The firie as conservationist

Fireground practices in the Darwin rural area

Frank Dunstan
Amended: Friday 19 March 2010

I was once called an oxymoron by a fellow brigade member, he telling me that it was a contradiction to be both volunteer bushfire fighter and conservationist. He would have been surprised to know just how many volunteer and professional bushfire fighters in the Territory share my views and conduct their operations for the least possible environmental damage. But then, he only ever went to the very occasional fire and has now moved back into town, so he never really saw for himself.

Don’t ever call me a greenie, unless it’s a “Pussers Greenie”, because that’s what I was once a couple of lifetimes ago, or so it seems. (That’s navy talk for the uninitiated; it means electrician.) I have been hassled at prescribed burns by greenies because they were full of passion without understanding. I guess it’s like that with some people when they have tunnel vision with a political agenda.

Conservationists understand the role of fire in nature, which is where they differ from greenies. Aboriginal Australians progressively burnt the landscape over an estimated 50,000 years and the country evolved with that burning. There is a lot of information about this on other websites, so I won’t go into further detail. (Google “Aboriginal burning” and pick from the thousands of search results.)

An early dry season bushfire burns relatively “cool” in a mosaic pattern, leaving a lot of unburnt patches and charred material behind. A late dry season bushfire is far hotter, burns everything and leaves ash behind.

Firies mostly try to burn against the wind in their fuel reduction fires, but sometimes the conditions or lay of the land make this impractical. Burning against the wind gives a moderate backing fire which is easy to manage and allows wildlife plenty of time to escape or find refuge.

When burning a block of land we usually start with one side and end being lit up, depending on wind direction. When the fire has burnt in sufficiently to form a wide enough break we light up the other side, leaving one end open for wildlife escape. This open end is monitored and only lit when the fire has mostly burnt out, or there is an unexpected wind shift necessitating a defensive back burn to prevent losing the fire.

Experiments carried out by CSIRO at Kapalga showed that the environment benefits from burning every 3 – 5 years and that a no burning regime is just as harmful as intense late dry season fires. Bushfires NT changed their burning practices in line with this research and bush that was once burnt every year is now rested. When arsonists try to upset this balance we put out the fire if small and only reluctantly defensively back burn the whole area if it’s too far gone.

The mop up is where the true conservationist comes to the fore. I admit that some firies are chainsaw happy and will cut down or push over every burning tree in sight, but a lot of us strongly object to those tactics and will spend a lot of time saving these trees, calling for a chainsaw or front end loader as a last resort. I remember once upsetting someone by putting out an internal tree fire before he could get back with the chainsaw, so determined was he to cut it down. He lost his excuse and that big beautiful tree still stands tall and proud today.

After a wildfire at Colton Park, local fire warden Louie King and I spent hours trying to put out an internal fire in one last stubborn tree. When even I was ready to give up and send for the chainsaw Louie persisted until we eventually won and saved that tree. I reckon it had enough water poured in to get it through a southern drought.

At another fire I remember the cheer that went up all around when it was reported on the radio that the chainsaw had broken down. That meant that we didn’t have to push ourselves as hard trying to keep ahead of the tree fellers.

We don’t mind a living tree being cut down or pushed over if it has been severely weakened and is a potential danger, but this shouldn’t happen just because someone finds it easier than putting the internal fire or high burning branches out. We also understand that there are sometimes far more burning trees on the edge of a fire line than mop up crews can manage and felling otherwise saveable trees is an unfortunate necessity, especially when winds are blowing back across the containment line. More volunteers on fire grounds would help overcome this problem.

A living tree is a wondrous thing. It supports a lot of wildlife, provides nesting in its hollows and removes CO₂ from the atmosphere, giving back oxygen in return. A dead tree breaks down and rapidly surrenders its store of carbon in the next fire. With climate change upon us we need to preserve every tree that we can.

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In the wet season Bushfires NT staff and volunteer fire fighters are actively involved in controlling mission and gamba grass in Batchelor/Coomalie and the Darwin rural area. NRETAS Weeds Branch supplies herbicides through Bushfires NT and NTFRS for people to eradicate these grasses from public lands and private property. By eradicating these grasses we reduce the intensity of wildfires, return the bush to its natural state and lessen greenhouse gas emissions.

And to think that we get harassed by greenies!