Loss of fauna, flora in wildfire reporting needed

For several years, I’ve been reading about devastating fires in our beautiful forests. Whenever I see reporting on fire containment, I see numbers of “homes” and “structures” burned. If people have died, those numbers are given too, and the fire earns the moniker of “deadly.”

But what about the thousands — possibly millions — of animals who lose their homes each time a fire rages through a forest? Is not a fox’s den a structure too? Is not a tree with an owl’s nest a real home?

Not only are their homes destroyed, their lives are sacrificed. I read that a billion animals are believed to have lost their lives in the Australian wildfires of 2020.

How many deer, elk, badgers, bears, foxes, squirrels, birds and all the other forestdwellers have to die before the media will include their lost lives in the reporting? How long will it take to acknowledge the reality of the deadly devastation and include the numbers of wildlife deaths or at least an estimation?

Think also of the trees and the other plants. How much flora has to be devoured in flames before it too will be counted in addition to buildings, homes and other structures?

Reports on fires, floods, droughts, extreme heat and other human-induced catastrophes caused by climate change should always acknowledge the loss of all lives extinguished. Wildlife does not cause the changing of our climate, but wildlife — flora and fauna — suffer far more than the humans who could act to slow its impact.

When we assess the damage, let us truly acknowledge the destruction our changing climate is wreaking. Please include the numbers of actual lives lost, or at least acknowledge it if the numbers cannot be counted.

A face with whiskers, a body with wings, a tall trunk swaying in the breeze — these are all real lives and real lives lost. Do not forget to count them.

— Mia Laurence Armstrong,

Fairfax