Australia fires: Aborigines say the bush 'needs to burn'
BartSimpson @ Mon Jan 13, 2020 4:45 pm
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51043828
Full title: Australia fires: Aboriginal planners say the bush 'needs to burn'
Excerpt:
$1:
For thousands of years, the Indigenous people of Australia set fire to the land.
Long before Australia was invaded and colonised by Europeans, fire management techniques - known as "cultural burns" - were being practised.
The cool-burning, knee-high blazes were designed to happen continuously and across the landscape.
The fires burn up fuel like kindling and leaf detritus, meaning a natural bushfire has less to devour.
Since Australia's fire crisis began last year, calls for better reintegration of this technique have grown louder. But it should have happened sooner, argues one Aboriginal knowledge expert.
"The bush needs to burn," says Shannon Foster.
Long before Australia was invaded and colonised by Europeans, fire management techniques - known as "cultural burns" - were being practised.
The cool-burning, knee-high blazes were designed to happen continuously and across the landscape.
The fires burn up fuel like kindling and leaf detritus, meaning a natural bushfire has less to devour.
Since Australia's fire crisis began last year, calls for better reintegration of this technique have grown louder. But it should have happened sooner, argues one Aboriginal knowledge expert.
"The bush needs to burn," says Shannon Foster.
Thanos @ Mon Jan 13, 2020 5:30 pm
Seems like a sound idea. I can see it running into immediate opposition from the big landowners though. There's no way they'd stay silent while huge portions of land that they let their cattle graze on get shut down for a year (or whatever) to do a series of controlled burns. That's the problem with wildfires. Once the immediate crisis inevitably ends it returns to business as usual ASAP and the cycle that created the disaster starts up all over again.
BartSimpson @ Mon Jan 13, 2020 5:32 pm
Thanos Thanos:
Seems like a sound idea. I can see it running into immediate opposition from the big landowners though. There's no way they'd stay silent while huge portions of land that they let their cattle graze on get shut down for a year (or whatever) to do a series of controlled burns. That's the problem with wildfires. Once the immediate crisis inevitably ends it returns to business as usual ASAP and the cycle that created the disaster starts up all over again.
If you do controlled burns every year then you won't have wildfires at all. That's what the natives pretty much fucking everywhere are saying and they're right.
Thanos @ Mon Jan 13, 2020 5:40 pm
Oh, I agree 100%. I just don't see whitey's business interests not getting in the way of a sound policy that would ensure a future wildfire crisis the magnitude of this current disaster doesn't happen again. Money and political connections are the most effective combination imaginable to have common sense get gunned down dead in it's track.
xerxes @ Mon Jan 13, 2020 5:44 pm
There have been controlled burns:
$1:
How much hazard reduction has happened?
In the last full fire season of 2018 and 2019, the National Parks and Wildlife Service in NSW told Guardian Australia it carried out hazard reduction activities across more than 139,000 hectares, slightly above its target.
There are two major restricting factors for carrying out prescribed burning. One is the availability of funds and personnel, and the second is the availability of weather windows.
The 2018-19 annual report of the NSW Rural Fire Service says: “The ability of the NSW RFS and partner agencies to complete hazard reduction activities is highly weather dependent, with limited windows of opportunity. Prolonged drought conditions in 2018-19 adversely affected the ability of agencies to complete hazard reduction works.”
The RFS said 113,130 properties had been subject to hazard reduction activities, which was 76% of its target. The 199,248ha covered was 106% of its target.
In the last full fire season of 2018 and 2019, the National Parks and Wildlife Service in NSW told Guardian Australia it carried out hazard reduction activities across more than 139,000 hectares, slightly above its target.
There are two major restricting factors for carrying out prescribed burning. One is the availability of funds and personnel, and the second is the availability of weather windows.
The 2018-19 annual report of the NSW Rural Fire Service says: “The ability of the NSW RFS and partner agencies to complete hazard reduction activities is highly weather dependent, with limited windows of opportunity. Prolonged drought conditions in 2018-19 adversely affected the ability of agencies to complete hazard reduction works.”
The RFS said 113,130 properties had been subject to hazard reduction activities, which was 76% of its target. The 199,248ha covered was 106% of its target.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/05/explainer-how-effective-is-bushfire-hazard-reduction-on-australias-fires
What mitigates them is the fact the seasonal window for doing burns is getting shorter thanks to climate change and the fact that the Aussie government reduced funding for land management in recent years.
Also, the fires this year have been so intense that land that had previously been burned by controlled and uncontrolled burns, burned again weeks after the fact.
Thanos @ Mon Jan 13, 2020 5:54 pm
xerxes xerxes:
... the Aussie government reduced funding for land management in recent years....
Austerity Hero strikes again!
CDN_PATRIOT @ Mon Jan 13, 2020 8:04 pm
BartSimpson BartSimpson:
If you do controlled burns every year then you won't have wildfires at all. That's what the natives pretty much fucking everywhere are saying and they're right.
The city I live in and surrounding county do several controlled burns all over the area every summer, and it's one of their better ideas. It's helped us avoid any major infernos.
-J.
CharlesAnthony @ Tue Jan 14, 2020 6:07 pm
You have to be a complete fucking idiot to believe that BBC article.
fifeboy @ Wed Jan 15, 2020 4:04 pm
CharlesAnthony CharlesAnthony:
You have to be a complete fucking idiot to believe that BBC article.
And you too Chuckey will graduate from Idiot School... once you are complete!
BartSimpson @ Wed Jan 15, 2020 4:30 pm
CharlesAnthony CharlesAnthony:
You have to be a complete fucking idiot to believe that BBC article.
What's not to believe? It's an opinion piece.
CharlesAnthony @ Thu Jan 16, 2020 6:52 am
BartSimpson BartSimpson:
What's not to believe?
Oh, I get it! The title is too much to read!!!
"the bush 'needs to burn'"
BartSimpson BartSimpson:
It's an opinion piece.
Bravo! Now you know how fake news is spread to hide a modern-day holocaust from the rest of the world!