New study shows the link between logging and fire in Tasmania
A new scientific study has just been released that shows that logging increases the severity of fire in Tasmania. The paper, which was published last Friday in Forest Ecology and Management by University of Tasmania scientists James Furlaud and David Bowman, shows that high severity fires are much more likely in young forests which have been recently logged.
This study comes a year after the well-publicised retraction of a similar study by Dr Jennifer Sanger. Dr Sanger’s study, which found that logging increases fire risk, was retracted after errors were discovered in the Government owned geographical data. The paper retraction started a fierce political storm, in which a motion was passed in the Australian Senate by Jonathon Duniam condemning the paper and calling for the Greens to apologise.
“It is excellent to see this Tasmanian study be published. It confirms the findings of our retracted paper which shows that logging Tasmania’s forests increases the risk of fire,” says Dr Jennifer Sanger. “This is yet another Australian study which joins several previous papers which show this link.”
Dr Sanger says that the government needs to take this issue seriously and end native forest logging. “We need to be doing all that we can to protect our communities. Given this new study and considering several other studies from the mainland that show the link between logging and fire, we really need to reconsider if native forest logging appropriate”
This new study by David Bowman’s lab comes a few months after Bowman released a controversial study which concluded that logging had little effect on the severity of the Black Summer bushfires. This study was heavily criticised by leading bushfire researcher David Lindenmayer as being “a rather unfortunate paper, poorly framed, badly analysed, with the narrative actually not matching the data or the analysis.”
“I hope that David Bowman will take the time to correct the record on this matter,” says Dr Sanger. “There has been a long public debate about this issue, despite the science clearly showing a strong link between logging and fire. It’s time to accept the science and put an end to native forest logging in Tasmania.”
– Jennifer Sanger, The Tree Projects
References:
ABC story: https://www.abc.net.au/news/
Background on Sanger’s paper retraction: https://www.
Lindenmayer’s critic of Boman’s paper: https://cosmosmagazine.
Political Donations
Tasmanian voters have every right to know how much political parties are receiving in donations. They also have every right to know the identity of the donors. Far too much secrecy characterises the current system which benefits Liberals and Labor over minor parties and independents. It is this secrecy, and lack of transparency about amounts being given, and the identity of donors, that is widely considered to have influenced the Liberals 2018 state election win. Most fingers pointed towards the gaming industry – and one family in particular – which undeniably stood to gain the most from the controversial extension of its licence to continue having pokies in pubs and clubs.
It is high time political donations were either capped at $1000, and reported within 24 hours, or else disallowed altogether. How much fairer for elections to be publicly funded, with strict and enforceable limits on candidate expenditure. The benefits for a healthier democracy would be significant. It would create a much fairer system for everyone and could also encourage a greater diversity of candidates from various backgrounds to consider standing for office.
– Anne Layton-Bennett, Swan Bay
Fathoming the Nationals
Other than the coal industry its hard to fathom who the National Party actually represent.
– Dr Ian Broinowski, Battery Point
Mining the Tarkine? We can be better than this!
‘Jobs and Growth’, ‘Thoughts and Prayers’. Why has this become the way our elected politicians govern our great country?
In September my wife of 45 years and I decided to lock on to each other in front of a large shed full of iron ore in Burnie. Venture Minerals is about to send a shipment of ore to China to help pay for more new mines in takayna/Tarkine, in an area of temperate rainforest of significant world heritage value at Mt Lindsay.
Writing letters to politicians like Sussan Ley, Federal Minister for the Environment, have fallen on deaf ears, and she claims that The Tarkine is already protected enough.
This ‘business as usual’ approach is quite staggering, considering scientists around the globe tell us almost without exception that we are in the middle of a climate crisis.
– Frits Harmsen, Tinderbox
Dads4Kids has lost its way
As a Tasmanian father I have raised these matters with Alison and Warwick Smart from Dads4Kids. Their website has shown some very recent improvement since, but long-running saturation television community announcements will receive much more exposure than these recent website updates, and why take down respectful posts from their website?
Damage was certainly done on Father’s Day. For ages now we have been subjected to a long running TV advertisement campaign where young children repeat, “I love you Mummy.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GXxchO4otA
What kind of blatant psychology is this on a dads website? Of course children love their mum, but they love their dad too.
According to ABS figures, 870,000 children, around 1 in 6, live without their biological father at home. Many of these children will have been forcefully removed from their fathers by one means or another. Parents might divorce but where can it be shown loving fathers or grandparents divorce their children and why would they?
Too often we hear about single mothers, or ‘the mother and her children’. These children must not be prevented from showing their father love and affection and vice versa. Fathers should not just be seen as a financial arrangement.
Dads4Kids claim they have no control over how their TV adverts are run but this is weak, of course they do. I was part of the TV industry, I know how programming works.
It would have been better for Dads4Kids to run no adverts than “I love you mummy’ adverts right up to and on Father’s Day and beyond; even as late as the day before. Dads4Kids need to make sure similar ‘I love you Dad’ adverts go to air in equal balance and there is an awful lot of catching up to do.
If men or grandparents cannot go to a Mens4Kids organisation, and find posts such as this taken down on the website, then Dads4Kids need to come clean and change its name to Mums4Kids and redistribute donations.
It never used to be like this.
– Clive Stott, Grindelwald
Check in!
It is vital that the Check In Tas app is routinely used by Tasmanians.
Attitudes towards checking in at Tasmanian premises are seriously lacking. This is due to the fact that COVID-19 has not been in the state in over 12 months.
If attitudes continue to be lax, then the state will have serious contact tracing issues in the event of a COVID-19 outbreak.
I strongly urge all Tasmanians to use the app when visiting supermarkets, retail outlets, cafes, and so on. It will help with contract tracing.
– Damon Thurston, Launceston
Global Political Stonewall
Without environmental protesting and direct action, things are not going to change for the better. I recently discovered environmental activism as an expression of hope amid this unfolding climate crisis. What we are witnessing is a global political stonewall when it comes to action in the face of the largest risk to life on this planet.
Governments are paralysed with fear but I am no longer paralysed. Recently I joined hundreds of activists with the Bob Brown Foundation in the takayna/Tarkine wilderness to protest new threats to the integrity of the rainforest. Now we face a new threat – our ultra-conservative government plans to remove our protesting freedoms and make protecting the environment even more difficult. When will we ever learn?
– Andrew Davies, Cremorne
Letters are welcome on any Tasmanian subject, up to 300 words (we allow a few longer ones occasionally but you’d be surprised how much people appreciate you getting to the point). Letters should be concise, respectful of others and rely on evidence where necessary. No links please! Letter writers should provide a real name and town / suburb. Letters can be send on behalf of organisations or groups. Submit letters in the body of an email to [email protected]
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