Open letter to the Chief Fire Officer, Victoria

Dear Mr. Hardman

A recent planned burn in the Strathbogie Forest, one of two conducted this season, would appear to have burnt more severely than intended. Note the amount and nature of the smoke plume from the Mt Albert planned burn (670 ha), pictured here and described more fully below.

It makes me wonder whether Justice Horan in the recent Federal Court case, upon seeing this, would still conclude “the planned burns … will generally result in low intensity fire with limited impacts on the canopy in most of the planned burns areas.”

A key operational goal for the Mt Albert burn was to “Ensure that fuel moisture differentials are sufficient that they moderate against higher intensity burn coverage and exclude drainage lines and gully systems“.

At this time, the fire is still active, so assessment of its impact has not been possible, but it appears likely to have burned with greater severity and possibly caused more damage than intended, particularly in the Wild Dog Creek gully system where there is a known population of the endangered Southern Greater Glider. Today, one week after ignition, there is still fire in the unit and burning and smouldering trees and stumps are visible from Police Tk. Most likely, Southern Greater Glider habitat trees will continue to be destroyed for some time.

I request from yourself and DEECA/FFMV:

• A formal, independent review of the Mt Albert planned burn to assess its impact and compliance.
• Conduct detailed fire severity mapping of the Mt Albert planned burn.
• Sharing of results of the above investigations with the community.
• A postponement of further planned burns in the Strathbogie State Forest pending the review into the Mt Albert burn.

I shudder to think what we’ll find when we eventually walk through this burn to assess impact on the Southern Greater Glider population and its habitat.

The smoke plume and witness accounts from nearby residents suggest fire severity, including flames in the canopy, is likely to have resulted in substantial wildlife mortality, including of the Southern Greater Glider.

On 12^th April this year I wrote to the Senior Forest Fire Management Officer, Goulburn District, expressing concern about the ignition pattern in the operations plan. My particular concern was the density of ignition points in and around a known Southern Greater Glider population in the Wild Dog Creek catchment. I received no response to those concerns.

On 23^rd April this year, when the severity of the Mt Albert burn became apparent, I immediately wrote to Ms. Claire Kiely, DEECA Regional Manager, Hume Region, and other DEECA managers, requesting that the next planned burn scheduled for ignition in the Strathbogie Forest, Barjarg-Harpers Rd, be postponed.

In the similar sized Barjarg-Harper’s Rd burn unit (540 ha) Southern Greater Gliders are much more abundant than in Mt Albert, occurring throughout much of the forest – not just along waterways. The burn operations plan for Harper’s (January version, below) shows that the majority of the entire burn unit will be ignited – there are ignition lines along virtually every ridge. If Harper’s is ignited in similar conditions to Mt Albert, the burn may result in similar negative impacts.

Below, I set out in more detail the rationale behind these requests.

Sincerely,

Bertram Lobert, President Save Our Strathbogie Forest

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I include two images taken on the afternoon of the planned burn to illustrate my concern.

The image below is the Lima East-Mt Albert planned burn, from 4 km away, a couple of hours after ignition on 21 April, 2024. Underneath the middle of that smoke plume is the Wild Dog Creek gully system (indicated), a known Southern Greater Glider hot-spot and one of the areas the burn plan advises should avoid being burned. The Mt Albert ridge-line has isolated incendiary fires. The incendiary ignition pattern in the Wild Dog Creek gully system (see end of letter) has resulted in this voluminous smoke plume emanating from fire in the heart of Southern Greater Glider habitat. The smoke is dark and warm coloured, indicating higher severity fire that is able to burn, but only partially combust live plants. The dotted arrows show that air is being drawn in to the centre of the main plume, with the domed, hat shape showing the plume pushing through the inversion layer. This shows strong uplift and some degree of fire-generated winds which means significant, vertical heat transfer into the canopy. We can expect crown scorch from this fire – an impact that FFMV acknowledge all planned burns should avoid – bad news for all wildlife, esp Koalas, possums and gliders which have no escape options.

A couple of hours later (below), smoke density and coverage has increased. The vibrant colours are from a low sun, but the dark smoke of partially combusted plant matter is visible and extensive. There is still strong uplift and fire generated winds, perhaps even greater than earlier (arrows). The inversion layer is prohibiting smoke from dispersing vertically, causing smoke to spread laterally, remain in the fire area for longer and increase harm to vulnerable wildlife (and humans!).

Anyone that has sat around a campfire with the breeze blowing towards them would know that every animal in that fire/smoke zone, that can’t flee (and very few can), is probably choking to death. They’ll become fearful, disoriented, stressed and then succumb a painful death. This if forest fumigation – seriously!

At the time of this photo, the fire will likely have already killed thousands of animals, including endangered species like the Southern Greater Glider. People viewing the burn from Lima East on the evening of the 23^rd could see flames in the burn canopy. I shudder to think what we’ll find when we eventually walk through there.

Perhaps it’s just too dry at the moment and any ignition in these circumstances would have a similar result? Perhaps the wind was unpredictable and fanned the flames?

Mt Albert had a significant population of Southern Greater Gliders based around the gully and slope systems of Parkes Creek (White Gum Gully) and Wild Dog Creek. The burn operations plan (below) suggests White Gum Gully was excluded from ignition, yet smoke was clearly coming from that section of the burn on the 24^th April.

This burn appears to contradict or even breach key aspects of the prescription that seek to minimize impact on the Southern Greater Glider and its habitat.

This burn would also appears to contradict a key management action in the FFG Action Statement 267- Greater Glider:

Objective 2: To secure populations or habitat from potentially incompatible land use or catastrophic loss.

Item 7. Determine the most appropriate fire management practices to ensure viable populations of Greater Glider and their habitat (including key features such as hollows in large old trees). This includes developing feasible, cost-effective measures to mitigate any significant impacts of planned burning on Greater Glider populations and their habitat. Incorporate these measures into strategic, tactical and operational fire management plans.

In the context of current burns in Southern Greater Glider habitat, I point out that strategy and actions to ensure compliance with Item 7 is still lacking.

In the similar sized Harper’s Rd unit (540 ha) Southern Greater Gliders are much more abundant, occurring throughout much of the forest – not just along waterways. The FFMV operations plan for Harper’s (January version, attached) shows that the majority of the entire burn unit will be ignited – there are ignition lines along virtually every ridge. If Harper’s is ignited in similar conditions to Mt Albert, the burn will likely be similarly disastrous.

Research clearly shows that Southern Greater Gliders are not adapted to frequent fires, they do not readily recolonize burnt areas, they can not move away and seek refuge elsewhere.

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Lima East-Mt Albert burn operations plan with my mark-up of the area of concern for SGGs, as per correspondence with DEECA. The majority of the smoke emanating from the Mt Albert burn was coming from the direction of the marked ‘area of concern’

Barjarg-Harper’s Rd burn operations plan. Note the numerous ignition lines throughout the burn unit, including virtually every ridge-line and slope. This pattern could result in a much more severe fire than envisaged.