Call for increased fuel management

by Philip Hopkins

Increased fuel management is needed to help safeguard Victoria’s native forests as climate change is expected to intensify, according to the state’s fire scientists and experts.

“Into the future, as expected warmer and drier conditions have greater impact on native forests, the Victorian Government needs to give a higher priority to managing forest fuel levels across the entire forested landscape if the number and costs of wildfires are to be reduced,” say the Institute of Foresters, which now includes Australian Forest Growers.

The institute, whose 1000 members cover fire management and forestry research, made this point in its submission to the independent inquiry into Victoria’s 2019-20 fire season.

However, the institute emphasised that climate change was not the cause of the summer’s bushfires. “The fires were primarily a consequence of decades of poor fire management and a more recent shift to a risk-averse firefighting approach exacerbated by an overreliance on aircraft,” the submission said.

Victorian policy, ignoring the recommendations of Royal Commissions of 1939 and 2009, had shifted the focus from reducing forest fuel levels to strategic local burning near private assets.

While protecting lives and property was paramount, the build-up of fuel loads created wildfires beyond firefighters’ capability to control them.

“As should be evident from the 2019-20 fires, these circumstances can lead to exponentially greater damage to life and property,” the submission said.

The institute strongly criticised those ‘former fire chiefs’ who blamed the bushfires on climate change. They mostly had urban or rural fire backgrounds, not forest fire management expertise, thus creating concern that public policy would be shaped by impractical ignorance rather than informed expertise.

“Almost all public commentary questioning the value of prescribed fuel reduction burning emanates from environmental activists and academic ecologists with no personal experience of planning and conducting prescribed burns,” the submission said.

They had “no experience of fighting forest fires to gain an appreciation of the benefit of such burns in mitigating wildfire intensity and reducing environmental impacts”.

The submission made many recommendations, which included:

The need for long-term fire preparedness through prescribed burning, and reinstating and upgrading roads and track networks, particularly in remote areas.

Since the 1960s in Western Australia, 6-8 per cent of the forest had been fuel reduced, meaning at any time 30-40 per cent of the forest has less than five years of fuel accumulation. This has kept WA relatively free of megafires over the past 20 years.

In contrast, since the mid-1990s, the rolling 10-year average fuel reduction in Victoria had been a clearly insufficient 1-2 per cent. Also, the expansion of national parks had led to a smaller and worse road and track network. However, fuel reduction was more difficult in Victoria as the forest is more ecologically variable and the country more rugged.

Recognise the importance of the native forest industry in fighting fires. In 1984, there were 133 timber industry contractors compared to only 35 in 2014, and about 25-30 now. This had meant the loss of fit-for-purpose machinery driven by very experienced and skilled operators.

Government had also lost its own fire-fighting machinery over the past 30 years, forcing greater reliance on hiring machines on shortterm contracts.

Develop a new workforce model to fight wildfires to take the pressure off the Country Fire Authority.

“CFA volunteers should rightfully be praised for their efforts …however Victoria’s continued heavy reliance on them is ultimately not sustainable,” the submission said.

Reinstate professional land management staff in smaller townships who can develop detailed local fire knowledge of parks, forests and Crown lands. History had shown that decentralised forest and park management with local equipment can best manage fuel levels and improve the forest access network.

Traditional owners’ forest fire management practices should be fostered and re-introduced where possible, complementing existing prescribed burning programs but not replacing them.

Expand the use of mechanical fuel reduction as a safer tool for strategic areas where prescribed burning would be inherently risky.

Shadow Assistant Minister for Forestry, Gary Blackwood, is calling on the Minister for Police to confirm if forestry protesters will be fined under strict COVID-19 Stay-at-Home directions.

Mr Blackwood said a number of protests in recent weeks had greatly disrupted timber harvesting operations across the State and there had been no announcement to date if these protesters were facing fines under the directions.

‘The Premier and Police Minister have been really clear with the public when it comes to the Stay-at-Home directions, unless you are leaving for a valid reason determined in the directions you face a fine of $1,650,’ Mr Blackwood said.

‘Contractors are telling me that their operations

Independently evaluate the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of using aircraft to suppress the 2019-20 bushfires.

DELWP (Forest Fire Management Victoria) should annually train and or conduct joint exercises in forest firefighting with Defence Force personnel.

Work with the University of Melbourne to revitalise the Victorian School of Forestry at Creswick.

To read the www.forestry.org.au submission, go to are being interrupted by protesters chaining themselves to equipment or suspending themselves in treetops.

‘These protesters are even posting up photos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages looking to share their illegal actions.

‘Daniel Andrews and the Police Minister need to be consistent on these restrictions and fines being issued.

‘You’ll cop a $1,650 fine for heading to the park to kick a footy with mates or if you’re out walking in too large a group, but you won’t cop a fine for travelling 100km from home to lock yourself to a dozer on a worksite.

‘That doesn’t stack up and it is no wonder Victorians are confused by who the rules do and don’t apply to,’ said Mr Blackwood.