Don't firebomb our forests!

This week we have witnessed the devastating impacts of an escaped prescribed burn on the Margaret River Community, but Margaret River residents are not the only ones losing their homes. What we don’t see are the thousands of native animals and plants that are killed every year by the WA Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC's) reckless prescribed burning program.

In the same week three other DEC prescribed burns escaped and became wildfires, burning tens of thousands of hectares of forest from Denmark to Nannup.

For thousands of years, Aboriginal people managed fire by carefully burning small areas in cool weather, to create a mosaic pattern that included safe refuges for our native wildlife. Traditional Owners talk of “walking the fire through the forest”.

Today, DEC regularly incinerates huge areas of forest, bushland and wetlands by dropping incendiary devices from aircraft. Many of our native species have no hope of escaping these burns, and for those that do escape the fire, they are left with no food or shelter and become easy prey for cats and foxes.

DEC have created an artificial annual burning ‘target’ of 200,000 hectares across the south west. This includes State forest, National Parks and Nature Reserves. In the rush to meet this target, every year there are huge bushfires resulting from escaped prescribed burns.

These frequent large scale burns not only pose an immediate risk through escapes, but over time they are making the whole south west more fire prone by promoting dense regrowth of  flammable understorey species and weeds in our forests and bushland.

There is an important role for prescribed burning in keeping our communities safe, but this must be done carefully in cool weather in a targeted way, not by dropping fire-bombs from aircraft to incinerate vast areas in the hot late spring and summer months.

Rather than relying so heavily on prescribed burning, we must develop other methods to control fire risk. These strategies must include better building and planning controls in bushfire-prone areas, improved early detection and response for bushfires and targeted programs to reduce arson.

Add your name to the letter calling on the WA Government to stop DEC’s reckless approach to prescribed burning and instead invest in strategies that are safer for our communities and our environment.

The recent Margaret River fire was a tragedy, but your action will help to ensure that the lessons of this fire and other recent escaped prescribed burns are acted upon by the WA Government.

If you would like to help get the message out you can print out the petition sheet below and then return them to CCWA, City West Lotteries House, 2 Delhi St, West Perth 6005