In which the NSW Nationals through Deputy-Premier & MLA for Monaro John Barilaro insert into a government media release their dislike of national parks and unexploited Crown land.
The
NSW Government has released the independent NSW Bushfire Inquiry,
which examined the causes, preparation and response to the
devastating 2019-20 bushfires.
All
76 recommendations will be accepted in principle, with further work
to be done on specific timelines to give communities assurance that
changes will be made to keep them safe.
Any
issues not covered in the report that are still relevant to the
protection of property and life will also be further examined.
Resilience
NSW, led by Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons, has been tasked with
coordinating and overseeing the implementation of the Inquiry’s
recommendations as the government finalises its approach.
Premier
Gladys Berejiklian thanked former NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Dave
Owens and Professor Mary O’Kane AC for their hard work on this
report.
“The
NSW Government has worked in lock-step with the RFS and Resilience
NSW to ensure the state is as prepared as it can be to face the next
fire season, but the learnings from this Inquiry will help us further
improve our preparedness and response,” said Ms Berejiklian.
“The
NSW Government has already delivered more than $45 million in
additional funding, announced in May 2020, to fast-track hazard
reduction and deliver upgrades to our firefighting capability.
“This
was a terrible bushfire season and we will look at all the steps we
can take, especially in relation to helping people protect their
property.”
The
findings of the report show that there is an opportunity to
strengthen governance and responsibility, which we are in the process
of addressing.
The
report also acknowledges the significant contribution of both climate
change and the vast expanse of the state’s bushland towards these
devastating fires.
Deputy
Premier John Barilaro said all 76 recommendations in the Inquiry are
based on the harsh lessons learnt from the catastrophic bushfires of
last summer.
“Last
bushfire season was unlike anything we have ever dealt with before
and we need a government response to match,” Mr Barilaro said.
“Things
like strategic hazard reduction and better land management no matter
the tenure are essential when it comes to keeping our communities
safe.”
Minister
for Police and Emergency Services David Elliott said NSW is more
prepared than ever before for the 2020-21 fire season.
“We
have already begun implementing the Inquiry’s recommendation to
replace and retrofit the fleet, with 120 new trucks and 70
refurbished trucks to be rolled out before the end of the financial
year,” Mr Elliott said.
“I
would like to thank all our emergency personnel and volunteers who
made us all proud over this relentless bushfire season.”
[my yellow highlighting]
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In which the conclusion was reached that when it came to bushfires, precautionary hazard reduction had limited value and, assumed land management practices in national parks and state forests or on private land did not significantly influence whether a fire started or a fire's outcome.
FinalReport of the NSW Bushfire Inquiry,
31 July 2020, excerpts,
pp.
49,
52-53, 56:
2.2.2.1
Fuels on different types of land
Another
common theme in the feedback to the Inquiry has been that fuel is
managed better (or worse) on different types of land, with national
parks in particular being criticised for ‘locking up’ land and
allowing fuel to accumulate putting other landowners at risk, and
that activity
such as grazing should have been allowed in the parks to manage fuel
loads.
The
Research Hub examined this question using the Bees Nest fire in
northern NSW as a case study to see whether aspects of fuel structure
in forests – in terms of its cover and vertical connectivity –
differed between different tenures: conservation estate (national
park and
State conservation area), State forest and privately owned land. These
aspects of fuel cover and vertical connectivity are the factors
considered likely to influence the likelihood of high intensity crown
fires occurring.
The
analysis used airborne LiDAR imagery to look at vegetation cover of
the understorey (0.5-5 m height), lower canopy (5-15 m height) and
upper canopy (greater than 15 m height).
In
summary, this analysis showed that fuel cover and vertical
connectivity between fuel levels were similar across different land
tenures, and that there was no clear influence from inferred
different management practices (for example, logging in State forests
or grazing on private land) on the fuel properties of the forests on
different land tenures. Therefore, in this case study area in
northern NSW, the resultant bush fire hazard may have been similar
across land tenure and the forest flammability (represented by
measures of fuel structure) did
not appear to have been a significantly influenced by different land
management regimes.
The
Inquiry notes that this work is only one case study and, as noted in
the Research Hub’s report, relies on certain assumptions about
management practices on the different tenures, and does not exclude
the possibility that variations in logging and livestock grazing
practices (e.g.
different harvesting treatments, stocking rates etc.) could result in
different results, or that different forest types might respond
differently. However,
as an initial case study, this points to some important issues that
should be examined further in a more detailed investigation of the
information generated from the 2019-20 fires across NSW.
2.2.2.2.
Would more hazard reduction have helped?
…..In
general, recent bush fires (unplanned fires) appeared to have a
greater influence on preventing fire spread than recent prescribed
burns, and while some recent prescribed fires had an influence on
reducing fire severity, many had no obvious influence on fire
severity. These
effects are shown for the three case study areas in Figures 2-11,
2-12 and 2-13.
Overall,
this work concluded that prescribed burns can reduce the severity of
subsequent bush fires. However, “this effect is less than that of
wildfires, it is short lived, and it is less effective under severe
fire weather conditions”, findings that are consistent with much of the
available literature…..
Another
important question is whether fuel load or age had an impact on the
number of successful ignitions. Certainly, dryness had an impact on
the efficiency of ignitions by lightning (i.e. many lightning strikes
resulted in ignitions because the fuel was so dry).
While
this question cannot be answered with certainty for the 2019-20
season, research by Penman, Bradstock and Price (2013)123 on the
Sydney basin found that, on days of Severe or Extreme fire risk, with
a Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI)124 value greater than 50, the
likelihood of ignition in younger fuels (recently burnt areas) is
still high. This work found that fuel reduction is likely to
influence lightning ignitions on days with low values of the FFDI –
however, it notes that days with low FFDI values are not the
conditions when large, serious bush fires tend to occur.
[my yellow highlighting]
