American Thinker: By Viv Forbes
Too many recent headlines say: A fierce new bushfire is burning in the XYZ National Park. Nearby residents should prepare to evacuate.”
Neglected, overgrown, weed- and log-infested, un-grazed, unburnt government-protected parkland is a danger to all neighbors. All it needs is a fire-bug, a fearful neighbour attempting a too-late back-burn, or a lightning strike, and a wildfire is inevitable, especially when the weather is hot, dry, and windy. Wildfires will not stay in their national park.
Never before in Australia’s long history of black and white occupation have such large areas of bush been quarantined from annual burn-offs, cultivation, slashing, and grazing.
Four policy changes are needed to fix this problem:
Firstly, a reduction in the area of land locked in national parks and reserves, and an end to “protected” vegetation on private land. read more
ax ready jobs!
They were doing controlled burns at our local state park as couple weeks ago.
I’ll bet if other parks would simply do that in areas people frequent, there would be fewer fires.
Years ago in east Texas, we went down to a wooded pasture to check on grandpa’s cows. Best I remember it was late winter or early spring. We were standing there and I noticed a small fire creeping along the forest floor. When I ask about it, they told me they did a burn every 4 or 5 years to keep the under story cleared to make room for the grasses to flourish for the cattle and if a real fire came during the hot late summer or fall it wouldn’t climb into to the upper story of the trees. Fire is a forest management tool, to be used to prevent catastrophic fires.
And all their stupid policies can be hidden by blaming all the fires on “global warming”.
CC …..dozens of controlled burns become wildfires every year. Just sayin.
Anonymous, there is a difference between a government sponsored controlled burn and a land owner controlled burn. The land owners are a little more discriminating about having good conditions and have the ability to wait for optimum conditions. While the government’s attitude is, we’ve been planning this for years and it’s on the calendar for today.