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When the 'green dream' becomes a bushfire nightmare

By Mark Poynter - posted Monday, 2 June 2014


With regard to 'fire-fighting culture', a substantial shift away from multiple use forest management to conservation management has dramatically reduced theinfluence of foresters who, as a professional discipline, pioneered and refined forest fire prevention and suppression techniques since the 1940s, and were their most proficient operational proponents.

In the 18 years from 1988 to 2006, the area of nature conservation reserves in Victoria (including national parks) more than doubled from 1.83 million hectares to 3.75 million hectares. From being responsible for managing most of the state's public forests up until the early 1980's, by 2008, less than half of Victoria's public forests were still in land tenures being managed primarily by foresters.

This was further exacerbated by the Government's 2004 decision to create a new commercial forestry agency, VicForests, limited to managing only the harvesting and regeneration of allocated coupes. This took many of the most experienced foresters out of broader public land management, and although they assist in bushfire emergencies, has ultimately left DEPI with fewer field staff experienced in the operational aspects of managing fire.

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The most prominent critic of the handling of the Goongerah - Deddick Trail fire is local forest activist Jill Redwood, who coordinates two web-based groups - the Goongerah Environment Centre (GECO) and the rather grandly-titled, Environment East Gippsland (EEG) - from her Goongerah home.
Her outspoken demeanor has made her a regular on the regional ABC to an extent that her agenda-driven views on Gippsland forestry are typically afforded greater credibility than foresters and industry insiders who know far more.
 
According to the EEG website, the group has "been working to protect East Gippsland's natural areas and wildlife for almost 30 years. As a locally based group we play a vital role in information gathering on the local logging industry and badgering our 'forest managers'". The websites of both groups can be described as an eclectic mix of truth, untruth, half-truth, science, and psuedo-science woven together by a combative brand of hyperbole.
 
The obvious focus of these groups has always been to substantially close down the region's timber industry and they have worked towards this by conducting regular coupe blockades to generate publicity, as well as constantly "challenging the logging/woodchip industry to come clean" and more latterly, mounting legal challenges over alleged environmental malpractice. Currently on EEG's Facebook Page, VicForests, who regulate the industry and have been targetted in these legal cases, is ridiculed as being a "dead lo$$" and is urged to "liquidate itself to assist local communities!"
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In relation to fire, EEG's attitude to fuel reduction burning - arguably the most important forest fire management tool - could be described as at times bordering on contemptuous. The EEG website variously refers to it as 'cowboy vandalism' and 'one massive unscientific experiment', as well as equating it to'declaring war on forests and the environment'.
 
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About the Author

Mark Poynter is a professional forester with 40 years experience. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Foresters of Australia and his book Going Green: Forests, fire, and a flawed conservation culture, was published by Connor Court in July 2018.

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