Quote:
Originally Posted by Outcast
Jon,
... We cannot, as you say prevent a bushfire from ever happening but, there are things that can be done to reduce the risk & severity. In that regard, I believe fingers do need to be pointed at those in a position to do something to reduce the risks, who for whatever reason, choose to do nothing...
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But this is precisely the point I made ages ago.
Fighting fires is a mitigating strategy - the event has occurred. The challenge is to stop dreaming of what the countries might once have been, and instead decide what we want it to be in future.
In England, China and Japan this occurred over thousands of years, but now every rock, every tree you see is there either because someone liked, it or put it there. If they dint, it was removed. And yes the native fauna is all but gone. All of it.
So frankly the time is now to stop dreaming of gum tree forests, koalas and kangaroos, and think about what is both safe, and sustainable, in future.
Conversely if 5% was to be burnt systematically every winter I'll suggest a lot of other groups will have problems with that - starting with locals affected by air pollution, tourism and a lot other aspects. that why it never happened .Essentially the areas in the major National Parks - and the Sydney water catchment - have not had a major fire in 70 years. The "hazard reduction" efforts in these areas have frankly been pathetically inadequate.
If you want to burn areas on average every 20 years that means 5% of the parks and state forest areas have to be burnt EVERY YEAR. To be frank, the efforts in the past decade have been woefully less - "nibbling around the edges" would be a better description.
From a safety management perspective, if you want to apply a stronger approach, there are ways, though unpalatable to many. The first is elimination of the hazard - the strongest form of prevention. That means either
a) get rid of the gum trees, all of them; the fires have effectively done this; and
b) do not allow residential housing within 1km of a forested area.
To those who want to live among the gum trees, all I can suggest is have a bloody good insurance policy, and a fire plan, and be prepared to follow it.