Post by Stan RPost by Frank BuresPost by Stan RTry 200 and thank the Greens for at least some of that.
Could you please elaborate on that? I mean on those Greens...
The Greens have for many years been totally opposed to burning off of
old growth. They believe it kills animals and destroys the "pristine"
forests - despite the fact that fires are a natural part of the
environment here in Australia and we even have plant species (like
some eucalyptus trees) which actually need fire to seed.
Therefore, with no controlled burning, when fires do eventually occur
(be it through arson, as is suspected in Victoria, or through natural
causes like lightning strikes), they tend to burn much hotter as there
is a lot more fuel available.
There were major fires in Western Australia last year and many
forestry experts have put it down to precisely those causes. In New
South Wales a few years ago, several houses burned down as well and
Canberra in particular was at one stage close to losing an entire
suburb.
We now have had the utterly mind-boggling scenario here (in Victoria,
that is - here in the North we have wide-spread flooding instead!)
where one house out the entire village survived the fires. And the
reason? -- the owner is apparently fighting a council fine for
"unauthorized tree clearing on his property"!
So here doing the prudent thing constitutes "unauthorized
clearing"...! Obviously he should have just done as told by the
greenie-leaning bureaucrats and lost his house like all his
neighbours!
I do actually believe that similar fire-exacerbating problems caused
by stupid green policies have been observed in California.
Pretty close. In addition to drought in our forests, we have been
suffering a bark beetle infestation that leaves dead and dying trees
(primarily evergreens like pines and Douglas Fir, the ones that go up
like petrol when they get torched) standing in large groves. In the
past, local contractors were hired to thin out the forests before the
winter, allowing the locals to make good use of the wood, put a few
bucks into their effort, and reduce the fire hazard for the following
year. Nowadays, any time the state or feds try to do something about
it, a bunch of "environmental activists" lawyers (solicitors) file
suit and bring injunctions to stop the clearing. After they win their
injunctions, they proceed to bill the courts so they can be awarded
their fees, typpically USD $200-300 per hour. This is such a corrupt
racket that even the personal injury lawyers (we call them "ambulance
chasers") view the environmental lawyers as low-lifes.
Unfortunately, California is filled with young, emotional, miseducated
and easily manipulated people who believe that these lawyers are "eco-
heroes" saving the forests from evil loggers, businesmen, et. al. Just
one of the many reasons our state, once the greatest place to live in
the US, is turning into a cesspool.... :O|