Central Queensland Forest Association

State based land management agencies need to adopt a new land management approach if we are to avoid increasing numbers of ‘mega fires' over coming bushfire seasons.

Speaking at Timber Towns Victoria Annual General Meeting in Melbourne today, Federal Minister for Forestry and Conservation, Senator Eric Abetz, said that the ‘lock-up and forget' land management approach of the 1980s and 1990s had been shown to be a complete failure.

"We need to abandon the now discredited ‘lock up and forget' approach of the 1980s and 1990s, which has only resulted in an increasing frequency of mega-fires," the Minister said.

"In addition to the devastating social and economic damage caused by recent mega fires, such as the 2002/03 and 2006/07 Victorian mega fires, this strategy has had the perverse environmental outcome of destroying forests and their ecosystems, rather than conserving them as their proponents claimed they would.

"For example, as a result of these mega fires some of the magnificent Alpine Ash forests of the Victorian Alps have been destroyed forever, and three endangered Victorian species - the Spotted Tree Frog, the Long-footed Potoroo and the Pygmy Possum have all been pushed closer to extinction by this summer's fires."

The Minister highlighted the fact that prescribed burning has fallen and/or not reached targets over recent years as evidence of the fact that the ‘lock-up and forget' mentality was still dominant.

"In NSW, prescribed burning in National Parks has fallen by one third over the past four years, while in Victoria last year only a little over a third of the prescribed burning target was reached.

"Rural communities don't want excuses, they want to know that State Governments and their various departments and agencies have taken all humanly available action to try and prevent mega fires taking place."