Burning issue

By Kath Gannaway
VICTORIAN and Yarra Valley viticulture associations were in crisis talks last week with the Department of Sustainability and Environment over the timing of controlled burns.
While grape growers and winemakers say they understand the need for the burns to reduce fuel loads they question the need to burn recently felled logging coupes.
They say bringing the burns program forward this year has puts it into conflict with the peak harvest time.
They are desperate to avoid the smoke taint that caused massive losses last year and which, they say, could again threaten the viability of many growers and wine businesses in the valley and other areas of Victoria.
The conflict of interest is a political minefield with many in the industry unwilling to speak out publicly for fear of being accused of choosing grapes over lives.
“Grapes or lives is exactly what it is,” said one grower who watched with horror as a pall of smoke drifted across the valley from a planned burn in Buxton.
In fact, DSE has confirmed that that particular burn was not for fuel reduction, but a regeneration burn at a logging coupe aimed at assisting the establishment of seedlings after timber harvesting.
Wally Zuk, from Five Oaks Vineyard in Seville, raised the matter at a business breakfast with Liberal leader Ted Baillieu last Tuesday, saying it was a matter of significant concern.
“No one disputes the need (for controlled burning) but it is a question of timing,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Victorian Wine Industry Association and the local Yarra Valley Winegrowers Association are suggesting trying to reach a compromise.
In a letter to DSE secretary Greg Wilson on 18 February, YVWA general manager Richard Howden spelt out the association’s concerns, including the cumulative affect of exposure to smoke.
An earlier submission, in August, requested burns be deferred until after the harvest season.
Mr Howden said research by organisations including the Australian Wine Research institute, Department of Primary Industry and others left no doubt of the potential threat.