I don't know why Canberra and feds are so fussed about having big expensive enquiries into Bushfires out of control.
According to emminent Wentworth's group (Flannery) and Bob Brown in the past weeks the thing to focus on is "global warming"( like perths water supply etc etc ) . No excuses mate--- thats what we should blame
What the people are not sure about though, like the people in "the day after tommorow" is whether doomsday is due to the ozone layer or Co2 . Does anyone care about the details ? Its going up!!!! see "natural cycles" for comfort?

A meeting involving people prememinent in the fields of applied botany and land management addressed a country audience last week to encourage them to continue as they knew what they were talkingabout .
That this meeting express its great dissatisfaction with the preemphory and unscientific discussion as presented by the Esplin Inquiry.

(4) That a small delegation led by Athol Hodgson is granted an urgent meeting with Minister John Thwaits to discuss the enormous damage to the environment; why it happened and what we must do in the future to stop it happening again.

(5) A motion to call upon the Coroner to inquire into the 2003 bushfires and make real recommendations on how the bush can be managed in the future.

(6) That the Victorian Government actively maintains and promotes Alpine Grazing in both forests and parks to
(a) assist in fuel reduction management
(b) for the benefit of maintaining local knowledge.

Been a lot of burning this year , because the government is learning .Fair way to go before they could really do what integrated planners used to do - look after the environmnet . Pity all this learning and burning is at the publics expense and a few wannabe s whims >

Parliament supports a complete downgrading of the old LCC / VEAC independance - its independance is not constitutionally secure after the Otways enquiry set terms of reference that restrict its ability to recommend management diversity !
You wouldn't think these big picture conservationists ( so named) would stymy the independance of the scientific tribunal would you? "Can't answer that - not in our terms of reference" the scientists from VEAC have said.

Beat the blinkered bookkeepers
How do we bridge the gap created between professionals by blinkered accountants with a careless competition theme?.
How about calling ourselves production ecologists The problem is not the professionals - its those who would seek to manage them on a two column ledger. Help bridge the gap between those who see themselves working in one or other camp when their real need is to do both-- and for us to work together.
Beat the blinkered bookkeepers and build one of the most important professions on the globe . Not one of us can afford to wait for accountants to get the message about the lack of lateral thinking about these critical conservation issues .
http://productionecologists.blogspot.com

Protection work esp Fire . The Fire service waits around for a call - and its not coming .the coolest january on record and the troops are getting itchy feet . its costly and the myopic meddlers could now target it for cost cutting ! .
But are our myopic meedling bookeeping mandarins helping . in the big picture sense no! - they go from funding one reactive "fire" to another - a real fire service but not one that ready . just reactive .

They must be steaming back there over all the "standby" waste - waste they, in their ignornace of the big picture create. A few restructures ago fire crews would be doing more than stand around . The quick fix leaders meddle in things they don't understand and now won't intergrate , so we pay more in the end . More "Elvis's" to fix what a mere pee would put out . Our project led ledger men are so mypoic they actually drive inefficiency . after all tyhe budget changes each year -if you do it properly !!!!!!Real conservation is too dynamic for some . Fire services could be doing more than standing than around waiting but oh no we need a budget line and process( =paper) ( let alone people to supervise ) before anything can happen < guess what happens .

Get rid of this project fascination and get a dedication facsination back into governmnet before we have extende wasteful demarcation disputes as a feature of our public servants life in Austrailia.- the accountants started this by providing the logic for it ------ did you know!

The Federal fire enquiry (Aust) heard lots of angry voices, but did they get the message and punch it home.
My reaction: Not tough enough mates !. Maybe they, like the States are too caught up in the heavenly minded chanting of nativists preservation doctrines to notice that such things are often no earthly use when it comes to practical biodiversity protection.
Most importantly, unless governments give more control to quiet achievers trained for surgery , average citizens will continue to get burned by a historic move backward to the days of meddling quacks and fearmongers.

NSW Roads taking back control of roads in the high country is a good sign for Australia. Governments who want to know where the future is.??? Multiple skill management and use.
Tasmanias success is partly due to its resistance to change? Maybe its time to talk about the advantages of being so far behind you are actually are infront .
Change for changes sake is undermining many professions who would work together if it wasn't for misplaced competition and "innovation at any cost policies" driven by the profitable "policy is innovation"growth sector .

After all good conservation and life protection is about basic things like understanding and managing complex ecosystems like life and land - not leaving it alone like a parentless child till the next person gets killed in an clearly avoidable landslide or holocaust.

Esplins report --learning or just reacting?
"Bracks government is not at fault , its staff and volunteers did very well but they need to talk to each other more ". Tell us something we don't know!

Every indication the government is as behind and reactive as ever.

At one end of the state they are in the very process of removing the very experience they are calling for in the east
from the report " .Recommended .... have full access to those appropriately experienced and qualified community members ( in the Otways ) who can ( or used to able to ) provide local knowledge and
expertise in the development of fire suppression
strategies and that advice from the fire ground is
incorporated into decision making. See sam evans comments in Colac Herald 6th Oct)

Sydney Conference October supports competency stand to avoid lockouts
ABC News 4 Oct