Hi Jennifer,
This year’s bushfire season in Tasmania has been accompanied by the shrill political voice of the Australian Green’s Senator Christine Milne. On Thursday she attacked the state’s professional forest service in a game of one upmanship with Tasmania’s Eric Abetz, Minister for Forestry and Conservation.
“The truth is most bushfires in Tasmania are deliberately lit or escape from forestry operations or regeneration burns,” Milne claimed.
The claim drew this response from Forestry Tasmania the next day:
“Senator Milne knows from publicly published fire statistics that more than 80 per cent of forest-related fire-fighting is from arson, lightning and other causes, not escape planned burns.”
Managing Director of Forestry Tasmania had this to say on Milne’s self promotion:
“She is cruelly wrong to accuse forestry of being a major cause of wildfires and the release of greenhouse gases. This week, when hundreds of forestry workers, their fire tankers, dozers, low loaders, helicopters and aircraft are fighting forest fires all started by arson or in Victoria by lightning strikes, she is so wrong.”
In Tasmania, due to an innovative inter-agency agreement between the Tasmanian Fires Service, Parks and Wildlife Service and Forestry Tasmania we can apply maximum resources whether the bushfire is on private or public land, in State forest or a reserved area.
For the latest on Tasmanian Fires check out Tasmanian Fire Service at: http://www.fire.tas.gov.au/mysite/Show?pageId=colFireRestriction
And for a photo or two, the Mercury at: http://www.news.com.au/mercury/story/0,22884,20902092-3462,00.html.
Regards,
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.