Environment
Bridport disappears
MANY calls come in complaining about the township of Bridport being covered in smoke.
Later it was revealed that the Bridport road has been closed due to safety concerns.
The ABC responded by inviting Kim Creek from Forestry Tasmania to reply to public concerns.
This is strange because the Tasmanian Fire Service holds responsibility for protecting the public from hazards arising from smoke pollution from burnoffs.
Louise Saunders asks Creek where/what the burn is. Kim Creek simply responds by saying that he doesn’t know and that it isn’t Forestry Tasmania.
Louis Saunders then asks if Forestry Tasmania take public concerns into account and let neighbours know what’s going on.
Kim Creek responds:
“What people do on private property isn’t the concern …”
At that point Louis Saunders interrupts him. She begins to direct Mr Creek into providing a publicly acceptable response. Kim Creek finally hits on the idea of mentioning the ‘planned burns’ website. He then assures the public that this is the way his industry notifies the public. He adds that of course, Forestry Tasmania do take the concerns of people into account. He adds the usual line of many farmers also burning off at this time.
Louise Saunders ends the interview by summing up: “it’s not a forestry burn.” It seemed entirely irrelevant to her that Kim Creek had actually said that he didn’t know where the smoke was coming from!
PS: No image of planned burns provided on the Forestry Tasmania website this morning.
See: http://www.forestrytas.com.au/forestrytas/pages/fmb_planned_burns.html
*Image: From http://www.plannedburnstas.com.au/Planned_Burns_img.htm
for 11/5/2006, via Frank Strie, who says: “14 coupe fires in one day? Spoiling a clean nice day. Launceston will get it this time”.
Earlier:
