Devastation to biodiversity/wildlife during prescribed fires
My friends and colleagues at the Portland Field Naturalists’ Club (Portland, Victoria, Australia) sent me this video made jointly by them and another (Hamilton) Field Naturalists’ Club. Together, they created this hard-hitting, difficult-to-watch video, published June 24, 2014.
Back story: The state government of Victoria has an ongoing commitment to the prescribed burning of 5% of the Crown Land in the State of Victoria. The government does this in order to prevent wild (or intentional/unintentional human-set) fires from endangering homes, businesses, livestock and other establishments/organizations/etc which are considered at risk from fire and hence, more important than the conservation and respect for environmental biodiversity, including wildlife.
Despite lobbying the various levels of government, the two Field Naturalist Clubs believe their well-considered opposition to the controlled burns has been ignored. They are particularly concerned about the excruciating death by burning experienced by wildlife such as koalas, wombats, kangaroos, echidnas, powerful owls, and frankly, anything that moves. Not to mention the flora.
Please watch this video to learn what prescribed burns really do. Note: because it contains graphic images of burned animals, this may not be appropriate for children.
Despite lobbying the various levels of government, the two Field Naturalist Clubs believe their well-considered opposition to the controlled burns has been ignored. They are particularly concerned about the excruciating death by burning experienced by wildlife such as koalas, wombats, kangaroos, echidnas, powerful owls, and frankly, anything that moves. Not to mention the flora.
Please watch this video to learn what prescribed burns really do. Note: because it contains graphic images of burned animals, this may not be appropriate for children.
Please also consider that this is not “just” a far-away-in-another-land issue. Here in Canada we allow prescribed burns. How do you feel about this?
What can we do?
My colleagues at the Portland Field Naturalist Club suggest we write to the Victorian Environment Minister Ryan Smith: They wrote:
“Every year the Victorian Government burns large areas of bush under the banner of protecting human lives and assets, but is this really what is happening? Concerned? Contact the Victorian Environment Minister Ryan Smith, the man responsible for overseeing prescribed burning in Victoria on ryan.smith@parliament.vic.gov.au”
My colleagues at the Portland Field Naturalist Club suggest we write to the Victorian Environment Minister Ryan Smith: They wrote:
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