Premature deaths from govt planned burns
Bushfires are painted as the big enemy and forests as their associates ‘in crime’. However the science and evidence tells a different story.
According to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change late last month, sequestering carbon dioxide is only one of the crucial climate-regulating attributes inherent to the world’s forests.
Greater gliders: fears of ‘catastrophic’ consequences from logging in Victoria
Gliders are listed as threatened by both state and federal governments, but they are not protected by legislation. Logging has begun of trees inhabited by the threatened greater gliders in a forest also inhabited by Victoria’s faunal emblem, the threatened Leadbeater’s possum. Protections for the remaining Leadbeater’s possum population – believed to be fewer than …
Wildlife killed by department burn in fauna reserve
THE state environment department has defended its fire management practice which led to the incineration of a colony of rare New Holland mice. In early May, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, and Forest Five Management Victoria carried out a burn in the Providence Ponds Flora and Fauna Reserve near Stratford. The reserve is …
Sorry state for threatened gliders in Victoria
Background Greater Glider populations are suffering across Australia. This is especially so in Victoria where populations in the Central Highlands and East Gippsland are in distress due to – among other reasons – fire and logging eating away at their habitat. The Greater Glider was listed as ‘vulnerable’ under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation …
Feral cats, foxes able to easily target native animals after fires burn protective cover
Introduced cats and foxes are finding native animals easily exposed by a loss of habitat due to fire and it is pushing some species to extinction. Research using infrared cameras and GPS trackers is showing the feral animals cover more ground in greater numbers after fires and their diet includes more native species. Bronwyn Hradsky …
ECO-FRIENDLY FIREWOOD – are their homes warming yours
There are few sights more comforting than a stack of split wood. And there are few more cheering times than toasting the feet by an open fire or wood heater. The wind howls, the rain beats a rhythm on the roof and the soup simmers on the stove. But who once sheltered in that tree …
Will forest shredders stop fires?
Putting VicForests as the overseer of these trials has discredited the trial’s integrity right from the start. Trials are currently underway to assess ‘mechanical fuel reduction’ in our public forests. The details are sketchy but seem to be based on a US practice of using heavy machinery with mulching/shredding capacity to run through native forests …
Victoria’s logging industry faces supply dilemma
In 2009, 75,000 ha of Victoria’s forests were burnt in the Black Saturday bushfires. Over a 3rd of that was forests earmarked for the logging industry. The prospect of bushfires are never calculated into long term planning or log contracts with mills. Couple this situation with other bushfires and a history of overlogging and the …
How did the environment fare in the Vic budget 2017?
All up it has $306M was allocated to our environment (sport managed $308M). This is less than half of what the M80 Ring Road has been allocated, and less than half the schools’ budget. Biodiversity Plan 2037 – $86M for reveg and pest control. Parks – $32M for new rangers over 2 years and a …
Responses of invasive predators and native prey to a prescribed forest fire
Fire shapes biome distribution and community composition worldwide, and is extensively used as a management tool in flammable landscapes. There is growing concern, however, that fire could increase the vulnerability of native fauna to invasive predators. We developed a conceptual model of the ways in which fire could influence predator–prey dynamics. Using a before–after, control–impact …