that we witnessed in 2019/20.
“Alternatively, land managers can actively work to reduce fuel loads through a regime of planned fuel reduction burning.
“In this scenario, fuels are reduced in a planned way over planned areas at low intensity mimicking the natural burning regime.”
Mr Squires said there is no way to prevent all fire in the forests.
“No matter how much preparation is done there will be days when there are too many fires at the same time for the limited suppression resources,” he said.
“However if fuels are reduced over large areas then fire intensity will be much lower and environmental damage minimised.”
According to the Howitt Society, if the protestors are genuinely interested in minimising the impact of wildfire on the environment and the ecology of local forests, then supporting Forest Fire Management to carry out more fuel reduction would be their best path forward.
