Feral domestic cats are a global threat to biodiversity and were recently named as the biggest threat to endangered Australian mammals. But what about your pet cat, or the local stray? While any kind of domestic cat can kill wildlife, there’s no “one size fits all” way to manage their impact. Before we figure out …
FOR three years the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission’s independent monitor Neil Comrie has strongly advised the Victorian Government to abandon one of the commission’s recommendations: the call to burn 390,000ha of public land annually for fuel reduction. Yet Environment Minister Ryan Smith is sticking to that target and, even more puzzling, DEPI plans to increase …
Victoria’s forest management policies need to be urgently reviewed in response to the discovery that logging can contribute to the severity of bushfires in wet forests, like the devastating fires on Black Saturday in February 2009. Our recent study, based on data from areas that burned on Black Saturday, clearly shows how extensive logging can …
In its heyday, the town of Cann River in the far east of Victoria was home to seven sawmills. But now just one remains . Bob Humphreys, 70, has run it for 43 years. As a boy he spent school holidays working at the mill. In all that time no changes have been as dramatic …
Our new paper shows that the probability of crown fire in mountain forests under extreme weather conditions is greatest when trees are about 15 years old. This has implications for debates about how timber harvesting influences the risk of fire. Crown fire is a major driver of the dynamics of mountain ash forest, so changes …
Logging practices can “greatly increase the severity of fires” in extreme weather conditions such as Black Saturday, Australian researchers have said. Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) and Melbourne University examined hundreds of thousands of trees burnt in the 2009 bushfires in Victoria, which claimed the lives of 173 people on a day of …
A tailings dam near the head of the Tambo River in Victoria’s east would be dramatically expanded under plans for a new copper and zinc mine, prompting fears from environmentalists about potential long-term impacts on waterways. The proposed mine is expected to produce 850,000 tonnes of tailings – waste from mining – a year, with …
VicForests needs to ”significantly” improve its care of the state’s forests if it wants international accreditation of its timber products, according to an unflattering audit. VicForests, a Victorian government-owned business, is seeking certification from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), based in Germany, to demonstrate that its harvesting of the state’s timber is sustainable, ethical, and …
The appointment of a Threatened Species Commissioner should represent a move forward. However, it may be merely a distraction from the environmental crisis unfolding. GREG HUNT, the Federal Minister for the Environment, today announced what appears to be one of the only environmental promises kept from the Coalition’s election campaign in 2013: to appoint a …
A lethal bait called “curiosity”, designed to kill feral cats, will be a priorityof a new national commissioner to save threatened species. On Wednesday Environment Minister Greg Hunt announced the new commissioner would be Gregory Andrews – a former diplomat who currently works for the federal Environment Department – as part of a CSIRO-backed review …
