❓ A WA parliamentary question addresses claims by the WA Forest Alliance regarding wildfire management in D’Entrecasteaux National Park and the ecological impacts of fire, with the Minister refuting policy implications and acknowledging diverse views.
AnsweredQoN 1623Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
(1) Does the Minister agree with the WA Forest Alliance (WAFA) claim in their May 2003 article ‘Fire, prescribed burning and the conquest of nature’ that the 2002 wildfire in the D’Entrecasteaux National Park ‘could have been suppressed before it became a wildfire if appropriate resources had been used when the fire was first detected’?
(2) Does the Minister agree with the WAFA claim made in the same article that ‘A series of recent fires in conservation reserves seems to indicate a policy of allowing small fires to turn into wildfires, which are then used to justify more pre-emptive burning’, implying that this is a policy of the Government and/or of the Department of Conservation and Land Management?
(3) Is the Minister aware of anyone within Government or associated with fire management activities in WA who believe that unplanned or unmanaged frequent burning does not have harmful ecological impacts, a belief implied by WAFA to be widely held within WA?
(2) Does the Minister agree with the WAFA claim made in the same article that ‘A series of recent fires in conservation reserves seems to indicate a policy of allowing small fires to turn into wildfires, which are then used to justify more pre-emptive burning’, implying that this is a policy of the Government and/or of the Department of Conservation and Land Management?
(3) Is the Minister aware of anyone within Government or associated with fire management activities in WA who believe that unplanned or unmanaged frequent burning does not have harmful ecological impacts, a belief implied by WAFA to be widely held within WA?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
19 June 2003
Responded by
Minister for the Environment and Heritage
Response time
16 days
(2) No. Decisions on the method of suppression to be employed at each wildfire are made by the Incident Control Team in consideration of factors such as safety for fire crews; likelihood of success; environmental impacts of the fire; environmental impacts of the suppression activity; and cost of suppression. The principle that it is more effective to suppress a fire while it is small remains a major determinant of fire suppression strategy. (3) There is a range of views within and outside Government about the ecological impacts of fire regimes in south-west ecosystems. These views have been well documented in a series of papers presented at a symposium held in Perth in April 2002 and recently published in a book “ Fire in ecosystems of south-west Western Australia : impacts and management ” edited by Ian Abbott and Neil Burrows. The full spectrum of views on these issues will also be expressed during a review of fire management to be conducted by the Environmental Protection Authority later this year.
(3) There is a range of views within and outside Government about the ecological impacts of fire regimes in south-west ecosystems. These views have been well documented in a series of papers presented at a symposium held in Perth in April 2002 and recently published in a book “ Fire in ecosystems of south-west Western Australia : impacts and management ” edited by Ian Abbott and Neil Burrows. The full spectrum of views on these issues will also be expressed during a review of fire management to be conducted by the Environmental Protection Authority later this year.
(3) There is a range of views within and outside Government about the ecological impacts of fire regimes in south-west ecosystems. These views have been well documented in a series of papers presented at a symposium held in Perth in April 2002 and recently published in a book “ Fire in ecosystems of south-west Western Australia : impacts and management ” edited by Ian Abbott and Neil Burrows. The full spectrum of views on these issues will also be expressed during a review of fire management to be conducted by the Environmental Protection Authority later this year.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.