Call for more reduction burns
An organisation formed last year with the objective to “pursue the effective management of the Australian bush” believes environmentalists and governments should support additional fuel reduction burns to reduce the risk of megafires.
The Howitt Society, whose membership includes fire scientists, former public land managers, experienced bushmen and tourism leaders, says it can be expected that unless fuel loads in forests are reduced there will be more megafires that devastate the environment.
In a response to a report into last summer’s bushfires in eastern and north-eastern Victoria by the Inspector General for Emergency Management the society labelled as disappointing the absence of recommendations to decrease the fuel load.
The society’s secretary Garry Squires the only avenues available to land managers to reduce the fire risk was to reduce fuels with no actions in the short or medium terms able to influence climate change or any aspect of weather.
The government should implement a recommendation of a into the 2009 Royal Commission to burn a minimum of five per cent of forest areas each year, he said.
Planned burning is the only broad option available to lessen the intensity of wildfires; more trucks and aircraft can do little to stop these fires, Mr Squires stated.
Jim Armstrong of Labertouche, a member of the Howitt Society’s board of management, believes environmental groups should support the call for more fuel reduction burns.
A dairy farmer in the Cann Valley for 41 years before moving to Labertouche 14 years ago, a CFA volunteer firefighter for more than 50 years and a member of the East Gippsland wildlife taskforce until 2004, Mr Armstrong calls on plenty of personal experience about bushfires.
The only time he suffered loss was after he moved to Labertouche when the Black Saturday fires of 2009 destroyed shedding on his property.
Thinking back on the devastating fires earlier this year Mr Armstrong believes that better forest and land management would have lessened the devastation.
Mallacoota should never have burned, he claimed, adding that clearing of fuel loads along roadsides was also an important aspect.
The Howitt Society describes itself as having a passion for “caring for country” through a factual, honest, unbiased, constructive and apolitical approach.