Ecological Blog

The silly season is here again with 'fuel reduction' burns underway in many parts of Victoria. We believe that anyone who lit a fire today or yesterday should be treated as an arsonist. In our view it was a criminal act. But this is just a loopy government plan to be seen to be doing something - doesn' t matter what - even though there is no evidence to show that the burns make Victorians any safer.

In fact these burns frequently get out of control and cause widespread damage to private property, public land and our native wildlife. It will be interesing to say the least if the Point Nepean burn gets out of control!

Just imagine how many nestling birds are being fried right now by the Department of Sustainability and Environment and Parks Victoria in their lunatic approach to 'fuel reduction'

WHY LIGHT THE FIRES NOW WHEN EVERYTHING IS NESTING AND CAN'T ESCAPE! The aswer is simple - they don't care and neither do the politicians as long as they con a dumb population into thinking they will be safer.

Humans are the biggest problem for this planet.

Tags: arsonists, fuel reduction burns, parks victoria, pyromanics

This week, ABC Radio Gippsland carried interviews with Friends of Earth campaigner Anthony Amis and Hancock Victorian Plantations General Manager Owen Trumper about replanting in College Creek and the use of herbicides which can affect water supplies.

Here's a transcript of what Owen Trumper said to Celine Foenander - see if you reckon he's believable especilly as Hancocks were asked by email about the use of Terbacil in it's fertiliser mix and chose not to respond. He also seems to think that revegetation is the same as regeneration.

' I’m joined now by Owen Trumper who is the manager of Gippsland’s, Hancock Victorian Plantations, good morning to you.

OT: Good morning Celine

Owen Trumper you would have heard Anthony Amis’s comments there. Are you using Terbacil?

OT: thankyou for the opportunity to clear up this misunderstanding. The fact of the matter is that we are not using terbacil or any herbicides up in the college creek area and the misunderstanding comes from a generic sign that we have created for our fertiliser bins, which is due to our infrequent times which we do put chemicals in our fertiliser, and we do it for OH&S reasons, so for people who are handling the...

Tags: college creek, hancock victorian plantations, terbacil

It's hard to believe, but the vast majority of people around the world don't understand that the growing number of extinctions of plant and animal species is a cause for concern.  They seem to think that human beings are somehow separate from the world around us.                     

• Here's what most people don't know:
  
  � Up to 30,000 species per year are going extinct: three per hour.
  � 50 percent of all primates and 100 percent of all great apes are threatened with extinction.
  � Three of the world's eight tiger subspecies became extinct in the past 60 years; the remaining five are all endangered.
  � Humans have already driven 20 percent of all birds extinct.
  � 12 percent of mammals, 12 percent of birds, 31 percent of reptiles, 30 percent of amphibians, and 37 percent of fish are threatened with extinction.
  
  The consequences of thoughtless consumption and weak environmental policies here and overseas are bound to bite us on the backside!.

Tags: speciesextinctions

Tags: candowie, water quality, westernport water

The Wilderness Society (or more particularly Gavan McFadzean, one of its senior campaigners) needs a foot up the backside for its latest nonsense.

In an earlier edition of the Friends of the Earth publication Chain Reaction, FoE camaigner Anthony Amis presented a reasoned explanation for the community's disappointment with the actions of TWS in endorsing the flawed deal between the State Government and Hancock Victorian Plantations over the Strzeleckis Cores and Links.

Gavan McFadzean replied with an implausible defence of his actions. Here is the response to his tirade by Friends of Bass Valley Bush:

I can't let Gavan McFadzean's letter about the Strzeleckis in the last issue of Chain Reaction go unanswered. In a joint Wilderness Society (TWS) / Victorian National Parks Association (VNPA) press release welcoming the secret deal negotiated by Minister Jennings and Hancock Victorian Plantations, Mr McFadzean said "We are pleased to see the Victorian Government moving to protect native forests in the Strzelecki Ranges."

In his latest response to comments by Anthony Amis from Friends of the Earth, Mr McFadzean made the statement that "the precious College Creek is under immediate threat from the chainsaws". But the destruction of College Creek is a direct result...

Tags: friends of the earth, strzeleckis, the wilderness society

We've suffered some significant internet problems over the past couple of months. First, despite running Norton Internet Security, we had a meltdown from a virus attack. Once that was sorted and we dumped Norton Internet Security in favour of eScan (which we are assured offers far better protection) our main computer still couldn't access the internet.

Our ISP (DCSI based in Warragul, Victoria) sent a new modem but that still didn't work. After a month of fiddling around I replaced the ADSL line filter and low and behold the system was up and running!

It seems likely that a power surge (possibly caused by lightning) damaged the filter and the orginal modem. The only issue left now if how to get the wireless network up as the new modem only has one ethernet port (the old one had four).    

Tags: internet, norton internet security

Melbourne University experts agree with us that in some cases, fuel reduction burns increase fire risks in native forests.

Professor David Karoly and Dr Kevin Tolhurst told a bushfire seminar called to discuss proposed fuel reduction burns in the Otways that over time any burning starts to change the ecology of rainforest gullies so that they cease to be wet rainforest gullies and become dry fuel gullies which no longer protect the community or the forest.

"Increased fuel-reduction burning, as advocated by some sectors of the forest industry and associated lobby groups, will further exacerbate the situation," they said

Dr Tolhurst said extreme weather, caused by global warming, was a greater threat than fuel. Fuel load is not as important a factor as weather."

This is not confined to the Otways - the same applies around Grantville and in the Strzeleckis. We have great fears that the Royal Commission currently investigating the latest wildfires will be hoodwinked by the numbers of people who want to cut down all the trees and 'burn the bush'.

Tags: fire risk, fuel reduction burns, native vegetation

Claims by the State Government that a $116.2 million package included in its budget is a boost for Parks and Biodiversity is downright misleading.

Of that total, $52.7 million is allocated for fuel reduction burning, a further $10 million is set aside to upgrade infrastucture at Point Nepean and $4 million to upgrade jetties. There are other allocations for visitor facilities, cycling and walking tracks and the 'ecological thinning' of trees which will presumably support the timber industry pulp mills. So the amount left which could loosely be described having any biodiversity value is less than $30 million - just 25% of the Government's "boost for Parks and Biodiversity" budget fantasy.

Oh dear!!!!!!

Tags: biodiversity, victorian state budget

Heaps of people are coming out of the woodwork squealing that that won't have an opportunity to address the Royal Commission. Many of them apparently want to squawk about not being warned of the fire danger.

Counsel assisting the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, Jack Rush QC, says while people knew February 7 would be a day of risk, they were not aware they would be facing a fire of "phenomenal" speed.

The Black Saturday bushfires ripped across the state in February, claiming 173 lives, devastating 78 communities and destroying 2,029 homes.

Mr Rush told the directions hearing in the Victorian County Court that the commission will hear evidence in the coming weeks that for many people, the warnings were not a trigger to leave their homes early.

"Whilst people knew that the 7th of February would be a day of extreme risk, they did not have the understanding that the risk, as the McArthur Forest Fire Index demonstrated, carried with it the potential of a fire that could not be fought," he said.

Well, the warnings that were put out prior to that weekend were pretty graphic and anyone who didn't understand that they could be facing an extreme event must have...

Tags: bushfire, royal commission, wildfire

The Friends group submission to the Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission (that really should be called wildfire because it wasn't just bush that burned) has been completed and sent off.

We don't intend to appear before the Commission to make personal presentations but hope there are plenty of views expressed - not just from the vocal lobby who say that more fuel reduction burns will solve the problem.

The final submission has only minor changes from the version on this blog.

Tags: bushfire, royal commission, wildfire