Vic Jurskis

The latest issue of Australian Zoologist is titled “Out of the ashes: Lessons learned from bushfires and how we can better manage our fauna”. But the editorial wrap-up suggests we’ve learnt nothing. It seems our fauna will continue to suffer from mismanagement under a Lock It Up and Let It Burn conservation’ paradigm. The abstract mentions monitoring, mapping and research, but the only reference to management is “use of supplementary resources such as nest boxes and artificial roosts to replace those lost in fires”.

Sadly, death and destruction will continue to escalate whilst governments rely on advice from academics and firechiefs and give them increased funding after every disaster. Sustainable fire management would be very much cheaper and better.

I reckon the Monty Python team would have been jealous of the creative genius behind NSW’s Koala Strategy. It would be hilarious except for the $200 million price tag to save an irruptive species which is in much greater numbers across a much wider area than before the European ‘invasion’. Apart from Strzelecki, no explorer saw any koalas because they didn’t live in the grassy valleys occupied by Aborigines and sought by pastoralists.

Vic Jurskis discusses data from historical reports and field surveys and concludes that koalas are in no danger of extinction. ARR.News asked some further questions of Vic.

Research using effective survey methods shows that koalas are generally increasing with expanding National Parks and Lock It Up and Let It Burn conservation polices. The valleys are occupied by towns, so the koalas are moving in. Disease, dog attacks and road trauma are symptoms of irruptions, not causes of decline.

Einstein supposedly said that “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. Australia’s current approach to forest management is insane ... Now the Senate’s Finance and Public Administration Committee has published “Lessons to be learned in relation to the Australian bushfire season 2019-20”. It would be amusing if not for the ongoing dire consequences.

Dr Canadell said in response to my comment: “Our study doesn’t discuss forest management.” This statement is Not True ... Dr Canadell and his colleagues failed to consider critical evidence which demolishes the CSIRO argument.

Since the Black Summer bushfires, there has been fierce debate over the role hazard reduction burns played in the severity of the fires, but Dr Canadell says prescribed burning has not actually changed ... Dr. Canadell was absolutely correct in saying we’re burning a really small amount. I wonder why, then, he finds it difficult to imagine that fuel loads are driving megafires ...

The whole landscape needs maintenance by mild fire. But academics and fire chiefs talk of asset protection zones, strategic zones and management zones with different fire regimes. They just don’t get it. Firebreaks don’t work in extreme weather. They can’t stop firestorms and long-distance ember showers. If you need to reduce accumulated fuel, you haven’t been maintaining the landscape properly.