Large areas of Pilliga scrub are burning right now in central western NSW with large koala populations threatened.
The forests were declared national park less than 18 months ago, with many timber workers losing their jobs*. At the time the timber workers warned that unless National Parks and Wildlife officers maintained fire breaks and control burnt the entire forest could convert back to grassland.
Today a new group, the NSW Private Native Forestry Group put out a media release about forests and fires with particular reference to the fires now burning in the Pilliga:
“With predictions that this summer will see the worst bushfires in the state’s recorded history, farmers and foresters are warning that further government restrictions on the management of forests on private land will dramatically increase the threat and severity of bushfires.
“It’s time the NSW Government knew what farmers and foresters have known for decades: sustainable management of forests reduces the risk of catastrophic bushfires,” said Andrew Hurford, forester and spokesperson of the NSW Private Native Forests Group.
“Farmers and foresters help to reduce the frequency and intensity of bushfires by managing dangerous fuel loads that accumulate on the forest floor before they become a problem. We also play a crucial role in maintaining fire trails so that firefighters can access remote areas quickly.
“Farmers and foresters are the best ‘frontline of defence’ against bushfires: we are the ‘eyes and ears’ of the forest, helping to put out fires as soon as they occur. It’s in our best interests to protect these forests from catastrophic wild fires,” said Mr Hurford.
Mr Hurford said that radical green groups would have politicians believe that the policy of ‘Fence and Forget’ is the best way to conserve native forests on private land: a theory that totally ignores the fact that Aboriginals actively managed Australia’s bushland for thousands of years.
“Just look at how this policy has been an absolute disaster for fire management in our National Parks. For example, in the last forty-eight hours, 100,000 hectares of the Pilliga Forest near Coonabarabran in Central West NSW has been incinerated,” said Mr Hurford.
“Today, over 8.5 million hectares of private land in NSW (an area larger than Tasmania) are able to be looked after and sustainably managed for timber production by farmers and foresters.
“Millions of hectares of native bushland and millions of dollars worth of rural infrastructure, such as fences and sheds, will be incinerated if radical green groups get their way on locking-up private forests,” Mr Hurford said.
In August this year, the NSW Government was forced by angry farmers, timber mill owners and workers to shelve its plan to introduce a ‘Code’ that would have seen 60 per cent of forests on private land ‘locked-up’ into de facto National Parks.
“Without private landholders, who will be left to safeguard bushland from fires?” said Mr Hurford.
The 2003 ‘State of the Environment Report’ for the Australian Capital Territory lists that nearly 6.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide were emitted into the atmosphere during the January 2003 Canberra wildfires: equivalent to 1.6 million new cars on the road for a year.
“The radical green policy of ‘Fence and Forget’ will lead to more catastrophic bushfires and more greenhouse gas emissions – the very thing governments are trying to prevent!” said Mr Hurford.
The NSW Private Native Forests Group is made up of timber mill owners, forest workers and farmers who harvest timber from private land. The Group is supported by the NSW Forest Products Association, Timber Communities Australia and Australian Forest Grower’s. Private native forestry is the long term and sustainable management of native forests on privately-owned land. The industry employs approximately 3,000 people and generates over $300 million for the NSW regional economy. Around a third of all native forests in NSW (or 8.5 million hectares) are on private land.
———————-
* At the time I wrote several blog posts on the issue including:
Timber Communities and National Parks (Part 1), 21st April 2005
http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/000563.html
Pilliga-Goono Lockup Announced, 5th May 2005:
http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/000590.html
And I wrote about enviromentalism and the forests for On Line Opinion in June 2005:
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=3535
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
IF the Pilliga were not declared a National Park less than 18 months ago, would the outcome of 100,000ha of burnt out forest be much different?
Maybe drought, heat, low humidity and wind are sufficiently influential that the difference made by foresters over less than 18 months may not have been enough?
Apparently firefighters were told by NPWS that before putting in firebreaks an analysis had to be conducted identifying risks to biodiversity…State Forests maintain firetrails and conduct low intensity burns in cool season.
Hi Steve,
Just got off the phone from Juleen Young. Her partner Rod is the local fire brigades group captain and they live 20 kms east of Coonabarabran.
According to Juleen:
Over the last week there have been 7 lighting strikes in the area. The local brigade has endeavoured to put all fires out quickly and/or push fire breaks.
Rod Young saw smoke in the Tinkremina nature reserve, but was stopped from putting a grader into the reserve to contain the fire by National Parks Officers. The fire subsequently got out of control, completely destroyed the new nature reserve (this was state forest 18 months ago) and has now burnt out about 10,000 hectares of surrounding private land.
Juleen also says, there are issues with National Parks restricing hazard reduction burning on private land because of the vegetation regulations.
1994 all over again, contractors working for NSW RFS have very low opinion of senior management.
Winter hazard reduction is still hampered by EPA air pollution controls.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200612/s1801812.htm
“..The Department of Environment and Conservation has rejected claims more funding of national parks could have lessened the severity of this year’s bushfires.
The Opposition Leader, Peter Debnam, says if the Government had better funded the maintenance of national parks, the intensity of the fires could have been minimised.
But a spokesman for the department, John Dengate, says authorities have done everything they can to manage the bushfire threat.
“It’s absolutely flawed logic to say national park on fire somehow equals flawed hazard reduction work,” he said.
“And the point we’d say is no amount of [human resources] is going to stop a wild fire on a bad day.”
That does sound nuts doesn’t it?
As at yesterday there were zero (0) National Parks fire fighters on the ground in the Piliga were the fire is essentially in National Park/Nature Reserve. The fight is being lead by RFS volunteers and Forestry NSW on National Parks land!
In its demand for a national park the so called wilderness society claimed that the Pilliga is a rich and biodiverse ecosystem, it contains;
Over 900 known plant species, probably more than 1500.
At least 12 rare and threatened plants
About 300 native animal species (not counting invertebrates)
14 frogs
Over 200 birds
32 mammals (including 12 bats)
About 50 reptiles
22 threatened animal species (Glossy Black Cockatoo, Regent Honeyeater, Gilbert’s Whistler, Painted Honeyeater, Turquoise Parrot, Barking Owl, Masked Owl, Malleefowl, Square-tailed Kite, Black-breasted Buzzard, Bush Stone Curlew, Eastern Pygmy-possum, Squirrel Glider, Koala, Black-striped Wallaby, Rufous Bettong, Pilliga Mouse, Greater Long-eared Bat, Yellow-bellied Sheathtail Bat, Little Pied Bat, Large-eared Pied Bat, Eastern Cave Bat).
How many wilderness society members are out their saving all this from the fire, what are all those that rallied or donated doing to save the koalas, and all the other little beasties that used to inhabitat the sustainable managed working forest?
Cinders – what a try-on – the forest was raised to the ground in the 1980s – burnt to buggery.
You guys are just an uncaring full-of-it PR machine.
I don’t think you give a stuff either- it’s simply a paid continual astro-turf job against the greens.
The image of kindly foresters tending each part of the area. Crap – you were only where there was anything of interest.
SO if you guys really care so much – where’s YOUR national campaign, passionate ongoing, without end to ensure we have a proper fire regime in these systems. Haven’t heard of it?
Luke,
I suppose given your reaction to my very reasonable post, you will also try to tell me that all the unemployed community that depended on the forests for a job, now all have jobs in tourism.
Luke Most people know that when greens loose the arguement they try to vilify the messenger as they can’t attack the message. your last post demonstrate that point.
Nice diversion – where’s YOUR campaign. Or are you guys also part of the spectators.
These systems had wildfires long before green arrived on the scene.
And how many 100s of people were involved in forestry in Pilliga. All full time were they? No interests in surrounding grazing and wheat?
Luke,
Please try and be civil, and also please don’t assume motivations or that people have to run campaigns to care.
Also do a bit of reading perhaps including the earlier blog posts linked to above.
The early explorers described the country as open grassland and woodland. Early European settlers followed with sheep.
But sheep didn’t survive the drought in the late 1800s, then there was flood. The now ‘iconic’ Pilliga-Goonoo forests started growing after the floods and with them emerged a timber industry. That industry has tended those forests for decades.
Then Bob Carr turned the state forests into national parks and chased the workers out. Now the forests are burning.
The foresters had a vested interest in not letting the forests burn, and that vested interest also benefitted the barking owls, koalas and other animals mentioned by Cinders above.
Jennifer: I find it most interesting that all you people here yet so memote from the action have such great knowledge of the Pilliga scrub and it’s timbers etc.
How about sombody posts a picture or two so the rest of us know what you are on about hey.
Jen – come off it. You’re totally happy to let the guys indulge in some greenie bashing. Even up the score a tad and suddenly we’re not civil. Why because it’s clearly an astroturf job.
Now I’m telling you that these systems burnt to the ground in massive conflagrations in the 1980s with forestry present and without greenies doing whatever. Is this site evidence based or not. Are you saying these areas had no wildfires in the past? Get into evidence mode.
I used to drive around the Pilliga on weekends – how much ground truthing have you done Jen? I suggest it’s you’re the one who needs to do some reading with both eyes open.
“tended” – bolsh !! You’ll be adding they’re “softly spoken” next.
What is Timber Communities Australia doing about fire regimes in the Pilliga??
Now Cinders is probably a very nice decent chap. Nothing personal and I hope he has a nice Xmas with his family but we’re talking forest fires are we not.
Luke I can recall counting flocks of wandering emus grazing the roadsides after some big fires out there but I can’t recall the place, the year (late 80’s?) or where my photos are.
Neither can I recall much standing straight timber
Luke,
1. Regular readers of this blog know who Cinders is, because he has shared his passions with us at this blog here: http://www.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/001252.html .
But we don’t know who you are/ who you represent.
2. Are you trying to suggest that the whole Pilliga-Goonoo burnt in the 1980s? Which forest burnt back then? State forest or national park and in which year?
Also see 150,000 ha Pilliga 1997 BOM
“A serious fire outbreak affected NSW during late November 1997 through to early January 1998. There were over 250 fires across the State which burnt a total area in excess of 500,000 hectares. Four firefighters died whilst fighting the fires. The largest individual fires were the Pilliga (150,000 Ha), Muswellbrook/Singleton (105,000 Ha) Wollondilly (80,000 Ha), Hawkesbury (55,000 Ha), Shoalhaven (40,000 Ha), Lithgow (26,000 Ha) and Merriwa (25,000 Ha). Sydney itself was threatened on 2nd December with fires burning in southern and northern bushland suburbs.
The Bureau of Meteorology provided over 700 site specific fire forecasts during this time and issued warnings of very high to extreme fire danger for various parts of the State on 11 days during December. Very high to extreme fire danger was most widespread on the 2nd, 17th, 18th and 21st of December”.
Jennifer: I used the 1988 Pilliga fires and subsequent scrub recovery with following major fires in 1997 as the result in part of my submissions on bushfire frequency in crops and regrowth to national inquiries. The completeness of those big fire fronts whipping out whole bits of country could not be ignored.
Readers may also be interested in another issue I suggested then, these fire fronts travel at about 15km/hr in all regrowth where ever it occurs in dry winds like we had last week. Note this is without spotting adding to the outbreaks.
The 1967 Hobart fires and forest recovery were the basis of our primary estimates when fires swept again from the mountains through to Kingston by the bay. I witnessed The Lara fires in between from the refineries near Melbourne. Quite a few people get killed in these crop fire fronts.
Jen – I’m representing myself. No organisations. Nor government. Nor business. Often good science. If I was with WWF I’d tell you. Actually with the bolsh that’s floating around I may even be forced to join.
I’d like to consult my note-book but it was consumed in the blaze:-)
Fire burnt for days, national headlines, all crews involved. Huge areas burned out.
I’m making a simple point that there have been massive fires before and a history of it from memory. So to say “oooo it’s the greenies” is really far fetched.
Enough seasons with rain antecedent building up biomass, the right hot dry conditions – curing index on high – a decent wind and whoof !
I’m not saying this is the same with all forests. So don’t throw rocks pls WA sand gropers !
Jen don’t make your own Murray Rover salinity mistake here with reality not matching assumptions. (saying you pointed out salt trends didn’t match rhetoric).
Sigh – if you want to duke it out – we can research it. Two occasions from memory.
We can ring the Narrabri Courier paper and ask?
So Luke, who has no vested interest in a government department getting it right or wrong, is going to prove that the Tinkremina forest could not have been saved by Rod Young by ringing the Narrabri Courier?
… or just that there have been bad fires in the Pilliga in the past?
Hey, in starting this thread I didn’t suggest that there have never been any fires in the Pilliga… but perhaps I wanted to give a voice to the locals concern that the frequency and intensity of fires is likely to increase as large areas of state forest are converted to National park. … with a consequence being that over time the forests become less biodiverse?
So Luke, when you ring the Narrabri Courier, could you get as much detail as possible.
Luke asks what is the forest sector doing in relation to bushfires, of course the answer is they do a lot, as the well known phrase ‘No tree- No me’ applies equally to a logger as it does a koala.
Many in the sector including TCA members are volunteer fire fighters.
As land management and fire fighting is a State responsibility under the constitution, (well it used to be before the Tasmanian Dams case and the recent high court decision on the of corporations law) reporting is done on a State basis.
Any one of the State forest management service will provide a wealth of information of fire management. Yet Luke also wants to defend the Wilderness Society role in all this so lets just compare annual report of Forestry Tasmania and the Wilderness Society.
Last year Forestry Tas attended 56 fires, 131 the year before and 113 in 2003-04. Hectares of State forest burnt for those yeas were 8.8, 4.1 and 24.4 out of 1.5 million hectares of State Forest.
The cost to the industry for that suppression was $858,000 (2005/06), $1,557,000 (2004/05) and $4,967,000.00 (2003/04) that over $7 million in three years on state forest only!
The annual report available at http://www.forestrytas.com.au/forestrytas/ also states:
“Forestry Tasmania crews attended a total of 56 vegetation fires, which is 39% of the long term average number of fires attended in a fire season. Forty-eight of the fires burnt on land tenures for which Forestry Tasmania is the responsible land manager. The remaining 8 fires were attended in support of other land management agencies in accordance with the provisions of the Interagency Fire Management Protocol or because the fire threatened Forestry Tasmania assets.”
Similar statistic will be found in QLD, NSW, Victoria, WA fire services.
In contrast the Wilderness Society annual report at http://www.wilderness.org.au/about/annual-reports/ fire fighting is not listed as any part of its $10.5 million expenditure. Looking at the break up of expenditure more is spent on telephones than scientific research.
Fire fighting or promoting tourism in national parks doesn’t even rate a mention.
Courier was shut for the weekend.
But we have>
Australian Bushfire Conference, Albury, July 1999
Large Pilliga Fires and the development of fire management and fire suppression strategies
Peter BrookhouseA and Don NicholsonB
NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, PO Box 39 Coonabarabran 2357 B NSW State Forests, PO Box 865, Dubbo 2890
The Pilliga Scrub could be described as ‘big fire country’, where periodically, a single large fire will affect a major proportion of the scrub. The scale of these fires requires a fire management approach that is of a landscape scale, rather than confined to a certain tenure or a small part of the Pilliga Scrub.
The Pilliga is about 500,000 hectares in area. 400,000 hectares is administered as State Forests, 80,000 hectares as the Pilliga Nature Reserve and about 20,000 hectares as other Crown tenures and freehold.
The Pilliga scrub has an extensive fire history, with about 350 fires recorded in the last fifty years. The majority of the area burnt is in the eastern half of the uncleared areas defining the Pilliga. Several fires have exceeded 20,000 hectares, with a number of fires exceeding 100,000 hectares.
The Pilliga can be divided into two fire domains, the Western Pilliga which is dominated by White Cypress Pine and Eucalypt woodlands, and the Eastern Pilliga which is dominated by Eucalypt woodlands and Broombush shrublands. There are distinctive differences between the domains in fire behaviour, fire frequency and area burnt.
Comprehensive fire records for the Pilliga have been keep by New South Wales State Forests since 1950, and more recently by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Some gaps occur in the records, and measures are currently underway to obtain this information.
The western fire domain accounts for a third of the Pilliga Scrub. This is includes the Pilliga West State Forest, the northern edge of the Pilliga, and a number of smaller State Forests. It includes the majority of the productive White Cypress Pine (Callitris glaucaphylla) woodlands.
The number of recorded fires is higher in the western domain. These fires are generally smaller than in the eastern domain. A comparsion, between the two domains, of mapped fires by size class is listed in Table 1.
The eastern part of the western domain was burnt by the 1951 fire. This fire was the largest recorded in the Pilliga. Since then, the largest western fires were in 1984 with 1292 hectares burnt in the Pilliga East State Forest, and in 450 hectares burnt in 1997. The majority of fires have burnt less than 100 hectares. Most of the western domain has not burnt in the last 50 years.
The eastern fire domain is characterised by larger fires. The 1951 fire was the largest recorded fire, burning about 350,000 hectares. Since then, three fires have exceeded 100,000 hectares. The majority of fires are between 100 and 10,000 hectares, with 27 fires exceeding 1000 hectares. The majority of the domain area has been burnt two or three times in the last 50 years, and some areas six or seven times.
A contributing factor to the size difference between fires in the western and eastern domains is the extent of roading. The western domain is intensively roaded due to timber harvesting.
The vast majority of ignitions in the Pilliga have been lightning strikes, accounting for 60% of ignitions.
Human caused ignitions include a variety of sources. The pattern of these sources, over the last 50 years, reflect the changes in work and travel patterns. A number of earlier fires were caused by ‘billy fires’ at work camps and the roadside camps of travellers. A sealed highway, thermos flasks and motels have probably almost eliminated these causes.
Jennifer: In case you missed my point, in our recent history the frequency of major fire in the Pilliga scrub is one every decade. A very good question is why and it’s one Ive tried to answer several times befor I found your blog, I guess so have a few others tied up with fire prevention in the region and elsewhere.
Frequency of bad fires is dependent on several things besides management, namely ignition, fuel and wind. The last two must be continuous to form a massive rolling front. In tall forests it’s all about crowning but what about our grass and scrub. How does a bush fire jump four lane highways and take off again as if there was no interruption? How does a grass fire do the same thing but even more swiftly?
What bothers me most is the attempted back burns lit on long frontages in an attempt to round up a big fire on a bad day. These additional fronts all too frequently become the main front. My considered opinion for what its worth “containment” when it’s too much and too late then becomes another dirty word like “arson”.
When a major bushfire becomes an atmospheric event we can’t stop it regardless of who is in charge at the time.
I acknowledge Cinder’s colleagues fire fighting true grit. Noted.
I’m simply saying the Pilliga has a history of fire under the “old management”.
Wilderness society and greens need to be stood up to on fire management, fire ecology, fire regimes.
Do we simply have to accept “oooo they forced us”. Bagging them is not as effective as a positive campaign with NSW state government.
Appears some of the early fires may have been even due to forestry workers themselves. But who’s perfect. Also lightning and tourists.
Better management presumably would have a series of small cool season burns in a long scale rotation, including fire breaks.
Hi all Aussies,
The big fire in southeast Australia was major news in Swedish media. They especially mentioned the trapped koalas and that a Koala Rescue center had been set up.
If I had lived closer to Australia I had gladly volunteered in the center or otherwise helped the wildlife…
To all people interested in preventing forest and bush fires!
Forest fires prevention starts at the very beginning of a fire! The technology is available!
Fire Watch – The “Automated Wildland Suiveillance System” is detecting smoke at a very early stage when any fire is still small – day and night! Each sensor operates 360 degree up to 40 km in distance and covers approx 5000 km2. The data is sent to the Control Center preferrably at the regional Fire Brigade Station. Instantly, without loss of time exact information on the location, the type of fire, dynamics, time etc is available to the fire and operation management, the alarm can be set. Fire Fightin operation can be started in an early stage of a forest/bush fire when thermic dynamics have not yet developed. Valuable time is saved as opposed to “manned out-looks”. The system operates automatic, around the clock. The operator at the Control Center reeives alarms on his screen and he is monitoring the area of each sensor, capable of zooming in on each spotted alarm.
For instance the area around Marseille, South of France is successfully protected with these systems. If intersted you may ask for more information on that systems from werner.stettler@fire-watch.ch.
It appears that the NSW National Parks has a Pilliga fire management strategy:
http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/PDFs/FMS_PilligaNR.pdf
Were environmentalists also responsible for the ‘Black Thursday’ fires of 1851, the ‘Red Tuesday’ fires of 1898, the many fires of the early 1900s, the ‘Black Friday’ fires of 1939 (and all those in between)?
I’d like to suggest that everyone read:
Fernandes, P. M., and H. S. Botelho. 2003. A review of prescribed burning effectiveness in fire hazard reduction. International Journal of Wildland Fire 12 (2):117-28.
It’s an excellent, objective review if the international literature on the effectiveness of fuel reduction.
“The whole country was on fire … The country smoked around us on all sides…”
“All the country beyond the river was in flames, and indeed, from the time of our arrival in these part, the atmosphere has been so obscured by smoke, that I could never obtain a distinct view of the horizon. The smoke darkened the air at night, so as to hide the stars, and thus prevented us from ascertaining our latitude … Fires prevailed fully as extensively, at great distance in the interior, and the sultry air seemed heated by the general conflagration.”
Thomas Mitchell, commenting on the fires in the eastern Pilliga, during his first journey to the area in mid December 1831.
So starts the Fire management plan available at
http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/pdfs/fms_pilliganr.pdf
Currently the NSW Parks service advises: A fire was ignited in the park on 29 November 2006 by lightning. The fire is 74,000 hectares.
Of course fire is part of the Australian forest ecology, a fact understood so well by foresters, forest workers and the community that depends on forest production. It is why the community spent two years in discussion with governemnt, trying to not only save their industry but save the bush, yet despite putting up valid alternatives and being prepared to compromise, the community were in the end ignored!
Reading the linked posts mentioned in Jen’s opening article fire management, fire fighting were major issues for the community, again the result left them disenfranchised.
The lack of resources allocated by Governemnt when creating these reserves is apparent when you read the fire plan and realise it hasn’t been updated since the creation of the new reserves and covers only 84,000 ha. The discussion in this blog earlier has been not that there was a plan , but the reaction to this current fire.
It is amazing given the fire history including the 1997 Timmallallee Creek fire which
burnt over 140,000 hectares over nature reserve, state forests and private lands, that the Government in urban areas could believe that harvesting a couple of hundred hectares a year was to totally destroy the ecology and that they need to stop the industry in order to save the koala etc.
What my ealier posts clearly demonstrate is that having a healthy and financially robust industry depending on the forests ensures that resources are allocated to fund fire suppression, fire research, fund the purchase of early dection devices, and to be pro active in the establishment of control lines and fuel reduction burning.
The community of the Pilliga need our support not criticism in this very stressful time.
These fires would have scarcely been on the radar of TV and press a few decades ago.
Where you in 82 Warwick? Must have had a year off the media.
A bit of background reading, the fires in 1982 burnt ~20% of the Pilliga.
http://www.csu.edu.au/special/bushfire99/papers/brookhse/pilliga/
Lets ask Stettler how his remote smoke sensor network would operate in some of our more isolated mountain regions with out power or telemetry and with out line of sight to other stations.
Consider for one moment where your mobile phone network covers now while out in the bush.
I suspect we would be better served when lightening strikes across this parched land are picked up by satellite surveillance etc and immediately dumped on by our mighty quick summer choppers and ground crews.
But knowing where the outbreaks are is only a small part of the rural fire fighting business. There are hundreds of bushfires in a bad week.
Lukie the fire fighting expert – your fire qualifications are what exactly beside an ability to google???
abc – what’s an abc except smoke ? Obviously you’re just some disaffected redneck.
We seem to be getting the Pilliga that Luke and his WWF mates deserve.
The neatest bit of sleaze is that fires in National Parks that can release 6.4m tonnes of CO2 are not counted as anthropogenic under IPCC Rules. And nor are all the subsequent emissions after the fire when the, now dead, trees rot away and release their CO2.
So we are left to believe that this carbon isn’t warming anything. Apparently there is some sort of green executive privilege card that allows this sort of “ideologically cool” CO2 to go to the head of the queue and be absorbed by the oceans ahead of our own private sector CO2, which merely loiters on our climatic street corners looking for mischief.
And when challenged on this inconsistency, our high priests of planet salvation can rationalise these primarily parks estate conflagrations on the basis that the major devastation under the current regime merely emits the same amount of CO2 as had formerly been the case under a more frequent, mild fire regime from firestick farming.
But this raises a very interesting point as far as Australia’s national carbon accounting system.
We know that firestick farming practices took place over all of Australia for 40 millenia. And we also know that over most of the privately farmed land, and especially the cleared land, firestick farming no longer takes place.
And this could only mean that in the broader sweep of climatic history, Australia’s farmers now emit much less CO2 than was the case for 40 millenia.
And if we accept that these past levels of CO2 emission were “natural” and entirely within the capacity of our landscape and oceans to cope, then why should we accept the line that our current, lower, emissions are beyond our biosphere’s capacity to cope?
If our current emissions are less than a past natural level which has since been reduced substantially as a result of changed management practices, then surely, the volumes of CO2 emissions saved must be counted as anthropogenic savings?
And these savings from a past high natural emission level should be used to off-set other emissions?
Hello,
Just stumbled onto this interesting discussion…
From where I am typing I could see 3 fires, Tinkrameanah, Bommera and Garawilla, only Tinkrameanah was in the National Parks Estate. The day of the fires was hot – over 38 degrees – it seems that we have had hot weather since mid September. The combined rainfall for August to the end of october was just 15mm, with 40mm in the first week of November.
Tinkarameanah, like Binnaway Nature Reserve, has only been logged for Ironbark, discarded by forests when the viable timber had been taken and now managed by National Parks. In this area most of the large ironbarks have been logged, and a scrub dominated by black pine is all that is left.
The last time this area had a major fire was in the mid 60’s.
The day of the Tuesday night we had a dry lightning storm – over 1500 lightning strikes in the area! (from Coonabarabran to Mudgee)
I drove passed a smoldering lightning strike fire to the west of Coonabarabran on Wednesday, and half an hour later, with the wind change, it had gone from practically non-existent to threatening Coonabarabran. This is with a couple of wide dirt and sealed roads – how useful are graders going to be in those conditions?
Tinkrameanah has some sandstone rises, but is far from dominating the local landscape, and we all know how fires like to run up hills, especially with a vigorous tail wind.
From my knowledge of the area, and with the hot weather and strong wind change on Wednesday lunchtime, I doubt a grader could have contained any fire, and more likely to threaten the brave lives of our RFS.
I spent the month of August travelling around the Pilliga, from Bugaldi to Kenebri, in the central Pilliga. There was evidence of grader work on widening trails and roads, some of these trails hadn’t had this work done in the last 6 years. Mind you not all the roads had this work done on them though. Included in this work is turning bays every 0.5 to 1km
I have driven on most of the ‘upgraded’ trails in the Goonoo – they have had over 56km trails redone – these have had extra wide roads with turning bays every 500m, roll overs etc. NP are trying to do their bit for fire prevention – to claim otherwise is boring. Both agencies do this work as a matter of management
The Pilliga is a big place, works of this magnitude would have to be staged. Most of the work they do can easily be missed.
Hopefully this weather will get back to ‘normal’ (whatever that is) soon, and the fires controlled and put out.
Actually I don’t know anyone in the WWF Ian. But I may join as a result of your actions. Indeed I think you’re becoming increasingly deranged with each post. One of members of the vanishing nutter property rights movement losing it as pressed into extintion. Luckily you guys will never get more than 100 votes in any election so we’re all safe. Unless of course your nuttery gets us by your proposed truck bombing. On previous form Ian you would have normally advocated that local residents torch the Park and dynamited the wildlife – wouldn’t you? Or perhaps you’d have encouraged the locals to assault the NPWS staff – isn’t that your preferred style.
As for your thoughts on CO2 – so utterly stupid it’s not even worth debating anymore.
Thanks to Pilliga for an up close assessment. Says a lot IMHO.
Interesting reading, I’d like to clarify a few points and declare my interests.
I’m a forester, when working for FNSW I conducted the last major inventory of the Pilliga-Goonoo group of forests for the Western Regional Assessment and co-ordinated the Vegetation mapping project for the Brigalow Belt South on secondment to RaCD. I am currently employed as the NSW State Manager for Timber communities Australia.
I think that I do know a thing or two about the Piliga and Goonoo groups of forests especially through objective, data driven analysis.
Yes, the pilliga has burnt before,no doubts or arguments there.
Yes, there have been major fires before, no doubts or arguments there either.
What there is also no doubt about or cause for any argument is that the faster the response and the more comprehensive the response to fire the greater the probability that he fire will be extinguished quickly and NOT become a major conflagration as in 1982, 1997 and now 2006.
The simple reason that this fire is a major fire is not solely due to weather, fuel build up etc it is the timing and comprehensiveness of the response.
There was a time a few years ago that NPWS did have rapid response crews and did have the resources to put those crews in at the earliest notice. Those days are now but a distant memory.
NPWS staff do not like to see the forests burn in the current manner any more than Forestry staff or neighbouring landholders. Staff from both agancies have the skill and fire management knowledge to effectively manage such a fire. The problem is that GREEN theology has usurped the role of good operational practice. RFS, FNSW and NPWS now cannot suppress these fire using their accumulated fire fighting knowledge.
Green theology will not allow them to put in a dozer or grader for fear of “disturbance”, “erosion” or some other such nonsence. The Canberra fires are a classic example of being blinkered by one environmental constraint (in that case water catchment management) and taking their eyes of the main game (extinguishing a fire in mid January).
It seems that green theology has again raised its ugly head and RFS were prevented from puting in a track around the fire and containing it when it was still a small blaze (the only time that this can be done effectively and more importantly safely.
Our land management agencies must be able to operate free of the green thought police and be fully resourced to enable them to immediatly respond to fires when they occur and in the manner that they see fit.
If this means that a new dozer track is pushed through the bush, so be it, a 10-100 ha fire with a track around it is a better outcome than a 100,000 ha fire, in terms of environmental, social and economical costs.
The Canberra bushfires again provide a classic example. The fires were ignited on the 8th January and burnt for 10 days prior to erupting into a major conflagration. FNSW (planted forests division) had 29 lightening strikes on their estate from the same front that caused the fires on national park (both ACT and NSW jurisdictions), by lunch time on the 9th FNSW had extinguished all fires on their estate with a minor loss of forest (approx 300 ha, but don’t quote me on this figure). Well resourced crews, with a clear mandate and well understood procedures and practices enabled them to extingush those blazes.
This discussion is not about the ecological effects of fire, nor should it be about how one agency performs better than another, it should be about what the most appropriate response to fire should be given the prevailing and forecast conditions, it should be about how to ensure that our fire crews, (RFS, FNSW, NPWS and others) are adequately resourced and able to respond (practically and politically) in a timely and effective manner. I gave the Canberra bushfire examples because I feel that they demonstrate what can be achieved when adequate resources are allocated and coupled with the political and managerial will to act.
The decades of empirical, practical knowledge must not be allowed to be overshadowed by green theology when it comes to fire fighting.
Oh and by the way TCA members are our there fighting the Pilliga fires. They are members of the RFS or SFNSW staff. They are members of the local communities of Baradine, Gwbegar and Pilliga and have lived there for generations. They are working shoulder to shoulder with other local community groups including the NSW Farmers Association.
Thanks to Pilliga we have the first real assessment of their local bushfire situation, and some more hints about the acute dryness across the rest of NSW that is determining
Thanks to Peter we can now get on with a real discussion about the woes of bushfire fighting in this parched country including NSW as it sinks deeper into dust however we may need a few corrections around NSW’s response to lightening over the range in Jan 2003 when that thing got away after some serious but late attempts to back burn from the mountain tops.
On Saturday just after 11 AM I went back to one of the sites most affected by that vicious fire run on the 18TH Jan 2003 to witness the completion of the first stage in our recovery. In one place I found myself knee deep in bulldust at the edge of this new outdoor recreation project.
Over the Mt Stromlo skyline it was all black again with massive storm clouds. Beyond and in the distant range; we all though we could see real rains over the catchments as, but as the clouds moved across all the rain evaporated with the exception for an odd big drop. The ACT remains the one place in Australia with the least input to its water reserves.
One of the official guests with a record in re construction recognized my concern in recovery. It includes fire prevention, trees and forests, water and soils. Unfortunately we don’t have much left to work with.
See the Final Report for the extensive analysis that gave us the first “Bushfire Abatement Zone” and new strategy for urban defense – “Inquiry into the Operational Response to the January 2003 Bushfires in the ACT”
Link: http://www.cmd.act.gov.au/mcleod_inquiry/index.htm
Gavin,
It appears that we live locally, I am looking out my window at Mt Stromlo observatory as I type this.
What needs to be remembered is that regenerating forests are significant users of water, indeed after the 1939 fires in the Melbourne catchments inflows did not return to their pre-1939 rates for 50 years. With substantial Alpine Ash, Brown Barrel, viminalis etc forests all severely burnt and now regenerating I would suggest that any rainfall that occurs in the Brindabella’s will be utilised by the forest first. Stage 3 water restrictions will be a reality in our lives this summer rain or no rain.
However as a forester I take a long term view in the knowledge that these forests will regenerate. They may not be as they once were but they will bewhat they become and I am sure that they will be much loved again once peoples memories of what was there recedes and an acceptance of what it has become matures.
I still find the Mt Stromlo landscape very foreign even after nearly 4 years have passed since the fire. And I am acustomed to changing landscapes I suspect that many in the community are finding just as difficult at times.
What a bail-out, Luke. Your abuse merely confirms the lack of substance to your opinions. You seem to be opting for the defamatory dummy spit with diversion quite often lately.
So lets simplify it for you and your departmental mates.
1. Was firestick farming practiced all over Australia for 40,000 years? Yes.
2. Did this involve massive emissions of CO2? Yes.
3. Are these past emissions regarded as the “natural” emissions of the Australian landscape? Yes.
4. Are the current emissions from wildfires in National Parks treated as “natural” emissions? Yes.
4. Has firestick farming been substantially reduced? Yes.
5. Has there been a substantial reduction in CO2 emissions from firestick farming? Yes.
6. Was this substantial reduction in emissions a result of changes in human management practices? Yes.
So from an historical perspective, Australia is one of the few countries in the world that has achieved a major reduction in one source of emissions prior to the IPCC’s 1990 cut off year.
And any increases in emissions from other sources, like clearing or hydrocarbons etc, must be considered in relation to this reduced emission from firestick management changes.
It is all very well for a bunch of self styled “Climate Lords” to decide on a 1990 cut- off in carbon accounting but a change in long-term emissions is still a “relevant consideration” within our legal definition of “improper exercise of power”.
The IPCC and its “Kyotos Interruptus” places Australia at a level of disadvantage that the Europeans would never tolerate. Not only do they exclude a major reduction in natural emissions that took place before 1990, but they also exclude the major carbon sequestration event, through vegetation thickenning, that was also set in train prior to 1990.
And as for the Pilliga. The NewSydWoll Government and its green minions took absolutely zero notice of anything Rod Young said about the management of the Pilliga. They consumed huge amounts of his precious, unfunded time and expertise over years of “consultation”. And now they leave it to him and the RFS to risk their lives dealing with the mess.
He and the other farmers in the RFS all over the state are being ruthlessly exploited by well paid scum who don’t give a damn. The sooner they restrict their public good obligations to private tenure the sooner the departmental pond life will settle to their own level.
Furthermore, if it is all very well for the so-called “greenhouse accounting” to measure the global warming effect of carbon released from land clearing then why is there no commensurate measurement of the global cooling effect of the increased albedo from that same land clearing?
Even blind departmental freddy knows that a change in landcover from forest to pasture will produce an increase in albedo or reflection of the suns energy. This increased reflection MUST reduce the level of heat energy that can be absorbed by that altered landscape. That reduction in absorption MUST contribute to global cooling despite the fact that recorded daytime temperatures will be higher.
So why is it not being measured? Why does the AGO fail to report on the full set of accounts?
At the moment the “Climate Lords” exhibit the strategic vision of a junior cost clerk by only reporting changes in the “costs or outlays” side of the ledger. Emissions and sinks are increases and decreases in only the warming side of the ledger.
They, and the Australian Government, the EPA and the AGO, are completely ignoring the “revenue” side like increases and decreases in albedo and evaporation rates that make up the cooling side of the ledger.
And if there is no official reporting function for this side of the ledger, then how the hell can the climate modelling produce anything but a biased outcome?
Well Ian – I’m not with a department now – I’ve joined WWF. Your style has motivated me. You and your mates are causing quite a surge in membership apparently. Moved us from sympathetic to hardline. Good work !
If you read the comments by people on the ground this morning I think you’ll find you’re just a politically motivated and unrepresentative agitator.
As for your carbon red herring introduced as a diversion – be careful if you want to do the numbers – with soil carbon run-down, actually increased fires in northern Australia, fertiliser NOx etc – you might not want to do the numbers on your sector.
And you’ve calculated the permanent emissions from cleared woodlands now under the plough have you. Fill out both sides of the envelope pls.
Anyway – I think you’re right and so does the rest of the developed world – all this biosphere carbon stuff is too hard. Only Aussie is keen on it. Solution – don’t count any of it – just do oil and coal. Happy now – coz that’s where it will probably end up.
Peter says “I still find the Mt Stromlo landscape very foreign even after nearly 4 years have passed since the fire”. Yes it’s a small world hey. Where were you in 2003?
I wonder if Peter saw how far down the Stromlo earth was cooked up top on the eastern edge of the observatory.
Peter may recognize some merit in my private campaign to change the way we do things after 2003. What about our recovery can we agree? rough country scrub everywhere, no water for plantations, not enough people minding thistles and wild oats, and a fresh drive to make us the purest Capital environment in the whole darned World.
Today on our ABC 666 I hear about others showering while standing in some buckets. Thirty year old gardens are dying all over the city yet people hope the drought will one day be gone. I did not get the chance last week to ask to ask on air our ACTEW Chief if we should give up on the home battle to save the larger trees, trees that shade our homes from the relentless sun.
We can be sure of one thing, Peter is not working in our forestry.
Cheers.
My family and I moved to Canberra the day before the fires started. It was very frustrating observing over a week of ineffective fire management prior to that fire becoming uncontrollable.
Even more frustrating was the manner in which the ACT fire management plan was being ignored. That document clearly identified the risk to western creek, the risk to the pine plantations and the weather conditions under which the greatest threat would be experienced.
Not being privy to the deteminations being made by the Emergency Services Bureau/Authority (whatever they were called then) I can only assume why they made the decisions that they did Most likely concerns over water quality and ecological processes impacted upon as a result of machinery and containment line establishment. What ever it was they took their eye off the main game i.e. not letting a January fire burn and develop into a major fire event.
It just beggars belief that there appears to not have been any consideration given to the fire that burnt through to Deakin, on Christmas eve 2001, some 14 months prior to the 2003 fires.
As for pine plantations, the only trees that appear to be doing more than surviving in this drought are the p.radiata established after the 2001 fire.Again demostrating why it is a preferred plantation species in many parts of the world.
Droughts come and go, this one will eventually depart, when I do not know but living in the driest inhabited continent with the most variable climate I have no doubt that that it has all happenned before.
Many of our forests only re-establish from major disturbance events. If an Ash forest is 250-350 years old then it must have experienced a major conflagration to to re-establish itself at that time. Being a wet forest type I would assume that the climate would have had to be extremely dry in the period leading up to that event for the forest to be consumed and then regenerate.
Peter; that was about the worst welcome we could offer in Jan 2003. A few days earlier I was up on Booroomba Rocks entrapping my timid new partner with a late New Year picnic lunch out on the edge while scouting the range for signs of lightening damage. I could see much of our region from up there and reckoned the bush looked solid. We met Val at his shop that day but had no idea of his other role in the community. Pity about the tall grass round Tidbinbilla and Paddy’s River on our way back via the Cotter.
Peter: When I arrived in the ACT my campaign days were well and truly over so I thought, but on Christmas Eve 2001 I used Coppins Crossing about 3 pm and saw the first outbreaks close up. To get back to my place Northside from Chapman I had to detour via the eastern suburbs at 6 pm to miss the forest fires around Curtin and a fresh outbreak at Red Hill. I then drove straight into a new burn on the north face of Black Mountain so I watched for a motor bike.
Next day I noticed another flare on my way to lunch in Queanbeyan. My return trip took me half way to Cooma but still I did not respond to our authorities with my views on the issue of arson and we were tinder dry that year.
On the 18th Jan 2003 I gave up watching the fires creep towards the Murrumbidgee over Pig Hill at 11 am. We took her elderly mum to lunch at Old Parliament House. What a good move that was, the retirement village is just down from Farrer Ridge. I watched from Goodwin Hill as those suburbs too were thoroughly scorched after sunset.
Peter; P. radiata is not the only tree for this region. Very few timber experts consider the value of blossom and honey in these hard times. Our Forest reds are about to die out in many places and may never recover as key local species, establishing Yellow box again even more difficult.
I initially suggested blue gums E globulus for our interim forest recovery stage but with hindsight another brittle but hardy tree is Argyle apple. Better still, Red ironbark from further west in NSW. This non pure recovery push of mine should be of some interest to the TCA.
With regard; Ash can re establish down a sealed roadside without fire given enough rain. Destructive hot fires are not necessary for forests to flourish naturally.
Gavin
I agree that we do not have to use local tree species in revegeation programs. Sometimes there is a need to establish some sort of forest/overstorey cover as an interim measure to provide a more suitable environment for local species to regenerate sucessfully. I think that sometimes we lose sight of the journey when looking for a desired outcome and that the journey may take longer than what we at first anticipate.
Gavin,
on December 3 you mentioned “let’s ask Stettler” regarding energy supply for monitoring technolgy posted in the outback. You replied to my comment written on December 3.
The same situation without energy from the main net you find in the USA, France etc. The Fire Watch Technology has an independent power supply.
I read the “NSW National Parks Pilliga fire management strategy” which is very professional and detailed. I still have the impression that the strategical measures are lacking modern technology assistance.
Fire Watch is an early warning system that detects smoke at the initial stage of a fire and sets alarm. The South of France has many years of experience with forest fires. The system operates perfectly and assists the Fire Management Infrastructure with valuable information “in time”. More information under
http://www.fire-watch.ch
Stettler; thanks but how could your system help with this situation?
http://sentinel.ga.gov.au/acres/sentinel/index.shtml
Zoom in on North East Victoria for our current fire situation in this rugged forest region.
Your info says little about communications. I guess it depends on many NATO type radio masts deployed across the country from your photos to be effective early in the outbreak period.
A quick summary of this very bad situation in Victoria may avoid outside interest overloading the site at a critical time.
We have dozens of big outbreaks scattered across the region after dry lightening storms a few days ago. Fresh outbreaks are occurring up to 20 km ahead of the main fires.
Note: Its rugged terrain. Most of the area has no roads and very limited or difficult access. Experienced forest firemen are likely to be flown in from New Zealand before next weekend
Hello its Pilliga again,
Thanks for the comments on my observations earlier on…
I hate to disrupt this enjoyable forestry vs national parks vs greeny vs timber industry circus but, gosh I will!
As far as ire fighting in the Pilliga is concerned there is a really informative article by Peter Brookhouseo n fighting fire in the Pilliga, I recommend every one read it!
http://www.csu.edu.au/special/bushfire99/papers/brookhse/pilliga/
He clearly divides the forest into two types based on land form and vegetation community. These two factors determine the strategies for fighting the fires.
Most of the big fires occur in the south east (oh no a nature reserve) in the relatively inaccessible, sandstone country. They occur after dry lightning storms, and with the right weather conditions can get really big FAST.
This speed can really be seen from this link:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=14006
It must have burnt about 60,000 ha in the first 24 hours… and is at 86,000 ha as of 6th of December, a week after its start
By overlaying the current reserve sytem on an image of the fire, obtained from the above link, and calculating the areas of the various forest types that have been burnt (easy to do with arcview) we come up with the following data…
White Cypress Pine League 4267.4
Red Gum – Pine League 198.1
Ironbark – Red Gum League 90.6
Western Box League 711.6
Western Box – Ironbark League 6372.9
Sites with Vegetation Largely Absent 71.8
Red Gum League 9984.6
Red Gum – Ironbark League 46.2
Pine – Ironbark League 120.6
Not Applicable 203.9
Non-Eucalypt League 59.8
Ironbark – Pine League 338.2
Ironbark – Black Pine League 52.7
Ironbark – Black Pine 3686.9
Broom 874.2
Black Pine – Ironbark League 54
Black Cypress Pine League 28.8
So the area of the Pilliga State Forest, that contains timber of interest to the timber industry (white pine) is just: 4,555 ha out of the 86,000 ha that has been burnt.
This goes to show that those areas in the new State Forest generally are ‘safe’, by matter of land form from these big fires. Also areas of ‘large’ white pine do not grow in areas of high fire probability – and as Peter Brookhouse mentions, can be controlled more easily.
This also shows that the boundaries that the Brigalow decision set for the reserves and State Forest had a bit of real world thought behind them.
Pilliga
Pilliga did not say what the source of the vegetation types was so I will assume that they are FNSW forest types (please correct me if I am wrong). These are therefore Lindsay forest types.
White cypress pine does occur in conjunction with many of these other forest types mentioned, it mayt just be th edominant species. In such circumstances it will still contribute to the sustainable yield.
The figures that Pilliga provided do not add up to the land area burnt in this recent fire. Are they only for forest managed by FNSW or is there an error?
One thing that Brookhouse does not mention is that where there is a known probability of fire occuring it would be prudent of land managers to ensure that where access is limited adequately resources and trained crews are able to be helicoptered in to extinguish the fires whilst they remain little fires. Also local fire detection systems ( eg fire towers) must be maintained and resourced.
Peter,
Yes these are the Lindsay forest types.
Looking back on my figures, I missed the Ironbark pine league, which ups the total white pine to ~4800ha. The area was also took into account the fire in the east of the Pilliga.
I have only included the area burnt in the current area managed by Forests NSW. This excludes the Pilliga Nature Reserve, areas managed by National Parks and the free hold and ALC land which looks as if it has been entirely burnt.
You are correct, Whate Pine does infact occur in other forest types, but the inventory is calculated on dominant or co-dominat stands, which are the figures I have used. Accordingly the totals are an over estimate of the White Pine resource.
It would be great to get the inventory data from one of the WRA projects… I don’t think it made it out of SF before the announcement was made 18 months ago…
I agree that expecially times of predicted high risk conditions, adequate resources need to be on standby. That is adequately equiped and trained crews
Were they? This is probably the question that needs to be investigated after this fire.
I am sure that the new plan of management for all of these areas (NPS and SFs) are currently being written, and when there is opportunity to to comment, I suggest those who are concerned make sure that these resources are in place for the next fire.
It is debatable as to whether a fast response team would have made a difference, given the fact that it would take a rapid response team at least half a day to be sent to the remote areas.
Half way through the next day a change had come through and the lightning strikes were at least 3 major fires, on the way to joining plus a major fire on the eastern flank of the Pilliga.
I suppose these points need to be taken into account when setting up a rapid response team.
Pilliga
A rapid respnse team should be able to be put into an area like the Pilliga Nature Reserve in only an hour or two. It doeasn’t take an hour to drive out from BAradine to the reserve, so I suspect that a helicopter drop would be much faster. Also the very nature of such teams in the past (both in Vic and NSW) relied on a “on standby” model during the fire season and especially so during periods of high fire danger. Both FNSW and NPWS still use the “on call”, “on standby” model with diferent levels of standby today.
Adequately resourced would mean a helicopter on standby during high fire danger periods as well, Considering the cost of supressing such a large fire it would be cheaper to have helicopters and crews on standby than expend the massive resources seen so far this fire season.
Don’t pin your hopes in flights back into academia. In a strong discussion about source data and methods we loose sight of one fact, Pilliga like every where else consumed in this years summer furnace is the result of a long series of monster stuffups at ground level by everyone concerned.
We have a history of loosing anything worthwhile growing in forests around this country. Peter can start our count back by looking at all the softwood plantations lost to bushfires, ACT, SA, Victoria, Tasmania……….Dropping foresters into the thick of it when its really going to burn has not worked here or anywhere else. I saw a 1950’s film made in the US sponsored here by APPM and associates on parachute fire spotter teams dropped on ridge lines with chain saws, spades and heat resistant radiation blankets. The ones not properly dug in died.
Turning any fire back on itself in rough country requires considerable time for preparation and little or no wind. APPM foresters regularly burnt off trash in logged coups without spills for decades by lighting up all edges simultaneously on a quiet day in late autumn. Each fire had burnt out by next day. The last time I got involved in a round up overnight with only manual tools was in the high country above ACT’s Corin Dam. It’s all hard work and I never had the back for it.
Pilliga, man plan with time up your sleeve beforehand. I bet the Aborigines burnt a hole through it all long before they needed a back burn to save their own bacon. Looking backwards at dodgy data won’t help either. Each situation is a new ball game and quick thinking off your feet can defeat a run in the making. Luke, what is just under your nose counts most on the day. Ian: It struck me only yesterday that drought itself causes most natural extinctions here not fire or management routines. Think about it for a moment.
A yardstick for any survey has to be what’s really relevant. In all disputes over industrial measurements I carried two other independent measurements besides the main recorder and a fresh perspective to win the battle. Constant update in perspective was my number one tool.
My garden has become the driest place on earth so I mowed the dead ground cover and dumped it far away. The empty snail shells was the big clue. In its heyday my garden was rich with a variety of finches and reptiles. Yesterday the Currawongs finished off the half grown plums. There is not much left today for any one.
I fully agree, Gavin, on the role of drought in extinctions. If any species is likely to slip away it will be in a drought after their normal year population has undergone an 80% to 90% reduction.
Sharpe recorded an 80% decline in glider populations in Bungawalbyn Nature Reserve over just 3 months in 2000. And that is only 20km from the sea.
Yet, we have a departmental culture, underlined by the likes of Lindenmeyer et al, who persist with this moronic delusion that the key to arboreal mammal survival is to maximise nest sites in good years.
This is despite the fact that by the time animal numbers have dropped to critical levels the poor criters have more nest hollows than they can poke a stick at.
The irony is that it is probably sealed roadway that is keeping many local populations away from decimation. These high catchment efficiency structures divert even the smallest rainfalls into a small surplus for adjacent trees. And this, sad to note, is about the only thing that keeps a minimal supply of nutrients up to the remaining animals.
But if the forest has not been thinned then the competition between stems for scarce moisture produces a wider window of stress for dependent species.
Gavin,
this is to reply to your comments of December 6.06.
The Fire Wacht “smoke detecting system” was tested in many countries in this world i.g. USA, Canada, with large wildland areas too. The power supply for the system requires only approx 150 W and is normaly supplied by our autonomous power supply which is a combination of wind, solar and hydrogen for locations without acces to the main.
The power supply should never be the principal problem to operate the Fire Watch System.
For the communication we are using different technics i.g. Telephone lines, point to point radio, satallite, LAN or WAN – or any combination of it.
The most practical method is the use of point to point radio to the next fixed access point of an existing network. There are 2.3 or 5.4 GHz of the shelf units with a distance capacity of 40 km line of sight. If the distance is higher than 40 km or non line of sight, we can work with an repeater station.
In any case at each radio access point we need to have a mast, which can be an existing power line tower, building, radio mast telecommunication mast, look-out tower, etc.
As we are transmitting only data packages and not live video streams the stability of communication is very high.
The Fire Watch Technology detects smoke very reliable, day and night, by measuring parameters of typical smoke patterns like colour, brightness, dynamics, structure and expansion. These parameters are the first signs when a forest/bush fire starts. The sensor starts measurement if the contrast ratio between the smoke and the background is higher 10% over the distance of 40 km at good visability (the human eye still does not detect anything).
Once the system generates an alert all the related data like images, bearings and position as well as the distance are reported and instantly displaied to the Controll Office at a manned Command Centre. At the Control Office the operator can command individually each connected sensor unit to get from the alarm point or any other selected areas zoomed images, specially monitored sequencial images or single images to a more detailed evaluation. Based on this information the operator decides instantly and within few minutes after the alert to send out an alarm to the Fire Fighting Management with a full package of information on location, dynamics, type of fire etc.
The system is in addition prepared to collect and report data on wind speed, humidity, temperature etc from each sensor unit location.
You may get more detailed info from http://www.fire-watch.ch.
Peter Lezaich refers to the time factor between the moment a fire is detected and the time when the fire fighting operation arrives at the hot spot.
With today’s detection methods a fire ignited by lighting etc is reported by “chance or luck” with a time lag. Either an observation aircraft flies over a given area or manned look-outs detect a fire or a car driver on a motorway reports a fire on his mobile. The fire normally reached already a remarkable dimension and dynamic.
Critical information that needs a further investigation usually is the location, type and characteristic of fire, directon of the fire etc. Valuable time is lost (up to one hour) during collection of such information which is however necessary to launch the fire fighting operation. Usually it takes two hours or more until the operation can start actively.
With the Fire Watch Technology we install sensor units that monitor bush and forest areas around the clock. The Control Center has instant access to the wildland without delay. The area is under constant control. The operator at the Control Centre has access to the complete area shown on his screen and without any time delay he can send out an alarm to the Fire Fighting Managment. Operations can be launched during an early stage when a fire has not yet developed its strong dynamics.
Time is crutial. Modern Technology like Fire Watch is a tactical instrument to collect exact and valuable information without loss of time and guide Fire Fighters and aircrafts to the disaster area. It is possible to have first activities within half an hour on the spot while it usually takes up to two hours until first the operation starts with conventional reporting systems.
In the South of France the successful experience with the Fire Watch System confirmed that the real-time monitoring with collection of real-time data reduced the time by 1 1/2h to 2h until Fire Fighting Operations were on place.
The technology to assist Fire Fighting Management is available and can be integrated into the Bush and Forest Fire Prevention Managment.