Our own fire disaster
FORGET about the Amazon, we have our own environmental disaster here on Magnetic
Island. It has been called a controlled burn. Who is controlling it? How?
The food source has been wiped out for a lot of animals, their habitat has been destroyed, and a lot of animals will have been burned or killed.
The fire has been burning for days, so there will be nothing left in these large areas that have been burnt.
In these areas there will be no grass feed for wallabies, no insects or seed for birds, no green tips or fruits for possums, and no gum leaves for koalas.
There will be no habitat for shelter or protection from predators, but that hardly matters, as they will die of starvation before long.
Adding to that catastrophe, many animals will have been burnt. We have all seen the tragic images of koalas after bushfires, and now many animals will die long, agonising deaths from burns.
The only fires that I have seen in the main body of the national park on Magnetic Island in recent years have been lit, and called controlled burns.
They are not naturally occurring fires.
Has an environmental audit been carried out before the burns? Has an environmental audit been carried out after the burns? Do they do a walk around to collect injured and burnt animals so they can be treated or euthanased?
Why do National Parks do burns at a time when there are winds which come at the same time every year, the mango winds?
The fire authorities have been announcing on the news that current weather conditions, which are entirely predictable at this time of year, make it very difficult to control fires.
The big questions are: What are they hoping to achieve with this fire? And are the other environmental costs worth it?
There are other major factors to consider as well as the above.
What about climate change? What about pollution? Bushfires contribute negatively in a major way to both these things.
Are these issues being taken into account when setting fires? LORRAINE BRISCHETTO,
North Ward.