Rod Young is the NSW Farmers representative on the bushfire management committee of the Rural Fire Service in the Castlereagh Zone. He said there are some recommendations that stand out as essential.
Firestick Ecology by Vic Jurskis
Aborigines came to Australia and burnt out most of the trees and bushes.
The megafauna starved whilst eucalypts, herbs, grasses and mesofauna flourished.
The ancient culture survived an ice age, global warming and hugely rising seas, forging economies in woodlands and deserts.
Europeans doused the firestick, woodlands turned to scrub, mesofauna perished, megafires and tree-eaters irrupted.
Foresters rekindled the firestick and greens stole it.
Megafires and declines are back with a vengeance whilst ecologists dream-up reasons not to burn.
Ecological history shows that we must apply the firestick frequently, willingly and skillfully to restore a healthy, safe environment and economy.
Government must act on NSW Upper House inquiry recommendations
NSW Farmers resolved to support the adoption of all 29 recommendations from the NSW Upper House inquiry into the January 2013 fires at Wambelong.
Listening to NSW Farmers
NSW Farmers have published a series of media releases and we are very keen to help them distribute their message far and wide.
Emergency Services Minister David Elliott ‘insults’ Volunteer Firefighters just three months into the job
Only three months into the job and Emergency Services Minister David Elliott has upset some of the very people he is in the post to represent.
Volunteer firefighters along with landowners who lost property and farm animals in the Wambelong Fire on “Black Sunday” in January 2013 say they are insulted by comments made by the minister at a recent conference.
Image: Martin Lill, son of stud farmer Stephen Lill, who lost more than 200 stud cattle in the fire. Photo: Jacky Ghossein
Beating bushfires: Who’s right – The RFS, conservationists, farmers, politicians or firefighters?
Who’s right – The RFS, conservationists, farmers, politicians or firefighters?
Decide carefully. If you live in the Blue Mountains or bushfire-prone country, your home could literally depend on it.
Farmers want RFS to go west
A tug-of-war has erupted over the location of the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) headquarters. NSW Farmers wants the agency to move from Sydney to the Central West when its lease ends in 2018, but the RFS hierarchy has made its city-centric preference clear.
Fire lessons lost in smoke
NSW Emergency Services Minister David Elliott is due to respond to the Coonabarabran (Wambelong) fire inquiry by August 20, but agricultural bodies, fire service groups, and academics are split on how the state government should best apply the recommendations.
Are we spending enough on our fire trails?
At a recent Group Captains meeting, the topic of fire trail maintenance was heavily discussed.
The general consensus was that we used to achieve a whole lot more fire trail maintenance than we do now.
Firies Walk for Life
Mick Gillis and fellow NSW RFS Fire Fighter, Jeff Jackson are fundraising to support Cancer Council NSW on their mission to defeat cancer.