Bumper battle

By Kath Gannaway
A GROUP that accuses the State Government of pandering to the “green movement” launched a bumper sticker campaign on Saturday aimed at raising awareness of the role ground-fuel plays in the severity of bushfires.
Thousands of the stickers will go out to communities across Victoria after the launch by the No Fuel No Fire Alliance at Fernshaw Reserve on the Black Spur.
But Yarra Ranges environment group MyEnvironment has hit back saying the bumper sticker approach is simplistic and a “one glove fits all” panacea for a complex problem.
MyEnvironment president Sarah Rees also accused the new alliance of political opportunism and of pre-empting the Bushfire Royal Commission.
The alliance, led by Rita Bentley, has the support four state MPs including the Liberal Evelyn MP Christine Fyffe, who was a member of the all-party Environment and Natural Resources Committee 2008 Inquiry into the Impact of Public Land Management Practices on Bushfires.
Ms Bentley has lobbied the government for 20 years calling for a more balanced approach to land management.
She told the Mail the alliance had no affiliations with other lobby groups, saying it was a collection of individuals who had a concern on the issue.
“We want to keep in the public’s eye an awareness of the importance of proper land management and responsible environmental regulation,” she said.
Referring to the recommendations of the 2008 ENRC report, she said: “We need to ensure that the message in this report is hit home.
“It is not greenies who make policy, it is the government who have listened to the extremists of the environmental groups.”
Ms Fyffe said she heard strong evidence throughout the 2008 inquiry that fuel reduction reduced the impact of bushfires.
“We are always going to have bushfires because that’s the nature of the terrain,” she said.
“But we know without any doubt that less fuel means less heat and less danger to people and to property.”
She said the report recommended fuel reduction be tripled, but that had not happened.
Scott Gentle, CEO of the Victorian Forest Harvesting and Cartage Council and a former arborist, said local government had to share the blame.
“Local environment groups have infiltrated local government and they are putting trees before of people’s lives,” he said.
Pointing to the burnt-out mountain ash forest around Fernshaw, he called for “more active management of the forests”.
David Barton, a Marysville resident, Chamber of Commerce president, SES volunteer and member of the Bush Users Group, also spoke at the launch.
“We have been talking about this for years and years,” he said.
“Properties covered with trees, especially native trees, burn fiercely. Virtually every building surrounded by native bushland has been incinerated.
“It’s just common sense really – reduced fuel loads mean reduced fire risk. No fuel means no fire.”
Ms Rees said the alliance’s arguments for across-the-board fuel reduction didn’t hold water.
“Forest is not just forest. In the forests around Yarra Ranges there are variations in the types of forests and they all require different management plans,” she said.
“There is no science that states that fuel reduction in mountain ash forests works.
“There is mounting science against it saying that if a those types of forests receive too many burns in short succession they may fail to regenerate.”