PJ OBrien, Sale
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
NOW that “the no rain till April” has arrived in early February and muted the hysterical calls of “climate change caused the fires”, it is surely time to examine the real reasons why we had so much widespread devastation.
Firstly, only the blind who refuse to see, would still argue that it is a good idea to lock up 4.1 million hectares of forest in national and state parks, close access roads and tracks, and banish timber workers to poverty and no jobs.
It should be remembered that, not only were the workers banished, but with them, their on-the-job bulldozers and other equipment so necessary to fight fires.
They would be on hand to quickly extinguish small fires before they became holocausts.
And those who have argued that our forests should be locked up to give native animals more protection, must now see that as a death sentence for millions of them.
It must also be recognised that access roads and large areas of cleared forest are needed at intervals to permit firefighters to gain access to fight any fires that may start.
This would also allow animals to escape to those areas and not be trapped with nowhere to go.
In order for this to happen, we need experienced timber workers to mill these areas and be on hand when fires begin.
I grew up in Ensay, which was threatened as far back as November.
But the interesting fact is that, while the fires were in the bush, the whole area was threatened, but when fires entered cleared land, they were able to be turned back and controlled.
And had timber workers not been banned from our forests over the past 50 years or so, areas they could have harvested then, would now be ready for harvesting again.
After all, trees are one of those “renewables” we hear so much about.
So please stop the chant of ‘climate change caused the fires’, and tackle the real solution of much more open forests.
Much has been said about cold burning the forest floor, but that can never clean up 4.1 million hectares of dense and closed forests.
