AUSTRALIAN BUSHFIRES DEBATE: NATIVE BUSH VERSUS PLANTATION FOREST CONTINUES:

Subject: RE: Bushfires in AustraliaDate: Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:25:43 +1300
Anthony

Many thanks for your email. Like I noted to Wally, I think it is sad that you should be use a tragedy of this massive proportions to go about pointing the finger at this early stage. It is quite clear that with the number of people you have copied this email to that you are really only just taking “pot shots” at your favourite hobby horse – the plantation sector, rather than trying to find ways of helping those poor people affected by this tragedy.

You could if you wished make a donation to the Red Cross, at http://www.redcross.org.au/

Although given the tenor of your comments, you might be the sort to join this particular facebook group:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/16/2492818.htm

It could that a good psychological profiler could lead one to deduce that hysteria whipped up about plantations could lead to people such as this arsonist taking action:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/16/2492356.htm

But, of course, it is wrong to blame anybody but plantation growers…

I would urge you also to read David Packham’s timely comment, however.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25031389-7583,00.html


Kind regards
Mike Smith
Editor and Director
TMS & BMS Ltd
Mail: P.O. Box 6215, Whakarewarewa, Rotorua 3010, New Zealand
Street: 5 High Street, Rotorua 3010, New Zealand
Tel: 64-7-349 4107; Fax: 64-7-3494157
Email: mike.smith@southem.com
Web: http://www.southem.com/
Skype: southemer
From: anthony amis [mailto:anthonyamis@hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, 16 February 2009 7:25 p.m.To: wally_m@iafrica.com; mike.smith@southem.

BUSHFIRES IN AUSTRALIA:
if plantations don't cause fires then what the hell is this? image top of page from recent victorian fires.this is after the fire burnt across farmland and before it got anywhere near native forest.http://www.baddevelopers.green.net.au/Docs/Midway3Wandong.htm
From: wally_m@iafrica.comTo: mike.smith@southem.comCC: chris@chrislang.org; sandyoceania@yahoo.com; owen@soft.co.za; rcarrere@wrm.org.uy; Stephanie.long@foe.org.au; anthony.esposito@wilderness.org.au; anthonyamis@hotmail.com; timberwatch.chair@gmail.comSubject: Re: Bushfires in AustraliaDate: Fri, 13 Feb 2009 07:40:52 +0200
Dear Mike

Thanks for your response to my letter, and the useful expert article.

Whatever your views on the situation, the harsh (and somewhat simple) reality remains.

Far more so than Bush or Forest, plantations desiccate the land directly where they are planted, but also cause the dehydration of adjacent land and vegetation. They generally reduce any natural surface flow, resulting in the degradation of adjacent or downstream wetlands which in turn results in normally perrennial streams drying out during the dry season.

All of the above are major contributing factors to the intensity and spread of fires, by helping create conditions where the fires can start and spread from anywhere in the vicinity of the affected plantations.

I am disappointed that you see my intervention as an attempt to "use such a devastating tragedy for your own policy ends".

If you knew how much hardship and suffering industrial timber plantations have caused to local communities all over the world, you would realise that what is happening in Australia is far from being a 'natural disaster'. It is the culmination of bad practice and policy that threatens to make things even worse in the future unless things (especially government attitudes and the self-interest of plantation companies) change radically in the very near future.

I sincerely hope that your donation to the Red Cross was a substantial one.

Best wishes

Wally




Wally

Many thanks for your email. Unfortunately it ain’t that simple. These fires did not start in Hancock’s plantations, in fact they started in native bush areas managed as either state or national reserves. Well managed pine plantations do not generally spontaneously leap into flame but it is virtually impossible for forest managers to stop flames from huge bush fires from leaping across roads and fire breaks (200 km/hr winds?). This is the reality. The key problem isn’t the management of the plantation forests, where the companies spend large sums protecting valuable assets, but the management of reserve bush areas.

I have included below an article from an expert in this area, who voices his obvious frustration on this topic. Note: bush as discussed here is indigenous forest; see point 3 re “every objective analysis…” – the emphasis on “objective”.

Finally, I find it really sad (and vaguely disturbing) that you would jump in and use such a devastating tragedy for your own policy ends. It may be that there is blame to apportion here – to whomever - but at this stage people in Victoria are dealing with upwards of 250 people known to be killed and probably even more. If you feel strongly, feel free to go to the Red Cross web site and contribute a donation.

Kind regards
Mike Smith
Editor and Director
TMS & BMS Ltd
Mail: P.O. Box 6215, Whakarewarewa, Rotorua 3010, New Zealand
Street: 5 High Street, Rotorua 3010, New Zealand
Tel: 64-7-349 4107; Fax: 64-7-3494157
Email: mike.smith@southem.com
Web: http://www.southem.com/
Skype: southemer


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25031389-7583,00.html
VICTORIA has suffered the most tragic bushfire disaster to have occurred on this continent throughout its period of human habitation.
The deaths, loss of homes and businesses and the blow to our feeling of security will take decades to fade into history. The trauma will live with the victims, who, to a greater or lesser extent, are all of us. How could this happen when we have been told in a withering, continuous barrage of public relations that with technology and well-polished uniforms, we can cope with the unleashing of huge forces of nature. I have been a bushfire scientist for more than 50 years, dealing with all aspects of bushfires, from prescribed burning to flame chemistry, and serving as supervisor of fire weather services for Australia. We need to understand what has happened so that we can accept or prevent future fire disasters. That this disaster was about to happen became clear when the weather bureau issued an accurate fire weather forecast last Wednesday, which prompted me, as a private citizen, to raise the alarm through a memo distributed to concerned residents. The science is simple. A fire disaster of this nature requires a combination of hot, dry, windy weather in drought conditions. It also requires a source of ignition. In the past, this purpose has been served by lightning. In this disaster, lightning has not played a big part, and for this Victorians should be grateful. But other sources of ignition are ever-present. When the temperature and wind increase to extreme levels, small events -- perhaps the scrape of metal across a rock, a transformer overheating or sparks from a diesel engine -- are capable of starting a fire that can in minutes become unstoppable if the fuel is present. The third and only controllable factor in this deadly triangle is fuel: the dead leaves, pieces of bark and grass that become the gas that feeds the 50m high flames that roar through the bush with the sound of jet engines. Fuels build up year after year at an approximate rate of one tonne a hectare a year, up to a maximum of about 30 tonnes a hectare. If the fuels exceed about eight tonnes a hectare, disastrous fires can and will occur. Every objective analysis of the dynamics of fuel and fire concludes that unless the fuels are maintained at near the levels that our indigenous stewards of the land achieved, then we will have unhealthy and unsafe forests that from time to time will generate disasters such as the one that erupted on saturday. [My underlining just in case you missed the point.]It has been a difficult lesson for me to accept that despite the severe damage to our forests and even a fatal fire in our nation's capital, the political decision has been to do nothing that will change the extreme threat to which our forests and rural lands are exposed. The decision to ignore the threat has been encouraged by some shocking pseudo-science from a few academics who use arguments that may have a place in political discourse but should have no place in managing our environment and protecting it and us from the bushfire threat. The conclusion of these academics is that high intensity fires are good for the environment and that the resulting mudslides after rains are merely localised and serve to redistribute nutrients. The purpose of this failed policy is to secure uninformed city votes. Only a few expert retired fire managers, experienced bushies and some courageous politicians are prepared to buck the decision to lock up our bush and leave it to burn. The politicians who willingly accept this rubbish use it to justify the perpetuation of the greatest threat to our forests, water supplies, homes and lives in order to secure a minority green vote. They continue to throw millions (and no doubt soon billions) at ineffective suppression toys, while the few foresters and bush people who know how to manage our public lands are starved of the resources they need to reduce fuel loads. It is hard for me to see this perversion of public policy and to accept that the folk of the bush have lost their battle to live a safe life in a cared-for rural and forest environment, all because of the environmental fantasies of outraged extremists and latte conservationists. In a letter to my local paper, the Weekly Times, on January 25, I predicted we were facing a very critical situation in which 1000 to 2000 homes could be lost in the Yarra catchment, the Otways and/or the Strezleckies; that 100 souls could be lost in a most horrible and violent way; and that there was even a threat to Melbourne's water supply, which could be rendered unusable by the ash and debris. Horrifically, much of this has come to pass, and it is not yet the end of the bushfire season. In the face of this inferno, the perpetrators of this obscenity should have the decency to stand up and say they were wrong. Southeast Australia is the worst place in the world for bushfires, and we must not waste any time in getting down to the task of making our bush healthy and safe. But don't hold your breath. Do you hear that lovely sound the warbling pigs make as they fly by? David Packham OAM is an honorary senior research fellow at Monash University's school of geography and environmental science.


From: Wally Menne [mailto:wally_m@iafrica.com] Sent: Friday, 13 February 2009 3:27 a.m.To: mike.smith@southem.comCc: Dear Mike

I am a member of a South African NGO called Timberwatch.

Here in South Africa there has been a steady increase in the incidence of plantation fires
over the past 7 years. Those affected have been mostly of Eucalyptus spp. with Pinus spp.
coming a close second. Last year a total of about 70 000 hectares was burned.

After listening to your interview with Linda Sewell I realised that our experiences here in Africa
are remarkably similar to what has just taken place in your country, and that the underlying
causes of the fires are probably much the same.

To confirm my fears I took a quick tour by Google Earth of the area near Kinglake in southern
Victoria that was affected by fires , and sure enough all the signs appear to be there: non-existent
fire belts; unmanaged scrub; catchments planted to the brim with fast growing, water devouring,
even age tree monocultures. (see attached)

These plantations, albeit made up largely of what were originally native Australian species, are very
different from your mixed-age, biodiversity rich natural forests, that have now also suffered as a
consequence of being in close proximity to areas that have been converted from meadow, scrub
and forest into tinder time-bombs.

The question that needs to be asked is this: Who will hold the timber companies, which own the
affected plantations, responsible for the damage that has been caused? Not likely the government,
because they are complicit in their expansion through subsidies to the timber companies. Ideally
it should be the Australian public, not just those who have lost their cars, homes and family, but those
who will be threatened in the future as the government's daffy "2020" plantation scheme unfolds.
See http://www.daff.gov.au/forestry/plantation-farm-forestry/plantations/2020

I could go on and on, but I am relying on you to go out and do some homework, and then to make
certain that the truth about the fires, and not just Hancock's biased propaganda, will be heard.

Yours sincerely

Wally Mennewally_m@iafrica.comTel: +27 (0)82 4442083Skype: wally.menne






----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Lang
To: Wally Menne
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009 1:24 PM
Subject: Fwd: Bushfires in Australia - Hancock Victoria Plantations impacts

FYI
---------- Forwarded message ----------From: Mike Smith <mike.smith@southem.com>Date: 2009/2/11Subject: Bushfires in Australia - Hancock Victoria Plantations impactsTo: Mike Smith <mike.smith@southem.com>
Hi I have attached a link to a webcast of an interview with Linda Sewell, CEO of HVP Plantations, regarding the impact of the devastating bushfires in the Australian state of Victoria. http://www.southem.com/index.php?option=com_seyret&Itemid=47&task=videodirectlink&id=18 Kind regardsMike SmithEditor and DirectorTMS & BMS LtdMail: P.O. Box 6215, Whakarewarewa, Rotorua 3010, New ZealandStreet: 5 High Street, Rotorua 3010, New ZealandTel: 64-7-349 4107; Fax: 64-7-3494157Email: mike.smith@southem.comWeb: http://www.southem.com/Skype: southemer --