Dear Mr Underwood Officers from the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions andDepartment of Fire and Emergency Services have reviewed the Zylstra etal. (2022) paperand consider that the data does not support the conclusions drawn by the authors forseveral reasons largely due…
Cultural Burning
The concept of “cultural burning” is attracting a great deal of interest these days. We understand the term to mean the burning of the bush in the manner of Aboriginal peoples over many thousands of years prior to European settlement in Western…
Zounds Professor Zylstra
The expression of truth is simplicity. Seneca the Younger 4BC-65AD The late Professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was a well known fiction writer, one of his books being ‘Lord of the Rings’ (1). Yet some have complained that a film made in…
One year on…Wandoo forest aerial burn
In March 2021 I was on a field trip into the wandoo forest of the Helena catchment, when I came across Parks and Wildlife staff just commencing an aerial burn. I stopped to have a look and a chat. Having once been…
Jarrahdale dodges a wildfire bullet
In summer 2007, I planned and supervised the establishment of a research thinning trial in regrowth jarrah (E.marginata) forest about 15 km east of the Western Australian town of Jarrahdale. The trial consisted of eight plots, each one hectare in size, thinned…
Historical Letters on Fire
Four More Historical Letters on Fire ‘History is philosophy from examples.’ – Dionysius of Halicarnassus, circa 30 BC In south-west Australia, over the past few decades, there has been both constructive and misleading debate over past burning by the Noongar people. I, and…
The Truth About Fuel Reduction Burning
In the aftermath of the disastrous 2019/2020 fire season in the Eastern States there have been many examples in the media of personnel associated with State fire suppression agencies, as well as academics, putting forward their theories concerning the role of fuel…
Effectiveness of Prescribed Burning
Example of effectiveness of a prescribed burning programme in controlling major forest fires—the 2005 Perth Hills fire by Rick Sneeuwjagt An outstanding example of the contribution of fuel reduction burning in the control of a fierce forest wildfire was on the 15-25…
Impact of Bauxite Mining on Forest Fire Management
It is not generally appreciated what a large proportion of the Western Australian jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata)forest is covered by mining leases for the extraction of bauxite, nor how bauxite mining has greatly complicated forest fire management and hugely increased fuel loads…
The Sawyers Bushfire – Disaster Averted
The January 2018 Sawyers Valley bushfire occurred under moderate temperature but windy conditions. Believed to have been started by an arsonist, the fire started at about 8 AM alongside Gorrie Road and moved rapidly to the west-south-west in jarrah and wandoo forest,…