There are plenty of trees that are far less flammable than pines and gum trees but we keep surrounding ourselves, our suburbs and our homes with the flammable ones. We love our Australian bush so much that we look unfavourably on those species of plants and trees that come from overseas; trees that we could hold a flame to all day on a hot day and all we would do is shrivel up the leaves we hold the flame to, while the rest of them refuse to burst into flame, as would a wattle, a gum or a conifer. Try burning a big old fig tree for instance and I do mean that figuratively - I do not suggest you all go out and find a fig tree to singe. It would refuse to burn. This is not a new idea, I am pleased to note, as this site will demonstrate smalltreefarm.au/about-retardants.pdf I know now I have angered those of us who so love the Australian bush they insist on planting flammable species right up next to their homes and apparently their choice to do so is even regarded as an assumed right but never has a right been so wrong. Why should brave men and women die for your love of native flora? If you love the bush so much, go and visit it as often as your heart desires but dont bring it into town and plant it next door to people who should see out a full life, a happy and productive one, instead of being burnt to death at the age of ten. Is our love of gum trees that important? I suggest a national program of removal and replacement, not just the removal of flammable tree species because we have to keep in mind the environmental contribution of trees, but a replacement of those trees with fire retardant species. Here is a site that deals with the ignitability of native plant species aff.org.au/Gill_ignitibility_final.pdf so now we have all the information, lets see what opinions may be drawn into the debate. I am hoping for not too many of you saying we need native species for native fauna to live in. Take a plane ride some day and look down on all the small towns below, how tiny they appear to be, at thirty thousand feet and what havens from bushfire they could be. Also, look at how much bush the native fauna have to frolic in. If you want to see them, drive out of town and sit by a creek and watch them. Thats where they belong. Your desire to see them in a native tree outside your window may cost a firefighter his life, and has done already. This is a solution. Please dont see it as a problem. We should push for this. Sometimes I think how much easier life would be if I said nothing but pleasant, non-controversial things and just let things be but I have never been like that. I spent twenty years in the North Queensland Conservation Council trying to protect the Great Barrier Reef and the northern rainforests from greedy capitalists who would exploit and destroy them, so I am well aware of environmental issues. Black Saturday changed my perspective on things a little, so yes I still defend the Australian flora and fauna but I no longer suggest we live in it because there is one undeniable truth and that is that bushfire is not an accident, nor is it necessarily caused by deliberate mischief. Bushfire is an essential element of the Australian bush and the Aboriginals were nomadic for a reason. We are not, so we have to make our own provisions, unless we choose to become nomadic too. Well, thats it from me this summer.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 00:24:01 +0000
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