Scientists warn that the wrong fire patterns could see more losses of threatened species across the country. IN LATE JANUARY 2014, after wildfires tore through two conservation parks in South Australia, researchers scoured the charred terrain for signs of life. They hoped to glimpse a mouse-sized flicker of blue and gold or hear a high …
Brilliant investigation into the crooked management of fires. Big fires = big drama = big money! The similarities with Victoria are uncanny but not at all surprising (Ed.) It’s claimed a long running turf war over the control of fire fighting in NSW is affecting fire ground operations as the NSW Rural Fire Service faces …
Victoria must use risk-based land management burns to prevent bushfires, and dump an annual target, national parks groups say. Last month Environment Minister Lisa Neville asked the Inspector-General for Emergency Management to conduct a review of performance targets for a future bushfire fuel management program on public land. The Black Saturday Royal Commission recommended a …
Australian Paper says unless it lifts performance, and soon, the business may not survive, following four straight years of losses. Chief operating officer Peter Williams says a turnaround in financial performance is ‘critical’ for Australian paper production to continue. The company has just announced the closure of its 60-year-old Shoalhaven mill. “We want to see …
In February 2006, having spent around $7 million of taxpayers’ money trying to fix up an unstable tailings dam abandoned by a failed copper and zinc mining enterprise, the Department of Primary Industries was moved to ask the Register of Geographic Names to call the dam ‘Lake St Barbara’. Ironically, in Spanish and Italian, the …
A popular argument suggests Aboriginal people always burned country so non-Aboriginal Australians should too, albeit for modern purposes, such as fuel reduction burns. Historian Bill Gammage argued this in the popular and influential book The Biggest Estate on Earth (2011). Remarkably, the book has attracted the praise of writers from both the left wing Green …
According to a new report from Wood Resource Quarterly Overseas shipments account for about 70% of global wood chip trade, with pulp mills in Japan and China being the major destinations, reports the Wood Resource Quarterly (WRQ). This trade is handled by specialty made wood chip carriers predominantly built in Japan and China. Many of …
West Australian researchers spent 10 years developing bait of poison mixed with kangaroo mince and chicken fat to appeal to notoriously fussy feline palates New baits targeting feral cats could aid the recovery of 53 threatened species covered under Western Australia’s largest conservation project, according to the state’s environment minister, Albert Jacob. The West Australian …
Scientists have found the number of animals moved to make way for building projects far outnumber science-led relocations to recover populations The relocation of animals to make way for land development rarely succeeds and could be driving some species towards extinction, according to a new study. An international team of scientists found that “mitigation …
Stopping logging in Victoria’s central highlands would drive tens of millions of dollars into state coffers if the move was included under the Abbott government’s emissions reduction fund. Fairfax Media has seen a confidential brief prepared for the federal environment minister, Greg Hunt, which found ending logging in the highland forests, north-east of Melbourne, would …
