Firefighting- defence or attack mode?

Like all health advocates we support ,to a man, the need for massive firefighting effort when lives are at risk .
But like all health profesionals, we mustn't allow the present crisis to prevent us from preventing the next one .
Will the massive expenditure on attempted fire control and the technological wizardry of the new milleneum prevent something bigger than 1939 from happening? Will the goverenmnets huge resources for planning and doing long term land use planning be diverted and squandered on reactionary and ineffective windowdressing. Playing around on the boundaries of a problem made too big to "solve"? . Will firefighting and shallow reactionary stuff be the enduring symbol of the Bracks legacy; Conflagration rather than conservation .natural resource non management rather than natural resource management. Its been Government by defence rather than government by attack. rather brings the word sustainability into disrepute?

Will, for example the huge expenditure on fire management by Mr Thwaites in 2006 make up for the damage done by his carelessly closing down forests for multiple use and management? How much money will be spent for the priveleged few land managers who remain like blatant heretics to behave in ways which, he, Mr Thwaites has declared ' no longer acceptable". There are some wild land advocates who would say " let it all burn - that's the natural imperative " I wonder if Mr thwaites or Ms carbines is influenced by their simple ideological modelling?
While it may suit some to sell utopian dreams, the best way to have our cakes and eat them too is to allow for biodiversity .That 's not what the simple idealogues can handle .After all they don't study the subject to show themeslees approved leaders in the field . Yet , if we did what the wild ones wanted most of the plantation timbers and your superannuation would go up in smoke too - and more often than is naturally good for any one element of the ecosystem. !Posted Dec
16th 2006

When will this forest burn, and what will grow after it does ? 

I will find the 1939 maps and put it up > for now . this is our locality  

From Tony Sutcliffe ( Canberra Times)
Eminent jurist, Allan Myers QC summed up the situation with his scathing
review of the Victorian Inquiry: "the terms of reference for the Esplin
Inquiry were deficient, being too vague, generalized and unfocussed and, at
the same time too narrow.... Matters which the terms of reference ought to
have addressed include land use practices of Parks Victoria, forest
husbandry practices in Victorian State forests and specific steps which
could have been taken to control and extinguish the fires but which were
not taken, or not taken in a timely manner".

ACT Coroner Maria Doogan plainly understands this. Consequently she finds
herself in the siights of a cartel of State and Territory Government
environmental and fire agencies.

The commonality of their outlooks, history and practices means that Doogan
was effectively inquiring ito the lot of them. Her inquiry would uncover
precisely how these fires were allowed to destroy hundreds of homes,
destroy thousands of hectares of trees and cremate thousands of native
animals. She would uncover under-resourcing of national parks and the
dysfuntionality of fire services which spurn of fire service which spurn
the value of local volunteer expertise. She would find out why our fellow
human beings were allowed to die.

Equally Doogan would discover why the ACT finds itself at the epicentre of
NSW and Victorias incompetence. Such inquiries are what underpins the
preservation of social democracy. We should remember it is not just high
profile watchdogs like Doogan who are under the hammer. The political
intimidation extends to the most fundamental level of our community.

When NSW and ACT volunteer firefighters gathered to protest at the Supreme
Cour last week, they had received almost identical warning from their fire
services not to wear uniforms. NSW volunteer firefighter Bruce Noble stood
defiantly and wore his uniform, because volunteer fire fighting is an
integral part of country Australian's identity. "The ACT Coroner should be
allowed to finish her job immediately and let the truth be told" insists Noble.

The same patronising "we know best" attitude was echoed earlier in
Victoria, when a fire fighter was put on charges for publicising the
notorious inflammability of Victoria's fibreglass firetankers. Such
volunteers are paying the cost of the environment and fire agencies
becoming hopelessly entwined with their political masters' fortunes.

Don't just watch the leaders. The entire political left is complicit in the
cover up. If conservative governments had created the bush fire
incompetence, then the Greens and their allies would be incandescent with
rage. Instead their cosy relationships with the ALP leave them sitting on
their hands - muted, neutered and obsolete.

The Stanhope Government has risked all, including its fundamental
credibility, in a hopeless quest to diminish the standing of Doogan. Its
allies can't believe their luck.

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