PHILIP HOPKINS
HUNDREDS of Gippslanders have signed a petition that calls for an increase in fuel reduction burning in Gippsland’s native forests.
The e-petition, signed by 738 people and organised by The Howitt Society, was tabled in State Parliament this week. It was sponsored by Shadow Assistant Minister for Public Land Use and The Nationals Member for Eastern Victoria Region, Melina Bath.
The e-petition calls on the state government to increase the area of planned low intensity burns across Victoria’s forests in line with 2009 Bushfire Royal Commission recommendations. The recommendation was for fuel reduction burns of a minimum five per cent in appropriate forest systems.
Ms Bath said regional Victorians and many public land managers were fed up with the state government’s failure to meet its own low annual fuel reduction target.
“Victorian forests need to be actively managed utilising regular low intensity mosaic burns, which incorporate, where possible methods, practiced by Traditional Owners in the past,” she said.
“Bushfire mitigation through low intensity fire should be performed throughout the cooler months to remove excess undergrowth on the forest floor. The Howitt Society is correct in its assertion that fire is a natural phenomenon in Victoria, but catastrophic widespread bushfire over enormous areas of forest is not natural.”
The Howitt Society’s membership consists of experienced land and fire managers, scientists, foresters, anthropologists and historians. It is named after the famed 19th century Gippsland scientist Alfred Howitt.
Ms Bath said Howitt Society members had a wealth of knowledge about the bush and public land management.
“The Howitt Society’s petition sends a strong message to the Andrews government that Labor’s poor record and inadequate approach to bushfire mitigation in Victoria must be overhauled,” she said.
“The Andrews Government had blatantly dismissed the Bushfire Royal Commission’s findings and moved to an ideologically flawed ‘hands-off’ approach in state forests and national parks.
“As witnessed during the 2019/2020 summer bushfires, which burnt out of control, aircraft and firefighting personnel become ineffective once the fires take hold, particularly in the terrain of East Gippsland and the Great Alpine National Park,” Ms Bath said.
“We need to avoid mega bushfires that burn so intensely that nothing survives, and devastating damage is inflicted upon our ecosystems and wildlife.”
