Re: 'Aboriginal fire management – part of the solution to destructive bushfires' Archived Message Posted by dereklane on December 29, 2019, 11:58 am, in reply to "'Aboriginal fire management – part of the solution to destructive bushfires'" My memory of Tim flannerys account was more nuanced; that fire activity actively contributed to the diverse niche ecosystems. He did say that it provided the continent with a large amount of eucalyptus species (good at coping with fire), and allowed their spread and range of uniquely adapted species variations, and under that umbrella other species also adapted and changed. I seem to recall his thoughts on megafauna were that they were easy targets for hunting, as they were everywhere else in the world. That aborigines helped shape the Australian environment is true of course, and they shapes it as humans do, by management. That is of course the environment today, but with people choosing to build homes and towns in the middle of vast forest, the issue of management in many places hasn't been addressed. The forest floor lose grows, and people seem to think that can be ignored. Nearish to where I grew up was a large forest, now much less by development, clear felling and bulldozed, but last time I was there (between Brisbane and the Gold Coast) it was still hanging on. But since I was a kid, the bush there has gone from being traversable to nearly impenetrable because the undergrowth and fallen wood has been ignored. Aboriginal intervention probably didn't stop there till around the 60s, but the area has been gentrified since, and now it's a tragedy waiting to happen. The only reason the problem doesn't extend further north is that there is no forest left, all turned into expensive houses and streets for the richness to live by the coast. Even the mangrove forests are mostly gone. Seems we have two methods; destroy it, or pretend it's just a pretty backdrop to our idyllic lives. Neither is a satisfactory approach. Now, with critical mass on the forest floors, the only real starting point is removal of undergrowth by hand, if we wish to save those forests and then subsequent regular management. The cost would far outweigh the economic benefit, however, so nothing happens at all. If controlled fires were attempted, in some of these places, nothing would survive (including remnant populations of koalas etc). Our total rejection of aboriginal land management and pride in our own brutish methods has led us down this path. I have no idea about any reasonable solutions that would work in practise. Message Thread: 'Aboriginal fire management – part of the solution to destructive bushfires' - Ian M December 26, 2019, 1:07 pm Re: 'Aboriginal fire management – part of the solution to destructive bushfires' - dereklane December 29, 2019, 11:58 am Re: 'Aboriginal fire management – part of the solution to destructive bushfires' - dereklane December 30, 2019, 10:12 pm Re: 'Aboriginal fire management – part of the solution to destructive bushfires' - Ian M January 3, 2020, 11:14 am   Searching