Friends of the Box-Ironbark Forests

Users of FOBIF’s guide to Twenty bushwalks in the Mount Alexander region should be aware that the amenity of Walk 13 has been affected by this year’s Management fire. The section of this walk between Old Coach Road and Dearden Track is mostly through burned bush, not necessarily a pleasant experience, especially since the fire has caused extensive canopy scorch. On the other hand, you might find it an enlightening experience to take the walk, to puzzle over the nature and effectiveness of Department practices. In any case, it’s to be hoped that the zone will green up between now and spring.

From Salt Water track. Canopy scorch has been severe in large sections of this zone.

The fire, CAS 629, centred on Salt Water track, and covering 134 hectares, was lit on April 23. It was categorised as Bushfire Moderation zone, the intention of which is to ‘manage fuel to reduce the speed and intensity of bushfires, and to protect nearby assets, particularly from ember attack.’ This kind of exercise, we are told, is also intended to ‘support ecosystems which require fire to remain healthy.’

As to the fire protection value of these burns, readers might want to check the Post below recording FOBIF’s discussions this year about reduction burning. As to the ‘ecosystems which require fire to remain healthy’, we are sceptical of this claim, for two main reasons.

Fire and ecology

Firstly, unlike traditional owner burns, these fires are too extensive to be sensitive to local ecological variation. In the present case, for example, we noticed several areas where patches of the rare Fryerstown Grevillea had been burned. Is this helping the system to stay healthy? The only way we could know is by seeing monitoring of this plant’s reactions to fire, and we don’t believe such monitoring takes place.

One of many burne patches of the rare Fryerstown Grevillea near Dearden Track. We believe these fires are too extensive for any significant control over ecological effects to be possible. And if they’re not possible, why are they claimed?

Secondly, almost every exercise of this nature which we’ve seen has resulted in the felling of large old trees, and this one is no exception. These trees are rare, and very important as habitat. It is not Department policy to destroy them, but the areas they’re burning are too large for them to be able to control what happens in the burn zone.

Very large eucalypt felled by the fire. Everyone agrees it’s not good that such trees are destroyed…but it keeps happening.

We could add that this area of the forest has some extensive patches of dense and flammable weeds. One such, a large infestation of gorse,  is on the margins of the current burn zone. Maybe an effort to get rid of them would ‘improve ecological health’ and reduce forest flammability?

As we’ve noted before, it’s worth taking a prowl around Department burns, just to observe what happens in the aftermath of a fire. Of course, you need to be careful: as we’ve pointed out, these fires tend to make trees prone to fall over, so it’s worth being super observant.

Fire fungus near Dearden Track. It looks like burning coal, but is smooth and cool to the touch, and is thought to have a repair function in burned ground.

One interesting post fire phenomenon is the outbreak of fire fungus, Pyronema omphalodes. There’s quite a bit near the junction of Dearden Track and the water race. It’s a fascinating life form, and worth brooding over:

In addition: readers may remember that we complained to Coliban Water last year about the spraying of the water race verges, which completely destroyed large areas of several pea species, including Purple Coral Pea and Trailing Shaggy pea. The authority was completely unable to explain this exercise in pointless vandalism. Fortunately some of these plants have made a partial recovery, and we may yet get some good flower displays along the race in spring.

FOBIF and Castlemaine Field Naturalists representatives met with fire officers in the Fryers Forest in February to discuss differences of opinion about fire. The discussion was lengthy and clarified [again] the difference in outlook of the two groups. The following points of contention were discussed:

1. The question of litter as a dangerous fuel .
2. The question of tussocks as fuel
3. The question raised by research: do long unburned forests burn less fiercely in bushfires?
4. The question of damage caused by canopy scorch.
5. The destruction of big trees in management burns, both accidental and deliberate
6. Fire and forest health: what do we know about the long term effect of management burns, both on biodiversity and on flammability?
7. The consequence of rating public safety as ‘number one’, and environmental health ‘number two’: does this inevitably lead to biodiversity damage in remoter forests?
8. A subject which didn’t come up: how the zoning system works. In particular, what’s the rationale behind ‘burn exclusion zones’?
9. Small burns/large burns: what’s the desirability and practicality of these?

Here are some details:

Litter

For managers, 75% of the fuel danger lies in surface and near surface fuels—ie, litter. There are two perspectives on litter:

Continue reading →

Our May walk next Sunday starts at the Monster Meeting site on Golden Point Road and follows the Forest Creek Track from Chewton to Expedition Pass Reservoir (Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park). We’ll meet at the Community House as usual to car pool, and pick up extra participants at the Chewton Post Office on the way to the starting point. See the program for details!

The guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the Castlemaine Field Naturalists will be Professor Tim Entwisle.

Professor Entwisle is an author, botanist and former director of botanic gardens in Melbourne, Sydney and London. He also lived for a few years at Yapeen and completed his final years of secondary school at Castlemaine High School. His 2022 memoir “Evergreen: the Botanical Life of a Plant Punk” will be the subject of his talk this coming Friday. He will explain why he became a botanist (and phycologist) and some of the highlights of his three decades working in, and visiting, botanic gardens around the world.

Tim will also share with us the story of a seaweed (an alga) called Entwisleia bella, and how this came to be named after him. (He’ll bring some books for sale and signing).

It’s on  this Friday 12^th April, 7.30pm, Uniting Church Fellowship Room, Lyttleton St. Castlemaine

All are welcome.

Loddon River, Baringhup: walk along stories

Walking along the Loddon River for 8 km, we go north from Baringhup. It is on public and private land with a mix of natural, cultural and historical layers. Traversing farmland and the edge of the Moorlort Plains, it is flat and gently undulating, there will be a few fences to climb and some unformed tracks. 

Meet at 9.30 am outside 30 Templeton Street, Castlemaine (Castlemaine Community House)  or 9.45 am at O’Sullivan-Tilley Memorial Park Baringhup Sturdy shoes, long pants and gaiters if possible, as it will be grassy and uneven with a few fences to climb.

Bring lunch and morning tea.

This is a one-way walk, and we have the Community Bus to shuttle people back to their cars.

For more info call Gen Blades 0431 371 065 or Lisa Hall 0488 102 191.

Here’s a press release from the Conservation Regulator this week:

Readers will remember FOBIF’s occasional tilt at one of Australia’s weirdest windmills: the car commercial. We doubt whether the advertising industry will ever invent a more cretinous TV ad than AAMI’s attempt to persuade us that children should prefer to be driven to school rather than scoot along under their own power. Even so, we thought we’d offer Toyota Hilux as a genuine contender for the crown of worst commercial ever. You can find it here. It’s getting a good run in sports TV programs currently.

If you can struggle past the twee and rather queasy joke about the car being a beloved child, you’ll notice the usual images—the car being driven recklessly at the sea’s edge, for example:

Dumb and dumber: the current Hilux ad.

Many people will see this and think…Hang on: isn’t sea water pretty corrosive? Yes, it is. In fact, there’s a line in fine print below the image: ‘Pre-production model shown. Wash with fresh water immediately after salt water exposure.’ In other words: ‘Charge along the beach—then, rush home and spend a happy time washing the salt off your car!’

Such ads are completely at odds with the supposed advertising standards, but the Code of Practice and the Ad Standards Bureau are useless in controlling  them.Our reader Greg Jacobs, responding to this issue in 2019, summed it up pretty well:

‘The car ads are stupid in many ways -smashing thru the areas you have supposedly come to explore –you don’t camp on riverbanks re flood, mosquitoes, cold off the water. You don’t smash your way up a mountainside -proper 4 wheel drive clubs hate these types (RACV doesn’t answer to rolled vehicles on hillsides). You don’t drive to or park on the edges of cliffs–something to do with health and safety? You don’t drive beyond your capability nor your car’s capability –some vehicles promoted are heavy ,oversized tubs. You don’t speed thru forests on dirt roads– other suckers may be coming the other way and you may hit a tree or two when you hit the gravel.’