New plan for Victoria needed in wake of the bushfires

Fourth, the report looks at other key conservation values at risk - the koala, water catchments and rainforest areas, and the impact on wildlife caused by the loss of hollow-bearing trees. The loss of these trees affects many animals including bats, owls, possums and gliders which are entirely dependant on hollows only found in big old trees - which can take more than a century to form - for shelter, roosting and nesting.

Finally the report makes the following recommendations for the Royal Commission. The report:

1. Welcomes the announcement of a Royal Commission into the fires as an appropriate response to carefully investigate and review fire management for the protection of people, property and the environment at a local and a landscape level.
2. Urges the Victorian Government to publish within one year a comprehensive report on the impact and risks of these fires on natural values, water, carbon, wildlife and endangered plants and animals.
3. Encourages the Victorian Government to establish long term monitoring of the effects of these fires on wildlife and threatened species.

We make only one specific recommendation to the state government in relation to land management in lieu of the Royal Commission. We make it because the state government will make a decision on this matter in the coming weeks and it is not related to fire prevention or land management to reduce fire risk.

That is, we urge the state government not to engage in so-called salvage logging and/or thinning at least until after the completion of the Royal Commission, due to its known devastating impacts on the natural environment. There is broad consensus amongst scientists that salvage operations are at least as damaging to wildlife and their habitat as the bushfires themselves. In our view, salvage logging removes critical evidence for the Royal Commission and seriously and irreparably preempts its conclusions in relation to public land management.

One thing is certain, the rules we all understood about fire management have now changed and a new approach is necessary. What we need now is a response that takes into consideration both a local and landscape approach where science guides us to take precautionary measures to protect people, property and the environment.