Good Morning from Margaret River,
I was wanting to have a really positive slant with our blog, not wanting too many negatives, only wanting to highlight the good things and ignore the not so good things. As our lives are full of those not so good things. I'm 'a glass half full' person and grateful for it. So this is the first time I am going to have a crack at something and that thing is the system of 'prescribed burnings' of our native bush. This season is not the first season this has happened, and even though we have not had any human lives lost in Margaret River, we have had lives lost in the past and a possibility that we may have that in the future. Not to mention the heart breaking loss of our wild life.
I think the current toll for Margaret River residences is 32 homes and 9 chalets. Augusta and surrounding regions worried about a similar situation. Their fire has burnt over 40,650 hectares, and is continuing to burn. That is a lot of our bushland and an untold loss of native flora and fauna. What a tragedy.
A very good news article by the West Australian Newspaper, and vid from Channel 10, about the current situation here.
I have copied this letter from the Conservation Council of Western Australia which explains what is going on, and they have a link which gives you an opportunity to register your disagreement to the WA Government. Cath
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| How many Cyril's have been lost That is Cyril 'The Slug Slayer' or other wise known as a Green Frog |
Dear Supporter,
This week we are seeing the devastating impacts of an escaped prescribed burn on the Margaret River community. But did you know in that same week the authorities lost control of at least three other prescribed burns in Southwest forests?
We see the horrible images on the news of people’s homes destroyed, but what we don’t see are the thousands of plants and animals that are killed every year by the WA government’s reckless prescribed burning program.
For thousands of years, Aboriginal people managed fire by carefully burning small areas in cool weather, to create a mosaic pattern that included safe refuges for our native wildlife.
Today, the Department of Environment and Conservation burning program relies on firebombing vast areas of bushland with incendiary devices dropped from aircraft, in order to meet their arbitrary burn target of 200,000 hectares per year. The resulting fires are huge, unpredictable and difficult to contain. Many of our native species have no hope of escaping these burns, and for those that do escape the fire, they are left with no food or shelter.
There is an important role for prescribed burning in keeping our communities safe, but this must be done carefully in cool weather in a targeted way, not by dropping fire-bombs from aircraft to incinerate vast forest areas in the hot summer months.
The recent Margaret River fire was a tragedy, but your action will help to ensure that the lessons of this fire and other recent escaped prescribed burns are acted upon by the WA Government.
CCWA
Telephone: (08) 9420 7266
City West Lotteries House 2 Delhi Street
West Perth, WA 6005
Australia
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