agencies, as well as the lessons from numerous inquiries after major wildfires over the past 80 years. “Moreover, the notion that fire can be excluded from most Australian forests for more than 40 years is fanciful, given the increased frequency and extent of wildfires over the past 20 years under challenging climate conditions,” he said. “Importantly, there are numerous journal articles that either challenge their research findings or present evidence that indicates their findings are incorrect.” Dr Bartlett said the academics’ claim that timber harvesting causes the native forest to be more flammable was undermined by evidence. Wildfire, including the rate of spread and fire intensity, depended on three main factors: the quantity and structure of fuel in the vegetation; the prevailing weather – wind and humidity; and the topography of the location of the fire. Thus the severity of the wildfire was the result of interacting factors, “not a single factor such as whether or not timber harvesting has been undertaken in that location” Dr Bartlett cited several wildfire examples: • In NSW, the 2019/20 bushfire burnt about 4.1 million hectares of forest, including 2.23m ha of national park and 0.76m ha of state forest. Timber harvesting had made up about 0.21m ha of state forest over the previous 35 years. Official NSW data showed about 53 per cent and 50 per cent burnt at high and extreme severity in both tenures. At the landscape level, they concluded that fire severity was much the same regardless of tenure; • Fire in 2019/20 burnt more than 855,00 ha (79 per cent), 37 per cent extreme severity, of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, but timber harvesting had no impact in the wilderness area.Areas of prescribed burning five years before had 26 per cent burnt at high or extreme severity, and • In Eastern Victoria, the 2019/20 wildfires burnt 1.5m ha – 89 per cent public forest that included 486,000ha of national park and 403,000ha of state forest. Victorian data showed that 48 per cent of national park and 49 per cent of timber harvest areas burnt at high severity. Dr Bartlett said the academics last year published a review of selected global literature on the role that disturbance (fire, timber harvesting or clearing) can play in forest flammability. Much of this relied on their previously published articles. “They did not quote any of the extensive literature that showed a reduction in fire severity in areas where prescribed burning had been conducted,” he said. Concluding, Dr Bartlett said clearly the greatest risk to Australian native forests is the increased frequency of landscape-scale wildfires burning at high intensity. This would “ultimately change the composition and structure of our forest systems”. “The lived experience evidence clearly shows that timber harvesting is not increasing the risk of native forests being burnt at high severity,” he said. “Far from being a cause of increased high severity fire, prescribed burning reduces fire severity in many forest areas where it has been undertaken.” 10 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 07, ISSUE 03
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI5MjAx