Bushfires – Page 2 – The Saltbush Club

Letter to a nuclear energy professional in New England: Autumn, Forests, Government

By John Shanahan
Denver, Colorado, USA

Dear friend,
I am glad that you are having a beautiful autumn in New England.

Across the drier American West (Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington State, and Wyoming), we are dealing with natural wildfires complicated by decades of catastrophic extreme environmentalist interference to fight natural fires, prohibit controlled burning and let dead biomass accumulate for decades. People have built towns and homes close to or in forests. On top of that, pine and spruce trees naturally grow too close together. See photo below of trees in Yellowstone National Park as it recovers from wildfires. Extreme environmentalists in Australia are doing the same. See Viv Forbes’ articles, click here. Why is this happening?

Read the full article: https://saltbushclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/forest-management.pdf [PDF, 924 KB]

‘Climate arson’ and Other Wildfire Nonsense

Real goal is to avoid responsibility for policies, and increase control over energy, lives, property

By Paul Driessen

In what has become an annual summer tragedy, wildfires are again destroying western US forests. Millions of acres and millions of animals have been incinerated, hundreds of homes reduced to ash and rubble, dozens of parents and children killed, and many more people left missing, injured or burned.

Air quality across wide regions and entire states is so bad people are told to stay indoors, where many have hibernated for months because of the coronavirus, but indoor air is also contaminated. Acrid smoke and soot have been carried to Chicago and beyond. Firefighters are profiles in courage, as they battle the blazes for days on end, while all too many politicians are displaying profiles in opportunism. Continue reading “‘Climate arson’ and Other Wildfire Nonsense”

No Fuel = No Fire

By Viv Forbes

A NSW Bushfire Enquiry concluded: “Hazard-reduction burns should be greatly increased”.

What a breath of good sense. If there is no fuel, there can be no fire.

They also urge a return to indigenous fire management. Aboriginals burnt anything and everything, at any time, for any reason. They had no water-bombers and seldom tried to put fires out, but they did understand back-burning. Their vegetation management created the vast and productive open forests and grasslands that supported large populations of marsupials and birds.

But tree huggers would never support this. They prefer scrub, weeds, pests and occasional fierce wildfires.

Bushfires in Australia – Royal Commission Submission

A submission to The Royal Commission into
National Natural Disaster Arrangements

Presented by Viv Forbes
On Behalf of The Saltbush Club

PDF version: https://saltbushclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/bushfire-enquiry.pdf

The Landscape and wildlife of Australia was shaped and then maintained by frequent mild burning for at least 40,000 years. This reality must be recognised and it dictates that there are only two futures for Australia:

A healthy safe landscape that maintains sustainable vegetation, wildlife and people. This requires that we re-establish the successful fire regimes of the past.

A dangerous and destructive landscape with too many people cowering in suburban and rural enclaves surrounded by a tinderbox of pest-ridden weeds, scrub and litter – a threat to trees, wildlife and property. This is today’s fire regime in Eastern Australia.

Our submission focusses on Bushfires. Continue reading “Bushfires in Australia – Royal Commission Submission”

The Parable of Gospers Mountain, or how aboriginal burning changed the face of Australia

By Vic Jurskis

Lieutenant Watkin Tench arrived at Warrane (Sydney Cove) with the First Fleet in 1788. Tench described a diversity of birds and animals, present in small numbers:

The country, I am of opinion, would abound with birds, did not the natives, by perpetually setting fire to the grass and bushes, destroy the greater part of the nests; a cause which also contributes to render small quadrupeds scarce. Continue reading “The Parable of Gospers Mountain, or how aboriginal burning changed the face of Australia”

Farmers Take Legal Action After Fires

‘We saw this coming for years’: Farmers take legal action after fires.

Six farmers are preparing to take legal action against the NSW state government, arguing a massive bushfire in northern NSW could have been prevented if more hazard reduction had been allowed.

In what could be the first class action after this summer’s horror bushfire season, graziers hit by the August blaze in the Guy Fawkes National Park, west of Coffs Harbour, say it was “a disaster waiting to happen”.

Prescribed Burning Myths – the Academics vs the Bushies

By Viv Forbes, Executive Director, The Saltbush Club.

Considerable publicity is being given to an article by Byron Lamont and Tianhua He titled “Why prescribed burns don’t stop wildfires” (published in New Matilda, and also WAToday 22 January 2020).

https://newmatilda.com/2020/01/17/hazard-reduction-burns-dont-stop-wildfires-says-one-of-the-nations-most-eminent-ecologists/

Lamont and He are academics from Curtin University in WA, the former a botanist and the latter a molecular biologist. They argue against the use of fuel reduction burning in bushfire management because it does not “stop bushfires”.

The article should be filed among works of fiction. Continue reading “Prescribed Burning Myths – the Academics vs the Bushies”

Fire Triangles

By Roger Underwood

Introduction

Anyone who has studied elementary physics, or basic fire science, is familiar with the Fire Triangle. For a fire to occur three things must be present:

Oxygen, to enable oxidation or combustion (or, in everyday terms “burning”);
Fuel, which is the substance that burns; and
Heat, or a source of ignition, to ignite the fuel in the presence of the oxygen.

If any one of these elements is absent, a fire will not occur.

I first remember seeing this demonstrated in a laboratory when I was a high school student. Our physics teacher had a glass container from which all the air had been removed. When a lighted candle was inserted into the vacuum, it immediately went out. No air, which means no oxygen, meant no fire. A lesson never to be forgotten.

In fact, there are two Fire Triangles, and both must be understood if bushfires are to be effectively managed and bushfire damage is to be minimised. They are the Classic Fire Triangle, and the Bushfire Triangle. Continue reading “Fire Triangles”

Australian Bushfires Ignite Climate Emergency Propaganda

A Briton’s perspective on the Australian bushfires. The bearded bushman at the three-minute mark reveals how people living in the countryside really feel (language warning).

Environmentalists Responsible for Most of Australia’s Bush Fire Problem

By Tom Harris

Recent climate change has not caused Australian bushfires. Besides the fact that many of the fires are set by people, either intentionally or by accident, a major cause of Australia’s fire problem has been the high ‘fuel loads,’ underbrush that, left to accumulate over years, acts as a tinder box for bushfires. Craig Kelly, Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives (Hughes, New South Wales), told ITV’s Good Morning Britain on January 6:

“Now, we have record fuel loads on the ground, … and every single royal commission we have had from our past bushfires have said that we have to reduce those fuel loads. And that is the main issue. And yet we have failed to do so.” Continue reading “Environmentalists Responsible for Most of Australia’s Bush Fire Problem”