Native Vegetation and Fire

In the aftermath of the 2009, February 7 fires in Victoria, Australia, there has been much concern from the public about the effects of native vegetation in fueling the fires and what could have been done to prevent such a catastrophe.

The most alarming is the call for native vegetation clearing rules to be abolished. Let's not forget that these fires came on the back of over 10 years of prolonged drought conditions, in the middle of the most extreme weather conditions known. It is not the vegetation to blame here, it is not inadequate fuel reduction burning to blame here, it is simply the extremes of climate and circumstance.

No amount of fire preparedness could have reduced or eliminated the outcomes of that day. In my next post, I be adding an essay written by a good friend and respected ecologist, Bryan Walters.

Bryan Walters is an environmental consultant with thirty years’ fire-fighting experience. He holds a National Service medal for firefighting duties. He worked with the forests commission for 17 years as a forest overseer and with fire protection branch. He became the Parks Protection officer (Fire) with National Parks Service (13 years) with State-wide fire responsibilities, then Parks ecologist. He has run a successful environmental consultancy for a further 15 years.

PJ

Aftermath of Victorian Fires

It's been 3 weeks since that dreadful day now dubbed Black Saturday (February 7, 2009), when a tsunami of fire swept through the Kinglake Ranges, in Victoria Australia. Our property of 15 years with a bush cottage, abundant wildlife (lyrebird, Powerful Owl, Cicada Bird, wombat, black wallaby etc) were all wiped out.

This is where I was growing ginseng - specifically, American Ginseng, along with another site at Pheasant Creek, also destroyed. Approximately 25,000 plants with an in-ground value of $50,000. Amazingly, a set of hand-fired pottery made by the late Leon Saper survived the heat, where glass melted at 1400 degrees C, with brass and other alloys melting (800 deg. C). Photos to follow in a later post.

The threat of fire was always present, with the occasional summer fire in the region. Surrounded by a 1000 acres of eucalyptus forest, our patch of 18 acres was right in the middle of it. Never expected to be entirely wiped out by a 3 dimensional inferno. Such was the amount of ground and elevated fuels fanned a 100km/hr (60 mph) raging north westerly - there were no precedents for a fire on this scale, with conditions 2 to 3 times over the McArthur Index of 100 max.

Tragically, our dear friends and colleagues, Leigh & Charm Ahern and Jenny Barnett, leading wildlife conservation & education professionals, perished. 6 immediate neighbors died - they were all well prepared for fire but did not expect one of this catastrophic magnitude. Personally, our policy of never being at the property on Total Fire Ban days or anything over 35 degrees (approx 100 deg. F) paid off!

A most saddening and greiving time. To date, almost 200 Million dollars have been donated to the victims. The Country Fire Authority (CFA), The Department of Sustainability & Environment (DSE), The Department of Human Sevices (DHS), and other instrumentalities of the Victorian State and Federal governments have all been tremendous in their response. In particular, the CFA being the first attack response (to private land fires) is made up of volunteers, many who also lost property and loved ones - they are all heroes in their selfless dedication!

As a friend (Bryan Walters, environmental consultant with 30 years of fire-fighting experience) has written, "Fire is inevitable in temperate forests, especially now that the globall electric blanket has been left on... The forest and trees are not our enemy, our ignorance is."

Please be careful and sensitive with any reactions to this event. The loss of human life and our native vegetation has been tragic. Let's not have a knee-jerk reaction and make a series of emotive decisions in the aftermath where logic and reason may be forgotten. We are all grieving and this will leave a permanent scar on all of us.

Go forth with peace and harmony.

PJ